Associate Professor of Sankt-Peterburg University Oleg Sokolov, suspected of killing a graduate student of the university, after being interrogated by the Investigative Committee "adheres to a grateful position." This was announced by his lawyer Alexander Pochuev.

“The interrogation in the investigation department has passed. He remained in a grateful position, ”quotes a TASS lawyer.

According to the joint press service of the courts of St. Petersburg on Monday, November 11, a meeting will be held to select a preventive measure against the accused.

“The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg will consider the petition of the investigation to select a preventive measure against Oleg Sokolov tomorrow, November 11, 2019, no earlier than 14:00 Moscow time,” the statement said.

Earlier, Alexander Pochuev told RT that the defense side had not yet had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the materials of the criminal case.

“He was in the water for a long time, got severe hypothermia, so the continuation of the investigative actions is tied to his state of health,” said the lawyer.

  • The sealed door to the apartment of historian Oleg Sokolov, where, presumably, Anastasia Yeshenko was shot
  • © Olga MALTSEVA / AFP

According to him, he is in "active communication" with his client.

“I agreed to defend him, based on the fact that the matter is not easy, he is an extraordinary person and, of course, there will still be many legal and universal, ethical intrigues that the defense has to reveal and provide protection,” he added.

The lawyer noted that Sokolov was given a recommendation to exercise the right not to incriminate himself and, while maintaining a grateful position, leave details until the development of a defense strategy.

The day before, the Investigative Committee reported that in front of one of the houses along the Moika embankment, a man born in 1956 was removed from the water. A backpack was discovered with him, in which “two severed female hands and a traumatic gun” were found. Investigators opened a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (murder).

The candidate for historical sciences, associate professor of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of St. Petersburg State University Oleg Sokolov was suspected of murder. As noted on the website of the university, he is the author of many monographs on the Patriotic War of 1812 and the French army from the time of Napoleon. In addition, Sokolov is one of the founders of the modern movement of military-historical reconstruction in Russia.

Ruptly video agency has discovered archival materials with a historian on such events.

  • Video

According to media reports, the victim of the man was 24-year-old Anastasia Yeshchenko, a graduate of St. Petersburg State University, with whom they had a romantic relationship. As follows from the words of the brother of the deceased, Sergei Yeshchenko, the last time he talked with his sister on the night of November 7th to 8th. He noted that between the girl and Sokolov that day a conflict arose with assault.

“I asked her to leave, but she said that she needed to pick up things. After that, she planned to live in a dormitory. We stopped the conversation, and she went to him, ”the 78.RU portal quotes Eschenko.

However, later, according to Sergey, his sister assured him that everything would be fine with her. The brother of the deceased also said that Sokolov, whom he had seen several times in his life, impressed him as "some kind of fool."

“The man pretended to be Napoleon very strongly, he lost all connections with reality,” the young man explained.

As TASS points to a law enforcement source, a man shot a girl from a sawn-off shotgun on November 7. Presumably, the murder occurred during a quarrel. We add that rescuers continue to search for fragments of the girl’s remains in the Moika River.

The mother of the murdered woman, Galina Yeshchenko, has been serving in the police since 2005, she is a lieutenant colonel of the internal service, head of the personnel department, explained to RIA Novosti the chairman of the quarter committee of the village of Starovelichkovskaya in the Kalininsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, Yevgeny Tarasenko. In this case, a woman previously worked as a teacher in the school of the village Starovelichkovskaya.

“We only learned everything last night, now everyone is shocked ... We worked with her father, he worked as a coach, a physical education teacher, and works at school. Son, he is in the Russian national youth football team, a pupil of Krasnodar, ”he said.

According to a TASS source in law enforcement, the mother of the murdered woman arrived in St. Petersburg, and her father also left for the city.