Judge Alexey Kolesnikov of the Central District Military Court found two contract servicemen guilty of the murder of Bashkir farmer Oleg Poletavkin and his wife Valentina, as well as unlawful entry into a home, theft, illegal possession and transport of weapons and ammunition, robbery, and larceny. As Mediazona learned, 51-year-old Vasily Katkov was sentenced to 21 years in a maximum-security penal colony, while 38-year-old Stanislav Kichayev received 27 years in a special-regime colony.
Prosecutors had asked for 24.5 years for Katkov and 25 years for Kichayev. According to the outlet, both convicted men wanted to return to the war.
According to the prosecution, on December 5, 2024, Katkov and Kichayev were unofficially working on the couple’s property in the village of Ishlya in Bashkortostan’s Beloretsk district. Investigators say that because Valentina owed Kichayev money, the men decided to kill the couple. Court materials say they lured Valentina into a utility room, threw her to the floor, kicked her, and struck her with an axe, breaking her jaw and skull bones.
They then took two carbines and a hunting shotgun from the house and hid in a hangar. After midnight on December 6, they attacked Oleg Poletavkin: according to investigators, Kichayev shot him twice in the stomach and chest, killing him on the spot. The couple’s bodies were put into sacks and dumped in a lake, after which the men drove away in the victims’ car, taking the weapons with them. On the road, Kichayev paid for fuel with the bank card of the murdered Valentina Poletavkina.
In the morning, the men went to the victims’ apartment in the closed town of Mezhgorye, where they stayed for about ten minutes. They were detained later that same day after a chase: a traffic police inspector had to fire a warning shot into the air, and the defendants allegedly tried to run down officers who approached the car.
Mediazona reports that Katkov signed a Defense Ministry contract on September 6, 2023, and Kichayev on September 15, 2023. After being wounded and treated in a hospital, Kichayev, according to the outlet, left his unit on January 27, 2024 and lived first in the settlement of Roshchinsky and then in Samara, failing to return by March 18. In court, he said he had not intended to evade service and had simply “gone on a binge.” Mediazona says both men had prior convictions: Katkov, including in a grievous bodily harm case, and he had also been placed on a federal wanted list; Kichayev had been convicted of theft and evading administrative supervision.