The ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Lugansk People's Republic became a defendant in the case of the murder of a Russian who served as his guard.

Former Minister of Internal Affairs of the LPR Igor Kornet, who had a conflict with Igor Plotnitsky, became a defendant in the case of the murder of Russian Artem Bulgakov, who served as his security guard. this RBC reports with reference to its own sources in the Investigative Committee.

Artem Bulgakov was born in 1989 in Sochi. In 2010, he signed up for contract service, and in June 2014 he officially retired. That same month, he told his mother that he was in Donetsk, the publication writes. Since January 15, 2015, Bulgakov was a shooter in the international brigade “Pyatnashka”, and then moved to Lugansk and served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR.

On November 9, 2016, Bulgakov was killed. “He died from an enemy sniper bullet while performing a combat mission. The killer shot him in cold blood directly in the heart,” RBC cites a February report from the Union of Donbass Volunteers. The mother of the deceased, Victoria Alyabyeva, told RBC that along with the coffin, she received a letter of gratitude “with sincere condolences” from the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR, Igor Kornet. According to her, the personal identification card of a police private and an assistant operative of the SOBR of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR was issued to Bulgakov on the day of his death, November 11 last year.

Bulgakov’s commander told the soldier’s brother, who came to the LPR to collect the body, that Artem accidentally shot himself while cleaning his weapon.

“So a crossbow or a sniper? If he was on a mission, why wasn't he wearing body armor? And if he didn’t have time to register with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then how was he given a weapon and sent on a mission?” - says Alyabyeva. In February 2017, she filed a statement with the Investigative Committee.

Russian investigators found that from September 25 to November 9, 2016, Bulgakov served in the personal security of the head of the LPR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kornet, a source in the Investigative Committee told RBC. On November 9, Bulgakov was in the administrative building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Lugansk, where a conflict situation arose between him and several employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of the employees pulled out a firearm and pointed it at the Russian. He tried to move the barrel away from himself with his left hand, but his opponent fired and the bullet hit Bulgakov in the chest, investigators indicated. “Concealing the fact of the crime against Bulgakov, Kornet gave instructions to the head of the department for work with personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR” to formalize the order of Bulgakov as an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it follows from the resolution of the investigators.

According to investigators, Kornet decided to file the crime as careless handling of a weapon. On November 25, he issued an order to bring ordinary police officer E.V. Kolesnikov to disciplinary liability. The document states that the private left the Fort-12 pistol unattended, which, the document notes, was taken by Bulgakov without permission. As a result of careless handling, he shot himself in the chest, the order says.

Cornet refused to comment to RBC on the circumstances of Bulgakov’s death. At the same time, RBC, citing a source, reports that Kornet, although he was not reinstated in his position after the decree of the ex-head of the LPR Plotnitsky, in fact still serves as the Minister of Internal Affairs of the republic under the new head of the self-proclaimed republic, Leonid Pasechnik. This information was also published by Moskovsky Komsomolets. The publication asked the Investigative Committee to disclose the circumstances of the investigation into the death of Artem Bulgakov.