These were all cold cases from the 90s
July 8, 2021
Sobesednik.ru discussed Alexey Pichugin’s case with journalist Vera Vasilieva, who has been following the proceedings since 2006, has authored a book entitled Alexey Pichugin’s Roads and Crossroads, and is a recipient of the 2018 Moscow Helsinki Group prize for journalism in the area of human rights.
Vera Vasilieva:
There were several charges against Pichugin. I tried to attend every court session, and I analyzed all those charges. I got the impression that these were all cold cases from the 90s, cases that fully investigated back in the day and it was impossible to find who was behind the crimes. At best, they managed to find the perpetrators, but then investigators ran into a dead end. This went on for years. But once the Yukos Affair started, it suddenly turned out that Pichugin commissioned all those crimes. And convicts already doing time started telling the investigators that Pichugin was the one who ordered the crimes.
Read the full interview (in Russian) here.
