Time to read: 16 minutes(s)

A Ryazan court has read out correspondence between Artem Dorofeev and Ekaterina Levchenko, whose murders a defendant in the "Network"* case is accused of.

On October 16, prosecutors presented the jury with the final evidence that confirms the involvement of Maxim Ivankin to a double murder in the forest near Ryazan.

To question all the witnesses and read the reports and expert reports, state prosecutors needed 21 hearings, totaling over 43 hours.

On October 30, Maxim Ivankin's defense will begin presenting its evidence. This will be the first time in over three years that the defendant will address the murder charges against him. Throughout this time, Ivankin, his lawyers, and his family have remained silent.

According to the prosecution, Ekaterina Levchenko и Artem Dorofeev They were killed because they wanted to go to the police and report drug trafficking, which the defendants in the Network* case were involved in.

Read about what was said at the last five meetings in the NeMoskva report.

"You need to blow less"

The fact that Ekaterina Levchenko and Artem Dorofeev themselves used drugs is evidenced by their correspondence on the social network VKontakte.

"Are you high there or something?" — Levchenko asked on October 4, 2016.

"No, loaf, I'm drunk. I'm a piano." - Dorofeev answered her and invited her to go for a walk.

"We'll get high again and fall asleep," — she refused.

Two days after this, Dorofeev said that “Let's go get some grass now" [According to investigators, it was about marijuana]. A month later, he admitted that "I can't even look at buckwheat, I feel sick." [According to investigators, it was about heroin].

Levchenko's messages contain phrases "I need to smoke less, because every evening passes in a fog." "The grass teaches me to appreciate the present, that's what I realized. Not the past or the future, but the here and now.".

At the same time, the girl condemned the excessive use of drugs: “"Artem, aren't you tired of this? Maybe you should stop?" "Stop blowing."

"Yes, Katya, you're right." - Dorofeev agreed with her.

On November 4, 2016, they spent more than an hour and a half talking about how heroin and other drugs affect health.

"Schizophrenia, hallucinations, psychosis"“,” Levchenko listed the results of her searches on the Internet.

"Hard, — answered Dorofeev. — I'll eat less of buckwheat now.

“I must say that I feel the general consequences myself,” Levchenko admitted, speaking about the use of marijuana. "Apathy, depression, unreasonable anxiety, life is so dull, and now it's even irritable. And the thoughts in my head have become different. It's like I'm in a bubble, and the outside world sounds so hollow and barely audible."

The young couple's correspondence also mentions Mikhail Kulkov, with whom they filmed two-room apartment on Popova Street in PenzaJudging by the context, he used drugs more often than they did. This is evident, for example, from the dialogue about not having to take a sobriety test before getting a driver's license.

"Pfft! So drug addicts can drive? Now I'm scared. So even Misha can drive?" — Katya clarified.

"Yes, even he," Artem confirmed.

The conversations also include the names of guests who visited their rented apartment. The most frequent of these was a certain Pasha. According to the criminal case file, this was a pseudonym. Maxim Ivankin.

On the festive evening of January 1, 2017, a certain Anton came to the apartment with Pasha - according to the investigation, this is what he called himself Dmitry Pchelintsev, who was the "creator of the terrorist community" "Network"*

"Are the guys home?" Artem asked on the morning of February 23, 2017.

"Boris Tok" Katya answered him.

From that day until the death of the young couple, just over two months remain. And the Boris Levchenko writes about is 16 years old. Alexey PoltavetsThree years later he is recognized journalists that he shot Dorofeev with a Saiga hunting rifle and then cut his throat.

Involvement in drug trafficking

In his interview, Poltavets also revealed that Dorofeev helped sell drugs to defendants in the "Network"* case. He planned to use the proceeds to open his own business—a shawarma kiosk.

“Dorofeev, Ivankin and Kulkov went [to make caches] in twos or threes, periodically changing- говорил Poltavets. - Perhaps Levchenko helped them at home, like packing them up.”

Dorofeev's involvement in drug trafficking is confirmed by fragments of personal messages that remain on his account.

