Andrei Kulakov was convicted from the second time
In March 2022, the Podolsky City Court sentenced the ex-head of the Ramensky District of the Moscow Region, Andrey Kulakov, to 9.5 years in a strict regime colony for the murder of his mistress, Deputy Chairman of the Public Chamber of the Ramensky District, Yevgenia Isaenkova.
The body of a woman was found on the night of May 1-2, 2019 in her car in a vacant lot.
As the experts established, Isaenkova was strangled.
Soon, suspicions fell on Kulakov, with whom the woman, despite the fact that both of them had families, had a long affair.
However, at the first attempt to prove the guilt of the accused, the investigation failed - on November 15, 2021, the jury delivered a verdict that Kulakov was not involved in the murder, on the basis of which he was acquitted.
But already on December 23, the Moscow Regional Court reversed this decision and decided to reconsider the case in the same court with a new jury.
From the very beginning, the official categorically denied his guilt in the murder, stating that he had last seen Isaenkova back in April.
On the night of the murder, he, according to him, was at home, which was confirmed in court by his wife, who did not notice her husband's nightly absence, as well as by the concierge.
Surveillance cameras in the microdistrict also did not record Kulakov's movements.
AGN "Moscow"
© Igor Ivanko
The retrial was not too long, and already on March 18, 2022, based on the verdict of the jury, who found him guilty of murder, but deserving of leniency, the court delivered a guilty verdict.
By the time it was announced, the accused had already been taken into custody - he managed to stay at large for less than two months.
Kulakov tried to appeal the decision, but on June 30 the Moscow Regional Court upheld it.
Murder of Daria Dugina
On the evening of August 20, in the area of the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy near Moscow, on Mozhayskoye Highway, an SUV exploded while driving, driven by journalist and political scientist Daria Dugina.
She died on the spot.
It is not completely known whether the target of the assassination was Dugin, who was returning from the Tradition literary and musical festival, or the bomb was intended for her father, the famous Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who was supposed to be in the car with her, but at the last moment got into another car .
One way or another, the murder has become one of the most resonant in 2022 and may well have the status of a political one.
Many people remember the photograph in which the grief-stricken father, clasping his head in his hands, is captured against the backdrop of his daughter's burning off-road vehicle.
Leader of the International Eurasian Movement, political scientist Alexander Dugin during a farewell ceremony for his daughter, journalist and political scientist Darya Dugina, at the Ostankino television center in Moscow.
Daria Dugina died on August 20 in a car explosion in the Moscow region
RIA News
© Grigory Sysoev
It was the attempted murder of Alexander Dugin himself that was the original version of the crime.
Despite the fact that his 29-year-old daughter fully shared her father's political views and actively promoted them, her influence on the minds of the supporters of Eurasianism was incomparably less.
The FSB managed to get on the trail of the alleged criminals very quickly.
Already on August 22, the department reported the disclosure of the murder, accusing the special services of Ukraine of organizing it.
According to the FSB, the explosives under Dugina's car were planted by 43-year-old Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vovk, who immediately after the explosion headed towards the state border with Estonia and crossed it in a car with her 12-year-old daughter.
In the shortest possible time, the operatives managed to restore in detail all the movements of Vovk across the territory of Russia.
It turned out that the woman with her daughter had entered the country from the DPR a month before the murder, while probably using fake documents.
Later, the FSB reported that Vovk had an accomplice, also a citizen of Ukraine, a resident of Donetsk, who, among other things, made an explosive device.
In Kyiv, the version of Ukraine's guilt in the death of Dugina was rejected, however, in Russia, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian special services were involved in the terrorist attack.
Vovk is currently on the international wanted list, her whereabouts are unknown.
Vladimir Putin awarded the deceased with the Order of Courage.
Mass murder in the school of Izhevsk
On the morning of September 26, Artyom Kazantsev, a former graduate, burst into school No. 88 in Izhevsk.
He killed a security guard, and then, without any statements or demands, he opened fire with a pistol indiscriminately, looking into the classrooms.
In total, the victims of the criminal, dressed in a T-shirt with Nazi symbols, were 18 people, another 23 were injured - most of the victims of the shooting were children between the ages of seven and 15 years.
There could have been more victims if the students had not locked themselves in the classrooms, building real barricades of desks and chairs at the entrance.
The offender tried to break into any room, but if he could not enter, he moved on.
