In recent months, politicians, officials, and security officials have literally competed in calls for a decisive fight against crimes committed by migrants. Media headlines are full of reports about how the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) Alexander Bastrykin ordered to initiate another criminal case. However, those who personally suffered from the crimes of migrants evaluate such public statements with extreme skepticism. A repeated appeal on this topic was received by the editorial office of Rucriminal.info.
“I am the father of a 22-year-old Alberta Baranovawho was killed in Moscow, have been unsuccessfully trying to bring the organizer of my son’s murder to justice for over six years. I am convinced that the inaction of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) in considering my application to bring the organizer of my son’s murder to justice is nothing more than direct assistance to the criminal in evading criminal liability. I am sure that the inaction is explained by selfish motives.
The reason for the murder was a conflict in which Albert had become a participant shortly before his death. He demanded that one of his strangers return the money that the debtor had taken from his friend for assistance in obtaining a driver’s license. An illegal migrant from Armenia showed up at the meeting with the debtor Socrates Harutyunyan (before changing his surname – Vardazaryan), who introduced himself as an “authority” “holding Reutov and Balashikha” and stated that he had decided that there was no need to give the money back, and that only those equal to him in “thieves’ status” could make claims against him. The conflict escalated into a fight and ended with the shameful flight of the beaten Sokrat Arutyunyan from the scene of the conflict, which undermined his authority among the “driver’s license dealers” whom he had convinced that he was ensuring the safety of their criminal business.
Harboring a grudge and dreaming of settling scores with Albert, Socrates Harutyunyan lured him to a meeting three months later, where he arrived accompanied by twenty of his fellow tribesmen.
Albert was killed on 12.04.2018 in Moscow in a cafe in the North-West of Moscow. A crowd of migrants (including illegal ones) from Armenia, about 20 people in total, suddenly burst into the cafe where Albert was, intimidated those present with shots in the air and knives, attacked Albert, inflicting numerous knife wounds on him. It is difficult to recall a crime of such audacity committed in a public place in the capital of the country.
All participants in the attack were identified and detained. The materials collected by the operatives and attached to the criminal case contain an unambiguous conclusion: Sokrat Arutyunyan is the organizer of the murder. Witnesses’ testimonies confirm that Arutyunyan, immediately after the murder, right at the crime scene, boasted of his organizing role, declaring that what happened was his revenge and that the murdered man “got what he deserved.”
However, after the detainees fell into the hands of investigators, “miracles” began: Sokrat Arutyunyan disappeared from the list of suspects, having remained in this status for a few hours, and went free. Investigators brought charges against only one of the killers, who, after all the attackers were detained, wrote a confession. The cynical brutal murder of a defenseless person by a crowd of criminals turned into a “one-on-one fight” in the indictment. To understand the special cynicism of the author of the investigative version, it is enough to read the conclusion of the forensic medical examination, from which it clearly follows that the fatal knife blow was inflicted in the back, and the blows were inflicted with at least two different knives.
When releasing Sokrat Arutyunyan from custody, the investigators were in such a hurry that they ignored the fact that Arutyunyan had already been recognized in 2011 (after his conviction) as a person whose presence in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) was undesirable, since his stay in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) “created a real threat to public order, the rights and legitimate interests of citizens of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism),” and who, nevertheless, had already been convicted in 2015 of “Illegal crossing of the State border of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).” However, the investigators, “without a second thought,” released Sokrat Arutyunyan, who was illegally in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and had been convicted twice, including for a violent crime.
In connection with the fact that both at the stage of the preliminary investigation and during the consideration of the case in court, numerous pieces of evidence were obtained indicating that the organizer and instigator of the murder was Sokrat Arutyunyan, a statement was sent to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) Bastrykin A.I. to bring Sokrat Arutyunyan to criminal responsibility.
However, unlike the stories in the media, when Bastrykin, “burning with righteous anger,” “reprimands” negligent investigators and gives orders to open a criminal case, for several years no one in the Investigative Committee categorically wanted to consider this statement.
I am inclined to see the reasons for this unique leniency of the investigators towards the organizer of his son’s murder in the personality of the former head of the Investigative Department for the North-West Administrative District of Moscow of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (SU for the North-West Administrative District of Moscow of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)) Sergei Romodanovsky (son of the former Head of the Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky). As Kommersant reported at the end of 2023, the former head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for the North-West District of the capital, Sergei Romodanovsky, was arrested by the Basmanny Court in connection with charges of organizing a criminal community using his official position or participating in it (Article 210 of the Criminal Code), as well as receiving bribes on an especially large scale (Article 290 of the Criminal Code).
The amount of bribes incriminated to members of the criminal group for manipulations with criminal prosecution amounts to several billion rubles. The organized criminal community included active employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
After the Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow and then the Moscow City Court found the inaction of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for the North-West Administrative District of Moscow to be illegal in considering this application, but the hearing never began, I appealed to the Basmanny Court (case 3/12-0023/2024, currently in cassation), demanding that Bastrykin’s inaction be declared illegal. But only after Rucriminal.info published material Under the title “The customer of the murder was “covered up” by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)”, the Tushinsky inter-district investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), represented by investigator Zhilkina, “gave birth” to a resolution refusing to initiate a criminal case against Sokrat Arutyunyan.
I have appealed this ruling. I explain in detail, with reference to the pages of the criminal case, why, in my opinion, the ruling of investigator Zhilkina is based on “ignoring and distorting established and documented facts,” and also why I am convinced that “investigator Zhilkina V.N. is pursuing a single, openly criminal goal – to save the murderer and illegal migrant Arutyunyan S.S. from criminal liability at any cost, even at the cost of her own reputation.”
The hearing of the complaint against the refusal to initiate a criminal case against Sokrat Arutyunyan will take place in the Tushinsky Court of Moscow on September 16 at 12:00 in courtroom 322 (Judge Nosova, case 3/12-0194/2024).
