From Russia with Fear

A 15-year-old schoolboy armed with a knife stormed a dormitory at Bashkir State Medical University in Ufa, targeting foreign students. Shouting nationalist slogans, he stabbed four students from India and injured two police officers before being detained. Investigators say the teenager held neo-Nazi views and even drew a swastika in blood on a dormitory wall. The attack comes amid a documented ris...

In Yakutia, a man twice convicted of murder and twice pardoned after joining the war has been detained again — now suspected of a fourth killing. Viktor Savinov, known locally as “the Butcher from Suntar,” built a long criminal record that includes theft, robbery, assault, and multiple murders. Each time he received a lengthy sentence, he avoided serving it in full by signing a military contract a...

On January 28, a former SVO serviceman in Irkutsk stormed into a charity foundation looking for his estranged wife. When he could not find her, he grabbed a completely unrelated woman and took her hostage. Despite police negotiations at the scene, the situation ended in murder. The victim — a mother of two and an orphan from Kemerovo — had just received her first apartment with the help of the “Ob...

In November 2024, a quiet farming community in the Krasnoyarsk region was shaken by a brutal crime. Former farm worker Igor Zykov, fired for negligence, returned to his employers’ property armed with a knife and a wooden log. Instead of attacking livestock as he later claimed he intended, he encountered 17-year-old Milena Sheveleva, who was alone on the farm while her parents were away. What follo...

In the Moscow region, a foster guardian who received public praise and state awards is now on trial for allegedly abusing disabled children for ten years. Former foster daughters describe hunger, confinement, surveillance cameras, and years of fear behind the walls of a two-story house near Pavlovsky Posad. The case only came to light when one young woman found the courage to go to police after tu...

A 17-year-old student opened fire at the Anapa Industrial Technical College, killing a security guard and injuring others. The teenager had posted warnings online and may have planned the attack for weeks. This is already the sixth attack on an educational institution in Russia since the start of the year. In this episode, we examine what happened in Anapa, the possible motives, the role of securi...

Last week, the heartbreaking and shocking murder of 9-year-old Pasha from Saint Petersburg left the community devastated. The young boy became the victim of a pedophile, who is now in custody. As more details emerge, it becomes clear that Pasha's tragic death was influenced by the failure of several adults to intervene in his life. Social services and educators, who were aware of his family's stru...

A former Special Military Operation (SVO) veteran, Vitaliy Manannikov, was sentenced to three years for attempting to kidnap a girl in the Moscow region. Despite claiming he acted out of concern for the child, the court found his actions intentional. Manannikov, a former Russian Guard member, had a criminal record and was intoxicated at the time of the incident. This episode explores how veterans,...

A dramatic police shootout on Moscow’s elite Rublyovka Highway exposed a disturbing reality behind Russia’s war-time pardons. Two former Wagner mercenaries — both convicted killers released from prison to fight — carried out a double murder in Penza and Moscow before opening fire on police during their arrest. One suspect was killed, the other arrested and now faces life imprisonment, yet has alre...

A shocking case from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport has ended with an unexpected legal outcome. Vladimir Vitkov, who violently attacked a two-year-old child and caused severe spinal and skull injuries, has been declared legally insane and sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment. In this episode of From Russia with Fear , we reconstruct the events of that day, examine how an intoxicated man was ab...

A Russian court has sentenced Alexander Sergeev to life imprisonment for the murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Violetta in the Tver region. The crime, committed in March last year, deeply shocked a small rural community and drew attention across the region due to the scale of the search operation and the background of the convicted man. Sergeev was a repeat violent offender with multiple prior conv...

The disappearance of a nine-year-old boy in Saint Petersburg triggered a massive search involving hundreds of volunteers and police officers. Days later, the search ended in tragedy when the child’s body was found in a pond in the Leningrad region. Investigators detained a suspect who confessed to the crime and now faces life imprisonment. This episode examines the investigation, the search effort...

In this episode, we talk about one of the darkest consequences of Russia’s war: violence against children committed by former fighters and pardoned convicts. From a knife attack on a sleeping 12-year-old boy in southern Russia to the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, these cases show how men with violent pasts return from the front and continue to kill. Experts warn that mass pardons, sec...

