The Investigative Committee in the Tver region has reopened its review of the suicide attempt by former Serpukhov district head Alexander Shestun, Novaya Gazeta reported on January 20. According to the outlet, on December 1 Shestun, who is serving his sentence in Penal Colony No. 6 in Bezhetsk, cut his veins with a disposable razor. Colony staff allegedly told him to stop harming himself and, after he refused, twisted his arms and took him to the medical unit.
In a letter to volunteers, Shestun said he acted after learning that bailiffs had evicted his 89-year-old mother from her only home without offering alternative accommodation. He had also previously complained about the colony administration, including what he described as denial of medical care. The first inquiry ended with a refusal to open a criminal case for incitement to suicide, but on December 22 prosecutors overturned that decision.
Shestun came under criminal prosecution in 2018 after a public conflict with Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov, the presidential administration, and the FSB. He said he was pressured to resign and that conversations with officials and FSB general Ivan Tkachev included direct threats. Shestun recorded those talks and released them, triggering a major political scandal.
Soon afterward, he was charged with fraud, taking a bribe, money laundering, and illegal participation in business activities. In 2020, a court sentenced him to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony and fined him 49 million rubles. While imprisoned, Shestun staged hunger strikes and wrote about severe health problems, including convulsions, fainting, and vascular issues.
The prison administration describes him as someone who “is not seeking to take the path of reform.” According to the report, he was cited for 134 regime violations during his imprisonment, including formal accusations such as not making his bed properly or failing to greet staff. In parallel, the Prosecutor General’s Office secured the seizure of assets investigators valued at 10.5 billion rubles, and courts ordered Shestun’s relatives evicted from their homes.
“I cried like a child out of hopelessness,” Shestun wrote after learning of his mother’s eviction.
According to the newspaper’s source, Shestun’s mother and her husband were temporarily moved in with relatives. After learning of the eviction, the former official lost a large amount of blood, but doctors at a civilian hospital were reportedly able to help him in time.