"They asked to rent an apartment. Now it turns out they killed someone in the forest at that time."
The Ryazan Regional Court continues to examine evidence in a double murder case in which defendants in the criminal case against the terrorist group "Network"* may be involved.
Thirteen hearings have already been held in the Ryazan forest murder case. During this time, the prosecution continues to present evidence that may implicate the defendant. Maxim Ivankin to the murder of Ekaterina Levchenko and Artem Dorofeev.
In particular, the court was told who brought Ivankin from Penza to Ryazan and when, and who provided him with housing.
In addition, a defendant in the Network* case was questioned at the hearing. Mikhail Kulkov, who went on the run three weeks after the victims disappeared.
What new witnesses and documents reveal is in the NeMoskva review.
A vegetarian who became a hunter
Andrey Cherkasov was friends with the deceased Artem Dorofeev since childhood and grew up with him in the same area.
He was my best friend. You could say he was my brother. "He clarified during a video call and complained that, being in Penza, he could not look the defendant, Maxim Ivankin, who is accused of involvement in the murder, in the eye.
A witness told the court that from 2010 to 2014, Dorofeev studied at a trade and economics college. It was there that he met his classmates, Maxim Ivankin and Mikhail Kulkov.
And his friends are my friends, — Cherkasov emphasized.
According to him, he interacted closely with the entire group during the first few years. However, after graduating from college, Ivankin disappeared from view and only "resurfaced" in late 2016, when Dorofeev and Kulkov began renting a two-room apartment in a five-story building on Popov Street in Penza. At that moment, Cherkasov felt like he was a different person.
I used to know Maxim as a kind, cheerful guy. He was such an activist, [performed] For the left. And a vegetarian, too. And then he came along and started talking about some hiking trips and guns. He said he was into hunting and had a gun license, — the witness recalled.
He also noted that Ivankin once brought a Saiga carbine to the rented apartment. And that after his return, Dorofeev and Kulkov's behavior changed dramatically.
I don’t know what happened there, but Artem started contacting me less often, and started behaving in general… Cherkasov was unable to find the right word. He was always busy with something. I asked him directly: "Artem, what happened?" And he said: "I can't tell you yet. Everything's fine, don't worry."
The last time the witness saw his friend and his girlfriend Ekaterina Levchenko in early March 2017. After that, they called each other several times, and then Dorofeev simply stopped answering the phone.
On April 3, Cherkasov went to his apartment to wish him a happy birthday. But instead of Artem met there his worried mother and the police officers who were conducting the search.
As I understand it, they were employees of the Federal Drug Control Service, — he answered the state prosecutor’s clarifying question. — The guys were suspected of distributing drugs.
At first, they wanted to detain Andrei Cherkasov, but then offered to participate in the search as a witness. According to him, several empty packets, foil, duct tape, and a laptop were seized from Kulkov's room. Nothing suspicious was found in Dorofeev's room.
Cherkasov tried to learn Artem's fate through friends and even fortune tellers, but to no avail. It only became clear in February 2019, when investigators conducted an examination of the accidentally discovered remains, that he had died in the Ryazan forest. A year later, Cherkasov read In the online publication Meduza** an article was published stating that Maxim Ivankin may be involved in the murder of his friend.
During questioning, Ivankin himself tried to clarify whether Meduza** journalists had quoted Cherkasov correctly. However, the witness was unable to grasp the meaning of the question for a long time.
Did you inform the Meduza journalist** that you suspected Ivankin’s involvement in the murder? — the judge came to the rescue Natalia Kianovskaya.
I can't guess. I don't believe it.“—Andrei Cherkasov answered, and at the very end of the interrogation he tried to ask the defendant a counter question. Listen, was all this worth it? I'm just curious!
Witness, you don't ask questions! — the judge stopped him.
"I was a drug dealer, but I have bad eyesight."
Witness Mikhail Kulkov He was interrogated via video link from a maximum security prison in Mari El, where he is serving a 10-year sentence for participating in the terrorist group "Network"* and attempted drug trafficking.
He told the court that Maxim Ivankin did indeed own a firearm and even brought it a couple of times to the rented apartment where Kulkov lived with Artem Dorofeev and Ekaterina Levchenko.
Have you, Levchenko or Dorofeev ever fired it? the lawyer asked Konstantin Kartashov, representing Ivankin's interests.
