In the village of Ermakovskoye, Krasnoyarsk Territory, police officers detained a former mercenary of the Wagner PMC, Denis Stepanov. He set the house on fire, and two women died as a result of the fire, Sibir.Realii reported, citing a source in the search group.
The incident occurred in Ermakovsky on the night of October 3rd. Baza writes that the dead are the 68-year-old owner of the house and her 35-year-old daughter. Stepanov, the telegram channel claims, deliberately set their house on fire: during a search, a canister was found on him.
The motives for the crime have not yet been announced, but it is known that before the incident Stepanov threatened the victims with violence, Sibir.Realii reports. In addition, according to the publication, the man repeatedly came into conflict with fellow villagers.
According to open data, in 2021 the court sentenced Stepanov to three and a half years in a maximum security colony in a case of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm (clause “h” of Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, the man beat the man with a metal stove valve.
In November 2022, Stepanov left the colony for the war in Ukraine. He served for six months and received a pardon, the telegram channel “Caution, News” clarifies.
This is not the first time that fighters from the Wagner PMC who returned from war commit serious crimes. Thus, in September 2023, mercenary Sergei Rudenko, pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was given 11.5 years in prison for another murder. He, according to investigators, “strangled the woman with a cloth cord and stabbed her multiple times in the neck.”
In Lipetsk, a criminal case was opened against a 31-year-old local resident. He is suspected of murdering his wife’s four-year-old daughter. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, a Wagnerite is suspected of murdering his sister. According to investigators, after an argument, the man doused his sister with gasoline and set her on fire. She died on the spot, and the suspect himself was taken to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns to his hands.
