Court sends rock musician who attacked CEO of NashStore app store with knife to pretrial detention

The Izmailovsky District Court of Moscow has arrested the leader of the rock band Paseka, Roman Medvedkin, over a knife fight in which the general director of the ANO Digital Platforms, Arseniy Shcheltsin, was wounded. This was reported by court representatives.

According to the version cited by the publication Baza , Shcheltsin and a friend went to a store in Izmailovo on Saturday evening, June 8. On Sirenevy Boulevard, they made a remark to a loudly shouting couple, after which 47-year-old Medvedkin took out a knife and attacked them.

Shcheltsin's acquaintance was stabbed at least nine times and died in an ambulance. The head of Digital Platforms, which created the NashStore app store for Android after the war in Ukraine began, remains in hospital.

Telegram channel Shot published Medvedkin's own version, according to which he stood up for his girlfriend, who was "insulted by Shcheltsin and his friend." Today, at the court hearing, the rock musician also claimed that they were threatened during the altercation.

The musician was charged with murder (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code) and attempted murder of two people (Part 3 of Article 30, paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code).

Shcheltsin is 34 years old and is a member of the IT councils of the State Duma, the Federation Council, the Ministry of Finance and other government bodies. On the Digital Platforms website, he is called the founder of the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. In 2015-2018, Shcheltsin led projects at the Institute for Internet Development, which, for example, allocated 260 million rubles for the video game Time of Troubles about the fight against the Polish invaders.

The group "Paseka" performs in "an author's genre called philosophy." About 1,200 users are subscribed to its page on VKontakte.