"Is Tyoma well? How are you? Can you help with anything?"“— one of the users asked Artem on March 22, 2017.

"Hi, yeah, I'll ask around and write back later.“Dorofeev promised him and after a while clarified. In short, 300 rubles each."

"Normal?" — the interlocutor asked.

"Yeah," - Artem replied and added a smiley face.

In the correspondence between Dorofeev and Kulkov, the following phrases are found: “"Today Sanya Grishin might take it, give me a little more", "Redhead has paid up", "How much do you need to do?"

On the evening of January 27, 2017, Ekaterina Levchenko was worried about a mission Artem was about to carry out. It was possibly a drug stash.

"Katya, everything will be fine, don't worry." — Dorofeev answers her.

"Well, are you going to invite someone else with you? I don't want you to be alone," she writes.

"Pasha, Misha, for sure," — he reassures.

Pasha, Misha, and Boris were arrested by police on the night of March 31st, right in the middle of a drug stash. The suspects were Ivankin, Kulkov, and Poltavets.

"How are your relatives? Are they doing well? Are you with them now?"“Dorofeev was worried about his friend Mikhail Kulkov, who took all the blame on himself and was placed under house arrest.

These were the last words that Artem left on the social network VKontakte. They are dated April 1, 2017. Less than a month remains before his murder.

Ryazan apartment

Three days later, Maxim Ivankin and Alexey Poltavets, who had signed a travel ban, left Penza. Ryazan They are helped by acquaintances: a defendant in the “Network*” case Ilya Shakursky and his girlfriend Victoria Frolova.

On April 4, 2017, surveillance cameras on the federal highway M5 "Ural", fix Frolova's white Lada Granta car travels from Penza to the southeastern outskirts of Ryazan, and then turns back.

At the same time, Ilya Shakursky's phone was being tracked in the Ryazan region. Later, he will explain the court that Ivankin and Poltavets were helped in finding an apartment by his Ryazan acquaintance Olga PolynovaJudging by the call details, she started doing this on the fifth day after their arrival.

So, on April 8, at 14:39 p.m., Polynova called To Svetlana Nazarova, from whom she previously rented a room in a dorm on Nakhimov Street. Their conversation lasted 35 seconds.

“Olga Polynova called and said that she had a fight with her mother and needed a room to live there for one or two months, — Svetlana Nazarova told investigators. — Perhaps we even met the next day, I gave her the keys to the room, and she gave me five or six thousand rubles for a month’s stay.”.

According to the mobile operator, Polynova called Nazarova back on April 9; the call lasted 2 seconds.

On April 10, Nazarova called Polynova twice: the first conversation lasted 61 seconds, the second conversation took 126 seconds.

Their next communication session took place on April 30.

Polynova said she was moving out. We met the next day, and she gave me the keys. — Svetlana Nazarova explained to the court. — Then I came and looked at [the room], everything was neat and clean. There were no complaints.

According to investigators, Ivankin and Poltavets moved into a rented apartment on the night of April 9-10. Sometime later, Levchenko and Dorofeev, who had fled Penza, moved in. Shakursky said he visited Ryazan in late April and saw all four of them in the apartment.

Artem Dorofeev was also seen by a resident of a neighboring apartment. Artem SalyukIn March 2021, a witness identified him from a photograph: he was seen leaving the apartment with a young man on those days. He was wearing a warm beige jacket and a black knit hat.

Speaking in court two and a half years later, Salyuk stated that he saw the man from behind but didn't remember his face. He was with a girl who had previously lived in the apartment for almost three years—he remembered her by her pink hair.

Perhaps these discrepancies are due to the long period of time during which much has been forgotten and confused. However, base stations located 500 meters from the dormitory recorded Olga Polynova's phone call almost every day between April 9 and 16, 2017.

Artem Salyuk also clarified that the young people had lived in the apartment for only a short time, but "they were very noisy, which the neighbors complained about."

What do you mean: they behaved noisily? — the jury asked him.

