Under the influence of cognac, saboteurs seemed everywhere to the contractor

As it became known to Kommersant, ten years in a strict regime colony for fighting Ukrainian saboteurs was received by Russian contract soldier Aleksey Usenko. For enemies, the soldier took the fighters of the Russian Guard, who were following in a civilian car next to the column. The incident, according to the materials of the criminal case, could have been facilitated by the accused drinking cognac in the service.

The crime was committed last year in the zone of the SVO. Aleksey Usenko, a participant in the hostilities, who was part of a military convoy moving towards the positions of the first line, stopped a car that was heading in the same direction in the evening. Two employees of the Russian Guard who were in the cabin, at the request of a contract soldier who pointed a machine gun at them, went out onto the road.

The driver, according to his testimony, managed to introduce himself and get identification documents.

At that moment, the case says, Usenko pulled the shutter of the AKS-74U assault rifle and fired at the second soldier, mortally wounding him in the stomach.

Then he took aim at the driver and ordered him to lie down on the ground, threatening to kill him too.

Other servicemen ran to the shot, who persuaded Usenko to unfasten the magazine from the machine gun, and then hand over the weapon itself. According to them, the contractor was drunk, he smelled strongly of fumes, while he behaved aggressively and inappropriately, claiming that he had detained Ukrainian saboteurs. His colleagues later reported that they drank cognac with Usenko the day before.

The military investigative department of the ICR opened a criminal case against the contractor under part 1 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and part 1 of Art. 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (premeditated murder and threat of murder or infliction of grievous bodily harm).

During the investigation, the accused Usenko insisted that he was not involved in the crimes he was accused of, arguing that he did not shoot at anyone and had no such intentions, and the fire allegedly could have been opened by saboteurs operating under the cover of darkness, or other Russian military personnel who were nearby.

The sabotage version, according to Usenko, was confirmed by the fact that after the incident with the National Guard, their column continued to move and after an hour and a half, having covered about 40 km, was fired upon by unknown people.

According to the defendant, the fact that it was he who fired the shot was established only from the words of the driver of the car that he stopped, but he could make a mistake in the dark.

The fatal bullet was never found. There were no traces of gunpowder on Usenko’s hands, and the cartridge case, taken from the pocket of his pea jacket, had a whole gunpowder igniter primer. The non-involvement of the contractor in the murder, according to the defense, was also evidenced by a psychophysiological study conducted with him – a polygraph test. The degree of alcohol intoxication was not at all established by the examination, and the conclusions in this part are based only on the testimony of witnesses.

However, the Crimean Garrison Court considered these arguments to be contrary to the circumstances established in the court session and refuted by the totality of evidence, depriving Aleksey Usenko of his military rank and freedom.

He was sentenced nine years and six months for the murder, and another year for the threat. With partial addition of sentences, he received a ten-year sentence.

Considering the complaint of the defense, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don also rejected all of its arguments. Thus, the absence of traces of gunpowder on the hands was explained by the fact that the appropriate washes for the study were made only 12 hours after the incident. At the same time, on the military jacket, the expert found microparticles of gunpowder and even traces of a triggered primer, characteristic of those substances that are used in machine gun cartridges. The polygraph examination, the court decided, was carried out in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure and is inadmissible evidence of the defendant’s innocence.

Representatives of the convict’s defense told Kommersant that now they intend to seek a review of the case at the Cassation Military Court, which is located in Novosibirsk. The convicted person, whose sentence has entered into legal force, must be sent to a colony.