Accused of distributing pornography: the husband of the mysteriously missing Ryazan woman Elena Logunova was arrested in Moscow

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow sent Alexander Logunov, a resident of Ryazan, into custody for a month and a half, whose wife Elena disappeared without a trace a year ago.

Logunov's lawyer Ivan Bezzubtsev told RT that the arrest of his client had nothing to do with the criminal case on the disappearance of his wife: he still goes through it as a witness.

“Logunov was indeed sent into custody for two months, but this has nothing to do with the criminal case of the murder.

Alexander's status in the criminal case (on the disappearance of his wife

) has not changed, he is a witness," Bezzubtsev said, adding that he would continue to represent Logunov's interests.

The website of the Basmanny District Court states that Logunov was taken into custody in the case of distribution of pornographic materials (clause “b” part 3 of article 242 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition, the man will be checked for involvement in crimes against the freedom and sexual integrity of minors.

The court ruling on the choice of a measure of restraint states that the involvement of Alexander Logunov in the distribution of pornography is confirmed by the testimony of witnesses, protocols for examining the scene and objects, as well as the conclusions of forensic examinations.

Missing

The name of Alexander Logunov became widely known back in July 2021, when his 26-year-old wife and mother of two children, Elena Logunova, went missing under mysterious circumstances.

On July 25, the woman left the house without being caught on surveillance cameras, and no one has seen her since.

The search for Elena and the investigation into her disappearance, which has been going on for more than a year, have not led to anything.

On August 30, when it became known that the husband of the missing woman had been detained, the Ryazan media, citing an unnamed source, wrote that Elena's body was allegedly found, and her husband confessed to the murder case.

These data have not been confirmed by either law enforcement agencies or the parents of the missing girl.

Elena's mother did not comment on this RT news, citing poor health.

“I can’t talk right now, I just feel disgusting, I have terrible headaches,” the woman explained.

In turn, Alexander Logunov's lawyer Ivan Bezzubtsev, in an interview with RT, emphasized that the media data about Logunov's "confessions" and the discovery of Elena's remains "does not correspond to reality."

Moscow lawyer Maxim Kalinov, who represented the interests of Elena Logunova's parents until the spring of 2022, told RT that at the beginning of the investigation, the investigation lost time, operational search activities were not carried out in a timely manner, which, according to the lawyer, would solve the crime.

“Face-to-face confrontations were held late and, in our opinion, were incorrectly interpreted by the investigation.

The husband of the missing woman, for example, mentioned that sometimes during a quarrel he could “push” Elena.

Well, then you yourself understand what this can mean in practice, ”Kalinov argues.

Suspicious behavior

In the fall of 2021, the Logunova family, dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation, hired a private detective, Ekaterina Shumyakina, to find out what happened to their daughter.

Shumyakina announced the results of her investigation in early November 2021 in her social networks.

In her opinion, Elena was killed by her husband. 

On the day the girl went missing, Logunov allegedly took two suitcases out of the house, after which he randomly traveled around the city, including visiting the Sysoevsky cemetery, Detective Shumakina stated this, referring to the data of the GPS navigator of his car.

Logunov himself told investigators in a talk show on Channel One that he had not been to these places on July 25, and used his suitcases to "take out unnecessary things from the balcony."

The ex-lawyer of Elena's parents, Maxim Kalinov, told RT that, according to the billing of Alexander Logunov's telephone conversations, on the day his wife disappeared, he called his mother more than 20 times, after which his parents came to his house.

At the confrontation, the man explained this by saying that he always communicates a lot with his mother.

Detective Ekaterina Shumyakina also considered Alexander's behavior after his wife's disappearance to be suspicious: according to her, the man called his wife twice on the day of her disappearance, and in the following days he never dialed Elena's number.

One of Elena Logunova's friends even attracted psychics from the VKontakte public dedicated to esotericism to search for a girl.

Some of them suggested that Elena was dead, and the killer was her husband.

Subsequently, Moscow investigators and search engines joined the search for the 26-year-old Ryazan woman, and the head of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin, took the investigation of the criminal case into the disappearance of the woman under personal control.