Voices. Raised voices. I think there were several people there, — the witness answered.

Another resident who identified Dorofeev was a pensioner. Tatyana Kalinina: it faced She also encountered him on those same days as she was leaving her apartment building. She also encountered a girl and a guy in the courtyard, whom she recognized as Maxim Ivankin by his red sideburns.

The pensioner's husband Igor Kalinin He also identified Maxim Ivankin and Ekaterina Levchenko: he saw them in the courtyard early in the morning, in a group of five people who were talking in raised tones.

"Fearing incriminating evidence"

A prosecutor's office representative spoke about the motives for the murder. говорил even at the beginning of the trial.

In April 2017, Dorofeev and Levchenko expressed their intention to stop hiding, return to Penza and turn themselves in to law enforcement agencies [about their participation in the sale of drugs], — the state prosecutor noted Oksana Mayakova, referring to a confessional interview with Alexey Poltavets. — Fearing that they might give evidence incriminating both themselves and other members of the terrorist group "Network"*, Ivankin and Poltavets entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit murder.

Investigators believe that at the end of April, all four went into the forest, where Ivankin killed Ekaterina Levchenko with a knife.

Poltavets was responsible for the murder of Artem Dorofeev: he shot him in the face with a Saiga hunting rifle and then slit his throat.

Buried remains of the dead were discovered in a forest area, four kilometers away village of LopukhiA resident of Lopukhov Svetlana Samoshkina confirmed the court that in March or April 2017 she saw a girl and two unknown guys.

"One of them turned to me, and I didn't like the look in his eyes," she recalled in court. "Like a wolf's gaze. And his sideburns were so red."

Investigators believe Artem Dorofeev was shot with a rifle belonging to Maxim Ivankin. As reported by a former police officer Mikhail FilyuninThe defendant's home contained two Saiga carbines and an IZH non-lethal pistol. The last time a police officer saw these weapons was in February 2017, when he conducted a mandatory inspection. The officer was unable to verify the weapons' safety the following year, as Ivankin was on the run and the safe in his room was locked.

Security officials only discovered the missing rifles and pistol in November 2020, when they conducted a search following a ruling by Moscow's Basmanny Court. The weapons remain wanted to this day.

Life after murder

Speculation that Maxim Ivankin might be involved in the murder intensified in a support group for those involved in the Network* case in April 2019. According to the activist Ilya KhesinThey were provoked by a girl who came to the court hearing to extend the arrest and said that Ivankin and Kulkov were hiding in her Moscow apartment.

— While they were living there, they had a nervous breakdown, they tried to open their veins and confessed that they had killed a man, — retold Khesin presented the content of this story to the court.

The investigation believes that we are talking about Olga PechurinaDuring questioning, she confirmed that she met Ivankin and Kulkov at a concert in Moscow in the spring or summer of 2017. She then met them several times and had sexual relations with them.

“This happened either before the fall of 2017 or after the spring of 2018, when I was feeling fine.“ she clarified. “And From autumn to spring I had an exacerbation of the disease [schizotypal personality disorder], which resulted in mania, psychosis, and depression. During this period, I was constantly at home under the supervision of relatives.».

Olga Pechurina denied attending the trial in Penza. She also explained that she never heard Ivankin and Kulkov confess to the murder. They also did not attempt suicide in her presence.

The criminal case file contains a response from the Federal Passenger Company, which indicates that in April 2019, round-trip tickets from Moscow to Penza were purchased in Pechurina's name. However, she never used them, returning them.

After Ivankin and Kulkov were detained in the summer of 2018, she established correspondence with them, which is confirmed by a response from the pre-trial detention facility.

Investigators questioned Pechurina twice. Both times, she claimed she never brought Ivankin and Kulkov to her apartment, where she lives with her grandmother, mother, daughter, and younger sister.

At the same time, the girl's mother Elena Mertz She said that one summer, Pechurina moved two young men into her room. They refused to show their passports, saying they were working on a construction site and had handed over all their documents to their superiors.

