As it became known to Kommersant, the city court of Kineshma (Ivanovo region) failed to consider the merits of the criminal case of local resident Nikolai Nikol, accused of drug trafficking. For the first time, he escaped from the proceedings in the spring of last year, last fall he was caught, and explained his absence by participation in the SVO as part of the Wagner PMC. Given the shrapnel wound and awards received by the defendant, they did not arrest him, allowing him to be rehabilitated for three months under house arrest. During this time, the fighter rested, received medical treatment and even managed, according to local police, to organize a drug den in his apartment. And then he went on the run again. In parting, he left a bracelet taken from his leg and a note with an explanation to the police.
The criminal history of a 27-year-old unemployed resident of Kineshma, Nikolai Nikola, and his friend, the sound engineer of the local theater Alexander Seleznev, began last spring. The young people pulled out a dose of methadone, a drug banned for circulation, from the hiding place, not knowing that the place of the “bookmark” was secretly controlled by police operatives. Both, thus, became defendants in a criminal case on drug trafficking without the intent to sell (part 1 of article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). After a decent supply of marijuana was also found at Nikolai Nikol’s home, the police decided that the young man had somehow “cultivated” drug-containing plants right in his apartment, and added to the charge already brought against him the second part of the same article, providing for a ten-year the term of punishment for possession of a “prohibition” on a large scale.
Both alleged drug cops, however, were waiting for the end of the trial at large: the investigation was limited to taking signatures on their own recognizance and proper behavior. On May 25 last year, the judge of the Kineshma city court, Denis Turovatov, was supposed to consider their criminal case on the merits, but by that time it turned out that the main defendant, Nikol, had disappeared. As a result, the judge was forced to suspend the trial. He instructed a representative of the prosecutor’s office to organize a search for the defendant, and Nikolai Nikol himself was arrested in absentia for two months from the moment of his detention.
At the end of September, the defendant himself showed up in Kineshma, was immediately detained and, already in the status of a prisoner, was sent to SIZO No. 1 of the regional center. However, he did not stay there long. Mr. Nikol and his defense appealed the arrest in the court of the Ivanovo region, where they tried to prove that the defendant was not in fact hiding, but was absent for a good reason.
According to him, in May last year, he warned the investigator in his case that he was leaving for the Wagner PMC training base in the Krasnodar Territory, received training there, signed a contract and was sent as an ordinary fighter to the zone of the SVO.
Private Nikol, as follows from the materials, proved himself worthy in a combat situation, received two PMC awards and a shrapnel wound in the stomach, after which he was forced to leave Ukraine. In August last year, the defendant was operated on at the Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital, which was confirmed by the relevant certificates and an epicrisis, and in September he was discharged with a recommendation for outpatient aftercare and observation by a doctor at the place of residence. For this purpose, Nikol, according to him, returned to his native Kineshma.
It should be noted that the regional court recognized the arguments of the volunteer only partially. So, for example, the second instance agreed with the conclusions of the city court in that part, that unmarried, unemployed and “negatively characterized by the place of residence” Nikolai Nikol needs a stricter measure of restraint than a written undertaking not to leave. The regional court also did not accept the arguments of the prisoner himself about the allegedly valid reasons for “leaving the place of residence”, referring to the fact that the offender’s actions were “conditioned by his subjective intentions and aspirations.” At the same time, the appellate instance nevertheless took into account that the defendant arrived at the place of registration on his own, provided information about his “legal source of income” and, finally, needs constant supportive treatment.
After evaluating all the arguments, judge Olga Selezneva, presiding over the appeal process, released Nikol from the pre-trial detention center and sent him under house arrest, while imposing traditional restrictions.
The defendant was forbidden to communicate with anyone other than close relatives, use mail, telephone and the Internet – with the exception of calling emergency services in crisis situations. Accordingly, the Kineshma city court had to wait for the rehabilitation of the wounded. Over the last three months of the past year, Judge Denis Turovatov tried several times to consider the “narcotic” case on the merits, but the state of health of the main defendant each time forced him to postpone the trial. The last time it happened was December 29th. As the reason for the next postponement of the process, the file of the city court indicated: “The accused is seriously ill, which is confirmed by a medical report.”
Interestingly, just a few days after this date, the local police came to the conclusion that the defendant had recovered during his forced imprisonment, gained strength, and even had a good rest with friends. Having checked the apartment of the house-arrested man on January 7, 2023, using an alarm radio signal received from his electronic bracelet, the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ivanovo region posted on their official website the news under the heading “Police liquidated drug den in Kineshma.” As follows from this report, the raid found that “a local resident under house arrest” systematically violated the requirements of the court. He “hosted drug-addicted citizens at his home, allowing them to use illegal substances.” In the troubled apartment, as stated on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “utensils for the preparation of drugs, syringes, a cell phone and scales” were found, a criminal case was initiated against the owner under Art. 232 (organization or maintenance of dens) of the Criminal Code, and he himself “was chosen a measure of restraint in the form of detention.”
Vladislav Radostin, head of the information and public relations department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, could not promptly comment on this message for Kommersant, offering to send him a corresponding request. At the same time, a Kommersant source close to the Ivanovo police called the message incomplete.
According to him, in addition to drug paraphernalia, on the table in Nikolai Nikola’s room lay his bracelet, removed from his leg and carefully assembled into working condition, as well as a note with a short text: “I left to fight in Ukraine. Do not remember dashingly!
The official representative of the Kineshma city court, Tatyana Molodkina, confirmed to Kommersant that the defendant Nikol once again did not appear at the court session without a good reason and was put on the wanted list from January 10, 2023. The press service of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin did not promptly respond to Kommersant’s request regarding the possible return of Nikola to the Wagner PMC.