Suspects arrested in a series of racist murders

In Moscow, Sochi, and Tyumen, six people suspected of multiple murders were detained.

In December 2020, the main investigation departments of Moscow, Sochi, and Tyumen detained Andrey Kail, Alexander Lysenkov (aka Lysiy, “bald” in Russian), Maxim Khotulev, Pavel Khrulev (Myshkin), Alexey Gudilin, and Semyon Tokmakov (Bus) on suspicion of committing a series of “especially grave crimes, including murders of immigrants from Central Asia” in the early 2000s.

The suspects were charged with murders committed by an organized group and motivated by national hatred and enmity (paragraphs a, d, and l of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code). During the searches, firearms and traumatic weapons, knives, and neo-Nazi propaganda paraphernalia were found on the suspects and confiscated.

The arrests were made as part of the investigation into a brutal murder committed in April 2007. In 2007, a video appeared online that later became notoriously well-known: against the background of a flag with a swastika, the far-right beheaded a native of Dagestan Shamil Udamanov and shot a native of Central Asia at point-blank range. According to the investigation, the former leader of Format18 and Restrukt groups Maxim Martsinkevich (Tesak) participated in this murder; he later died in the pre-trial detention center in September 2020.

Before his death, Martsinkevich testified about other murders of people of "non-Slavic appearance" committed by members of far-right organizations in 2002-2006. For instance, two skeletons displaying marks of violent death were found in the Smolensk region. These murders were committed in the fall of 2003, but the remains were found only in August 2020.

The former leader of the youth organization of the far-right People’s National Party (Russian: Narodnaya Natsionalnaya Partiya, NNP) and previously the leader of the Nazi skinhead brigade Russian Goal, Semyon Tokmakov, gave armed resistance during his arrest. During interrogation, he confessed to committing a number of murders, including the murder of two "non-Slavs" in December 2003; their body parts were dumped in Golyanovo District of Moscow.

Recall that on September 27, 1999, Semyon Tokmakov, one of the most famous leaders of the Moscow skinheads of the late 90s, was sentenced to three years in prison for beating an African American Marine William Jefferson, a security officer at the US Embassy in Moscow, and a translator of the diplomatic mission Lola Kholmatova. He was immediately released under an amnesty and joined the NNP. On June 28, 2000, he was detained during a clash between skinheads and police in northern Moscow on suspicion of organizing riots but was released the next day.

After Semyon Tokmakov left for more moderate nationalist organizations, the youth wing of the NNP was headed by Andrei Kail.

Alexander Lysenkov was also a member of the NNP until 2004.

Maxim Khotulev was mentioned as one of the editors of the book titled Icy Dawn, published in 2000 in the wake of "the first radical right poetry evening".

Alexey Gudilin’s VKontakte page (last visit on December 22) displays neo-pagan symbols and images of swastikas and Celtic runes. One of the images, stylized to look like paraphernalia of the Third Reich, bears the words "Happy Nativity! Just the date April 20 and it is all clear to everyone"; it is probably dedicated to Adolf Hitler’s birthday.