A shocking tragedy in Stavropol. A nine-year-old girl was mauled to death by a pack of dogs near her home. The animals had long roamed the neighborhood, fed and kept by a local woman despite repeated complaints. Surveillance footage captured the final moments of the attack. This episode explores how negligence, denial, and years of inaction led to a child’s brutal death — and why the danger still...

A brutal crime in the Moscow region ends with murder, a heroic act, and suicide. A man kills his former lover in front of her child, brutally stabs a neighbor who tried to save the boy, and then jumps from the 13th floor. At the same time, another family in Moscow narrowly survives a knife attack after a husband mixes alcohol with psychiatric drugs. Two cases that expose the deadly consequences of...

In Moscow, 46-year-old Alexandra Shalina strangled her five-year-old son with a belt and drowned him in a bathtub. She later told investigators she wanted to “send him to heaven.” As the case unfolded, police discovered disturbing details from her past: false accusations, family conflicts, threats, and signs that she was also preparing to kill her teenage daughter. Investigators believe the motive...

In Yekaterinburg, a mother of four survived a brutal acid attack that investigators say was ordered by her former husband. The assault left her with severe burns and years of recovery ahead. This episode uncovers a story of long-term domestic violence, hired attackers, and a failed attempt to destroy a woman’s life after she chose to leave. Arrests have been made, but the case exposes how revenge,...

A shocking case from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. A drug-intoxicated man violently attacked a two-year-old child in the baggage claim area, throwing the boy to the floor and causing severe spinal and skull fractures. The child fell into a coma, and doctors fought for his life. The attacker, Vladimir Vitkov, was later declared legally insane, but investigators charged him with attempted murder of...

A long-running conflict between neighbors in a quiet apartment building ended in an unthinkable crime. In the Komi Republic, 37-year-old Alexey Levkovsky shot and killed 14-year-old Yulia Rodina — not because of anything she did, but out of hatred for her parents. For years, residents complained about Levkovsky’s threats, harassment, surveillance cameras, and violent behavior, but authorities igno...

A horrifying crime in Chelyabinsk shocked even seasoned investigators. Recently released repeat offender Oleg Pelenev beat 54-year-old funeral business owner Olga Sokolova to death with a crowbar inside her own home, then sexually abused her corpse for hours. After the murder, he robbed her apartment and workplace, spending the stolen money on electronics and clothes. This episode examines the cri...

A Russian SVO veteran from Volgograd beat his own grandmother to death with a wooden chair — and received only seven years in prison. The court treated his participation in the war in Ukraine as a mitigating factor. This episode explores how returning veterans terrorize their families: wives and mothers describe alcohol abuse, uncontrolled aggression, beatings, and constant fear. With no real reha...

In this episode of From Russia with Fear , we investigate a series of brutal crimes committed by participants of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” after returning from the front. A serviceman strangles his partner and burns her body, another murders his wife on their wedding night, a veteran attacks a family with a small child, and a repeat offender nearly kills a taxi driver after d...

Alexander Lipatov murdered his own family in Moscow, throwing his two-year-old son and his wife from a 16th-floor window. Both died instantly. Diagnosed with an acute psychotic disorder and long-standing mental illness, Lipatov avoided prison by signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Instead of serving a sentence for double murder, he was sent to the war zone as part of a medical...

An acid attacker from the Moscow region, officially declared criminally insane, is trying to reduce the compensation he must pay to his victim by seven times. While undergoing compulsory psychiatric treatment, Andrey Suleymanov — known as the “Monino acid maniac” — is appealing a court ruling that ordered him to pay three million rubles to Anastasia Loboda, the woman whose face and eyesight he des...

An elderly man in Obninsk died after being scalded by boiling water in his own shower. Instead of warm water, a lethal stream poured from the tap, leaving him trapped, burned, and helpless for hours. After two weeks of agony in hospital, he succumbed to his injuries. Investigators are now examining whether коммунal services and management companies ignored long-standing complaints about dangerous...