Levchenko once asked, - answered Kulkov. - We went into the forest once and shot.
According to him, the last time he saw Katya and Artem was on the evening of March 30, 2017, at a rented apartment. That day, Ivankin left his gun there and then went for a walk with Kulkov. During this walk, they were detained by police on suspicion of drug possession. A 16-year-old boy was also detained with them. Alexey Poltavets.
According to Mikhail Kulkov, he was the only one involved in drug distribution, while Ivankin and Poltavets had nothing to do with it and did not receive any money for their assistance.
I was distributing drugs, but I have bad eyesight, — Kulkov tried to convince the jury. — And I once asked Ivankin to name the house number. [near which the drug was hidden]In connection with this, he became an accomplice. [crime].
Defense attorney Kartashov attempted to get Kulkov to talk about the torture they allegedly suffered at the police station after their arrest. However, the judge dismissed the question.
It essentially contains grounds to denigrate law enforcement agencies and undermine their authority, — the judge explained to the jury. — This is not the subject of our consideration; we are not accusing police officers here.
Because Mikhail Kulkov took full responsibility for the drug trafficking, the court placed him under house arrest, while Ivankin and Poltavets were released on bail.
According to Kulkov, he escaped house arrest at the end of April and went to Moscow, where Ivankin was already located. They allegedly contacted through social media and began hiding from investigators together, living in cheap rented apartments and working odd jobs until police arrested them in July 2018.
Why did you tell Ivankin that you were in Moscow? — the judge tried to understand. — You're hiding so no one will find you. Why are you telling Ivankin where you are?
We were friends, - answered Kulkov.
He clarified that Artem was as much a friend to him as Maxim. After Dorofeev disappeared, Kulkov allegedly tried to contact him through social media, but he hadn't appeared online since early April.
Ekaterina Levchenko's mother reminded the witness that after his arrest in 2018, he told investigators that Katya and Artem had fled to the Krasnodar Territory.
It's unlikely that such a thing happened. I would have remembered, - said Kulkov.
He also claimed to have no knowledge of Dorofeev and Levchenko's possible involvement in drug trafficking. However, he admitted that Artem, as a friend and roommate, "certainly could" have known about his involvement in the drug stashes.
I didn't have a group with which we distributed drugs, — Kulkov emphasized once again. — I was alone.
According to the witness, he was not a member of the "Network"* terrorist group and was not acquainted with its key figures. He strongly doubts that anyone recruited Levchenko and Dorofeev into the terrorist organization, or that they could have testified against its members.
In response to questions from the defense, Mikhail Kulkov refuted the testimony of previous witnesses that Ivankin confessed to the murder and cut his veins in his presence.
Did you explain to anyone that you were covering for me in the drug case? Ivankin asked Kulkov.
We are not considering your drug charges here."—the judge addressed the defendant once again.— You have been charged with murder.
How Ivankin and Poltavets got to Ryazan
The court tried to question the witness several times Victoria Frolova, but still couldn't find her.
Earlier, Frolova told journalists how for three years lived in Kyiv with Alexey Poltavets, who confessed to her that he had committed a double murder in the Ryazan forest.
As it turned out, Frolova did not tell journalists everything.
From the testimony read out at the court hearing, it follows that on April 4, 2017, the girl gave Ivankin and Poltavets a ride to Ryazan in her Lada Granta.
According to her, she picked them up at 8:00 a.m. near Chekhov Street (not far from the building where the Network* headquarters was allegedly located). Both were carrying light backpacks, the contents of which Frolova did not see. However, she knew that Ivankin and Poltavets had been arrested for drug trafficking several days earlier.
"Since I didn't have a motor insurance policy at the time, and there's a traffic police post at the entrance to Ryazan, I dropped them off at a bus stop along the road, about 20 km before reaching Ryazan." — Frolova told the investigation.
She also specified that there was someone in the car with her Ilya Shakursky, who was her boyfriend at the time. In October 2017, he was arrested as a member of the terrorist group "Network"*.
According to Frolova, she never saw Ekaterina Levchenko or Artem Dorofeev. She only learned of their disappearance from the news.
The girl's testimony that she was driving to and from Ryazan on April 4, 2017, is confirmed by data from stationary checkpoints on the M5 federal highway: around 18 p.m., the car was spotted near Ryazan, and closer to midnight, at the entrance to Penza.
