Vitaly Akishin, a defendant in the case of the murder of State Duma deputy Galina Starovoytova, asked for parole from the colony. This was reported by the joint press service of the courts of St. Petersburg.
Materials about Akishin's parole were registered by the Kolpinsky District Court of St. Petersburg; proceedings in the case have not yet begun. In the petition, the convict indicated that he had served two-thirds of his prison term and asked to replace the unserved part of the sentence with forced labor.
“Current penalties and comments from the employer and administration IU Vitaly Nikolaevich does not have a place of employment, is characterized positively, participates in charitable activities, public life of the institution and events,” the press service said in a statement.
In 2005, Akishin was sentenced to 23.5 years in a maximum security colony. He was found guilty of an attempt on the life of a statesman — Starovoitova herself — and the attempted murder of her assistant Ruslan Linkov. Akishin, according to investigators, was the perpetrator of the murder, and Yuri Kolchin, who was convicted along with him, was the organizer. Kolchin was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Later, ex-State Duma deputy from the LDPR Mikhail Glushchenko was convicted in this case — he was also considered involved in organizing the murder of Starovoitova. In August 2015, he was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security colony, taking into account his previous conviction in an extortion case. In 2019, the leader of the Tambov organized crime group Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) became a defendant in the case — Glushchenko testified against him, calling Barsukov the mastermind of the crime.
State Duma deputy and co-chair of the Democratic Russia party Galina Starovoitova was shot at an entrance in St. Petersburg in 1998 Ruslan Linkov, who was nearby, then received three gunshot wounds, but remained alive. Later Linkov identified Akishin as the perpetrator of the crime.