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SAINT PETERSBURG: A Russian historian and Napoleon enthusiast was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for murdering and dismembering his young lover last year.
The St. Petersburg trial, which prompted activists to express their growing anger over domestic abuse in Russia, began in June after delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Oleg Sokolov, 64, had admitted to murdering Anastasia Yeshchenko, 24, but said he committed the crime against his former student and lover on the heat of the moment during an argument.
He was arrested in November of last year after he was found drunk and with a backpack containing the arms of a woman.
Judge Yulia Maximenko sentenced Sokolov on Friday (December 25) to “12 years and six months in a strictly regime penal colony” on charges of murder and illegal possession of firearms.
“He was aware of his actions at the time of the crime,” Maximenko said as he read the verdict, adding that the killing intent came “suddenly.”
Sokolov, a historian who received the French Legion of Honor in 2003, paced back and forth as the sentence was read, an AFP journalist reported after the trial.
In November last year he was arrested after he was pulled from the frozen Moika River in St. Petersburg while he was drunk and carrying a backpack with a woman’s arms.
Sokolov’s lawyer, Sergei Lukyanov, said the defense “does not agree” with the ruling, but will decide whether to appeal after receiving a copy of the verdict.
Last week, the court heard final arguments in the case, and prosecutors requested a 15-year term.
Yeshchenko’s parents attended the sentencing on Friday.
Her lawyer, Alexandra Baksheyeva, told reporters that although “nothing can bring her daughter back,” the family does not intend to appeal the verdict to request a harsher sentence.
Sokolov taught history at St. Petersburg State University, President Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and was close to the authorities.
The decorated historian was the author of several books on Napoleon Bonaparte and often directed historical re-enactments of the French emperor’s 1812 Russian campaign.
The gruesome murder shocked Russia after many of its students said that Sokolov had displayed inappropriate behavior in the past and demanded that the university administration be investigated.
Every year, nearly 16.5 million women in Russia are victims of domestic violence, according to activists.
However, efforts to push for a specialized law against violence and to protect victims have failed.