It was not possible to detain Kazantsev - shortly after the attack, he committed suicide right at school.
During the investigation, it turned out that a 34-year-old man had been registered in a psychoneurological dispensary since 2008, was a group II disabled person and was repeatedly placed in a hospital.
The last time psychiatrists examined him was in January 2021, when he complained of feeling unwell, but could not explain what exactly was bothering him.
During a search of the apartment where he lived with his grandmother, investigators found five mobile phones and a computer.
From the text of the suicide note found in it, we can conclude that Kazantsev had been preparing for an attack on his former school for more than a year, in particular, he described how he acquired weapons.
Kazantsev took two traumatic pistols to school, converted to live fire, and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
As it turned out later, he was not registered with the National Guard as the owner of weapons.
In the photographs published by the Russian Investigative Committee, it can be seen that on each of the clips there is an inscription “Hatred” in red paint.
It was she, according to investigators, who became the main motive of the attacker.
After the tragedy, discussions about the need to strengthen the protection of educational facilities revived again.
The school in Izhevsk was guarded by the private security company "Shield", which could not organize the work at the proper level.
Its leader Andrei Zlobin was charged under Part 3 of Art.
238 of the Criminal Code (the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements, which negligently caused the death of two or more persons), at the request of the investigation, he was arrested.
According to the decision of the authorities of Udmurtia, the families of the victims were paid 1 million rubles each.
Victims who received severe injuries and injuries of moderate severity were paid 500 thousand rubles each.
The case of Ivan Safronov
The most resonant trial of 2022 can be called the consideration by the Moscow City Court of the criminal case on treason against journalist Ivan Safronov.
Journalist, adviser to the head of Roskosmos Ivan Safronov in the meeting room at the Moscow City Court
RIA News
© Moscow City Court
He was detained on July 7, 2020.
According to the FSB, Safronov's crime has nothing to do with his last job.
He was accused of passing secret materials on the supply of Russian weapons and the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Africa and the Middle East to a representative of the Czech special services.
In 2021, it became known that Safronov was also accused of collaborating with German intelligence.
It consisted in writing articles for the political scientist Demuri Voronin.
For a fee of $248, the journalist prepared materials in which, according to the investigation, there was information about the activities of the Russian army and which Voronin, in turn, sent to the German special services.
Safronov categorically denied his guilt, stating that he did not understand what kind of connections he was talking about with a representative of the Czech special services.
Later it turned out that we are talking about a long-time acquaintance of Safronov, Czech expert Martin Larish.
As the defendant himself said in an interview with Kommersant, during 2017-2019 he wrote one or two materials a month for Larish, using, as in cooperation with Voronin, exclusively open sources of information, since he had no access to any secret data just didn't have.
In turn, the FSB believes that the acquaintance of Larisch and Safronov in 2012 was recruitment, and in 2017 he received the first assignment from the Czech as an agent.
The court considered that the investigation proved Safronov's guilt.
The state prosecution asked to sentence him to 24 years in prison in a strict regime colony, the judge appointed a little less - 22 years.
Sentence to the brothers Magomedov
In the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow, on December 1, the high-profile trial of the billionaire brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov, whose criminal case has been dragging on since the spring of 2018, ended.
Depending on the role of each, the investigation charged them with creating a criminal community and participating in it (parts 1, 3 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and especially large embezzlement (parts 1, 3 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). 4 article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov in the Tverskoy Court of Moscow
RIA News
© Ramil Sitdikov
According to the prosecution, the Magomedovs committed nine episodes of embezzlement of budget funds totaling about 11 billion rubles.
We are talking, in particular, about the project of creating an artificial land plot in the area of Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg, preparing a land plot for the construction of the Baltika Stadium in Kaliningrad in preparation for the 2018 World Cup in football, reconstruction of the Kaliningrad airport Khrabrovo, supply of electrical equipment substation "Vasileostrovskaya" in St. Petersburg and Neryungrinskaya GRES.
In May of this year, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow seized $ 750 million from the brothers at the suit of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. This amount was a record amount ever seized in state revenue.
The money was received by the Magomedovs from the sale of a 50.1% stake in the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port to Transneft and was placed on an account with Sberbank at the time of the withdrawal.
Both defendants categorically denied all charges, but after a lengthy trial, the businessmen were found guilty.
The founder of the Summa group, Ziyavudin Magomedov, received 19 years in a strict regime colony.
The court also confiscated his shares in the Fesco and Summa groups.