Apartment on Nakhimov Street
According to investigators, after arriving in Ryazan, Ivankin and Poltavets lived in a dormitory on Nakhimov Street for several weeks. There, they allegedly planned the murder of Levchenko and Dorofeev, who arrived later.
A resident of Ryazan found them an apartment on Nakhimov Street. Olga Polynova, who was acquainted with the Penza defendants in the "Network"* case and subsequently left Russia due to fear of criminal prosecution.
«In the fall of 2017, Olga came to me in the evening, she was scared, she said that she was a member of some group that was declared terrorist in the Russian Federation, — her deceased father's testimony was read out in court Yuri Polynov. - FSB officers searched her home, and she said she was leaving the Russian Federation. From 2017 to 2019, she lived in Ukraine, after which she left for Belgium..
Investigators discovered that Olga Polynova had helped find an apartment for Ivankin, Poltavets, and the victims only after Meduza published an investigative report.** On April 8, 2020, Yuri Polynov informed his daughter of the investigators' new visit via a message on Odnoklassniki.
“A boy of about 20 years old said hello and asked about you, - he wrote. - He says that “we just did a search,” but “she,” meaning you, “got scared and ran away.”
On the same day, Olga Polynova replied to her father that in 2017 she had indeed rented an apartment for her friend's friends.
“They asked me to rent an apartment. I rented it, — the girl explained. — Now it turns out they killed someone in the forest at that time. An article about this was recently published, and I commented on it to journalists. One of the guys confessed that he and another, who is now in pretrial detention, committed the murder on orders from a third person. Neither of them has been questioned, even though they are in pretrial detention. For some reason, they're visiting the relatives of the witnesses."
In June 2020, Yuri Polynov again reported on a visit from investigators.
"They say they're not interested in you. You're supposedly a witness. They're looking for the third person who ordered the boys' murders. They're asking where you found them an apartment." — the father conveyed.
"I am not cooperating with the investigation," - Olga Polynova answered him.
Three days later, Yuri Polynov told his daughter that the FSB had seized his computer and phone in order to reach his daughter's old contacts.
"Don't write to me or anyone else" — the father warned.
Testimony of a cellmate
The investigation believes that one of the important pieces of evidence of Maxim Ivankin’s guilt is the testimony of a certain Maxim Zhulin, who shared a cell with him in the Penza pretrial detention center in February and March 2020.
According to the witness, one day Ivankin told him about his involvement in the murder of a young man and a girl in the Ryazan forest.
They started showing on TV that people had been killed in Ryazan. And he confessed that he had done it to his friend, — Zhulin explained.
According to him, he almost immediately reported to the operative about Ivankin’s confession to the murder.
According to testimony from Ivankin's cellmate, Levchenko and Dorofeyev were involved in drug trafficking, so Ivankin and Poltavets decided to eliminate them as unnecessary witnesses. After Ivankin killed Katya and Poltavets killed Artem, they buried the bodies, burned their personal belongings, and burned their blood-stained outerwear.
"During the process of committing the murder and burying the bodies, Ivankin either lost or forgot his army belt with a large metal buckle. As Ivankin explained, this was the only thing that could prove his involvement, so he was very worried about this belt." "Maxim Zhulin clarified during an interrogation with an investigator in December 2020, and spoke of Ivankin's plans to shift all the blame onto Alexei Poltavets. Allegedly, Poltavets killed the boy and girl, and Ivankin only helped bury the bodies.».
Even the jury doubted that Maxim Ivankin so easily told a random cellmate about the murder.
Does the court understand you correctly that you did not have any conflicts with Ivankin? — the judge voiced a question from one of the jury members.
No, there wasn't, - the witness answered.
During his interrogation, Zhulin mentioned that he was a supervisor in the Penza pretrial detention center and collaborated with the prison administration. Mikhail Kulkov.
Is this your guess? — the judge asked menacingly.
No, I know that for sure. It was obvious, - Kulkov answered her. - Ivankin said that Zhulin was threatening him and demanding that he write a confession and admit to something.
And what should I confess? — asked lawyer Kartashov.
I can't remember exactly how it was“Mikhail Kulkov hesitated.
*In January 2019, the Moscow District Court designated "The Network" a terrorist organization. The defendants in the case claim that such an organization never existed.
**On January 26, 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation declared the online publication Meduza an undesirable organization whose activities pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.