"These guys lived there for about two weeks, after which I demanded that they move out, otherwise I wanted to call the police."“- Elena Mertz clarified.

Witness Irina Lunnaya, who lives in the same ten-story building, recalled during questioning by investigators that she had met two young guys in the entrance a couple of times, one of whom had red stubble.

“One of the meetings took place in the elevator, — she said. — Я She was going up to her 10th floor, and the young people got out of the elevator several floors earlier: most likely on the seventh or eighth.”

The apartment where Olga Pechurina lives is on the eighth floor.

Witness Marina KrupchakA woman living on the top floor also encountered two young men in the stairwell, in the elevator, and in the courtyard. According to her, these same men lived in the attic for some time: "They crawled around there for a very long time—three or four months. Rustling, talking. Mostly at night."

Krupchak advised the judge to question a neighbor named Goncharova, who often smoked with these guys on the playground.

When they started questioning the whole house, Goncharova talked to Pechurina, asking what was going on in general. And she [Pechurin] She answered her: “Yes, they killed someone there.” We were in a stressful situation for a very long time: the person apparently did not realize that this posed a threat, including for her.

The interrogation report of a neighbor named Goncharova is missing from the indictment and this witness was not called to the court hearings.

"I'm really worried about what's hidden."

In November 2020, during a search of the Ivankins' home, investigators seized 122-page letters that Maxim had handed over from the pretrial detention center through his lawyer.

In one of his letters, he asks his parents not to discuss “ESPECIALLY Ryazan” on the phone.

«Э“It’s generally unknown how this legal history will affect us,” — Ivankin explains.

To his wife To Anna Shalunkina He complains that he is afraid even of the activists he knows from his support group who come to his court hearings after the murder theory is made public.

"They're inciting some kind of panic. I don't know who's doing it or what to expect. Like they haven't heard funny stories?! Come on! I don't believe it!" — These words confirm Ilya Khesin’s testimony that Ivankin’s possible involvement in the murder was discussed long before the media reported it.

"We need to sort out this whole mess with the journalists. Bring back human rights defenders and at least a small group of activists to our side." — the defendant writes to his wife. — “Everything these journalists dig up now will have to be refuted in court.”

He also consults with her about what is “hidden” – according to investigators, this refers to weapons:

"I'm really worried about what's hidden. I know the person closest to me, who I don't trust in this regard, won't be able to handle it. Basically, I think it needs to be destroyed. Any thoughts on that? I just can't imagine how."

Maxim Ivankin also asks his parents to go to the restaurant "For You" and ask the administrator for the phone number of a certain Evgeny, who owes him 30 thousand rubles for roofing.

"Shake money out of him, it'll at least pay for a lawyer. He knows me just like Pasha."“Ivankin wrote, thereby confirming his pseudonym.

Restaurant administrator Maxim Fedosov told the court that he had indeed hired two young men who introduced themselves as Pasha and Anton for odd jobs.

Later the investigator told me that Pasha’s real name is Maxim, his last name is Ivankin, the witness clarified. "I also asked, 'Are we sure we're talking about the same person?' It turned out that yes, it was that person. I recognized him from the photograph, from his red hair.

Also, during the identification, it was revealed that Dmitry Pchelintsev worked for him under the name Anton.

The person who allegedly owed Maxim Ivankin 30 thousand rubles turned out to be the director of the construction company "Khorovod" Evgeny TerentyevHe told the court that he had indeed hired Pasha and Anton during the construction of an administrative building—they needed to lift materials onto the roof.

I still owe Pavel, — the witness admitted. — He said he'd give it to me, but he couldn't give it to me right away. And then I couldn't get through to him. Around 10. [had].

Yevgeny Terentyev also identified Pchelintsev and Ivankin: according to him, they had introduced themselves to him under different names. Furthermore, the witness noted that several other people, known as "Pchelintsev's comrades," were working with them at the construction site.

Archives of "NeMoskva"

NeMoscow has been following the murder trial in the Ryazan forest from the very beginning.

Read more about what was heard during witness interrogations at other hearings here.

*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.