The former co-owner of Summa, Magomed Magomedov, received 18 years in a strict regime colony.
Lawyers for the defendants appealed the verdict.
Terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge
On the morning of October 8, 2022, an explosion occurred on the Crimean bridge.
As a result of the detonation of an unidentified explosive, which was in the back of a truck, several people were killed, including the driver of the truck.
The bridge itself was seriously damaged: three spans partially collapsed, as a result of which the movement of vehicles was interrupted for some time.
In addition, a serious fire broke out on the railway tracks: at the time of the explosion, a train with fuel tanks was moving along them, seven of which caught fire - it was possible to put them out with great difficulty.
Gettyimages.ru
© Vera Katkova / Anadolu Agency
Nevertheless, by the evening of October 8, the movement of cars in reverse mode along one lane was restored, and railway traffic also resumed.
As part of the investigation, eight people were detained in the first days after the attack, including citizens of Russia and Ukraine, who, according to investigators, took part in the preparation of the explosion.
Direct customers and organizers have not yet been established.
On December 7, in the Basmanny Court, during the consideration of a petition to extend the arrest, one of the accused was told by a representative of the Investigative Committee.
However, no one has any doubts that the Ukrainian special services are behind the terrorist attack.
From the very beginning, this version was considered by the investigation as the main one, during a meeting with the head of the RF Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, President Vladimir Putin also named it.
According to the investigation, the explosive device was camouflaged in rolls with a construction polyethylene film on 22 pallets with a total weight of almost 23 tons and was sent from the seaport of Odessa to Bulgaria in early August.
From there, the cargo was transported by sea to the Georgian port of Poti, and then ended up in Russia through Armenia, where it was supposed to be delivered to Simferopol.
Thus, all the persons detained at the moment, according to the investigation, performed rather auxiliary functions, that is, they somehow participated in the transportation of explosives.
Currently, active work is underway on the criminal case: 30 forensic examinations are underway, requests have been sent to the law enforcement agencies of Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and China.
Major fires
The year 2022 will also be remembered for several large fires at various facilities, especially in the capital region.
The warehouse complex of the online retailer OZON caught fire on August 3 in the Istra district of the Moscow region.
The fire area eventually amounted to 55 thousand square meters.
m, one person died, 13 others were injured.
Fire helicopters from Moscow were involved in extinguishing the fire.
On behalf of the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, a criminal case was initiated on the fact of the provision of services that did not meet safety requirements, resulting in a large fire (part 1 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
“Several versions of the causes of the fire are being considered, among them: a short circuit in electricity;
violation of safety regulations in the production of welding work;
careless handling of other heat sources on the part of employees, ”the message on the website of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation said.
According to the quarterly report of the OZON company, the losses from the fire are estimated at 10.8 billion rubles.
At the same time, the building itself and the goods stored in it were insured for a total of 17 billion rubles.
Another major fire broke out on the afternoon of November 20 at a flower warehouse located on Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow.
The fire area eventually amounted to 2.5 thousand square meters.
m. It was possible to put out the fire only at night.
Seven people died in the fire, and seven more were rescued by the police.
On the fact of the fire, a criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Art.
219 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of fire safety requirements, negligently resulting in the death of two or more persons).
As part of the investigation, labor protection and fire safety specialist Vladimir Konovalov, as well as the founder and general director of Novo Flore LLC Anton Machelyuk, who rented burned-out warehouses, were detained.
Fire in the OBI store in the Mega Khimki shopping center.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, the fire area is 7 thousand square meters.
m. 30 people and nine pieces of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire.
The fire was given the fourth difficulty number out of five.
RIA News
© Maxim Blinov
Early in the morning on December 9, a fire broke out in the Mega Khimki shopping center.
The fire area soon reached 7 thousand square meters.
m. The OBI hypermarket, located in the left wing of the complex, suffered the most.
He burned to the ground.
A security guard died in the fire and several others were injured.
According to preliminary data, the cause of the fire was a violation of safety regulations during welding.
As part of the investigation into the circumstances of the fire on December 12, a welder and a foreman were detained.
The damage from the fire was tentatively estimated at 20-30 billion rubles.
It turned out that the last scheduled fire safety inspection in the hypermarket was carried out in November 2021, and according to its results, 46 violations were identified.
They were supposed to be corrected by August 15, 2022, but then the deadline was extended until February 20, 2023.