Another arrest followed immediately after the acquittal
The Dorogomilovsky Court has again arrested suspects in the murder of the widow of the famous Soviet diplomat Viktor Beletsky and her children. Rimma Beletskaya and her sons disappeared several years ago, and their fate is still unknown. The suspects are the Beletskys' daughter Valeria and her husband Alexander Kuzmin. Curiously, they were just acquitted of suspicion of another crime, but almost immediately sent back to prison. MK found out the details of the confusing story.
Viktor Nikolaevich Beletsky, the USSR Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands, died many years ago. He left a huge inheritance to his wife Rimma and daughter Valeria: two apartments in Moscow, on Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Prospekt Mira, two houses, on Rublevka and in the village of Dar'ino, as well as huge investments in foreign accounts.
Some time after the diplomat's death, Oleg Baev appeared in the widow's life. The man turned Rimma's head, and in 1999 they got married. The woman registered Oleg in her apartment and helped him with Russian citizenship, since Baev was a native of Ukraine. Rimma gave birth to Oleg's two sons, Ilya and Gleb.
Around 2005, the relationship between Rimma and Oleg began to rapidly deteriorate. Baev played in a casino, which is why he got into debt. The man was threatened with reprisals against his family; he contacted the police, but to no avail. Rimma kicked her husband out and filed for divorce, but Oleg did not give his consent. He moved from his wife to the apartment that Rimma bought for her daughter, and lived there with his girlfriend.
At this time, Valeria Beletskaya met her future husband, Alexander Kuzmin. Alexander, having learned what was going on in his fiancée's family, reacted emotionally and was going to «beat up» Baev. Valeria tried to dissuade her man, she said that her stepfather had a gun and it was dangerous to mess with him. Alexander listened to her requests, but did it his way: he bought an airsoft gun and went to Oleg's house. Alexander waited for Baev on the first floor, but ended up confusing the target and shooting his neighbor. A criminal case was opened against Alexander under Article 112 of the Criminal Code «Intentional infliction of moderate bodily harm.» In 2006, a sentence was handed down — two years in prison.
Soon, the diplomat’s widow wrote a statement against Oleg Baev: allegedly her husband threatened her and Valeria with violence if they did not transfer the apartment to him. After this, a criminal case was opened against Baev under Article 119 of the Criminal Code “Threat of murder or infliction of grievous bodily harm.” Oleg disappeared, Rimma finally filed for divorce, and in 2007 she deprived her ex-husband of parental rights to their two sons. In 2009, Oleg reappeared in Rimma’s life — at his request, the woman withdrew her application on the condition that he would not appear in her life again.
At the same time, another criminal plot was developing in this family. Rimma Beletskaya rented out her country house on Rublyovka to Igor Samsonov. For several years the man regularly paid rent, but in 2008 he stopped paying rent. Rimma asked Samsonov to leave her house, to which she received a rude refusal. Then, on the advice of friends, in 2012, Rimma and her son-in-law decided to storm the house. While Igor and his family left on business, Beletskaya and Kuzmin locked themselves in the house. Samsonov moved out, but wrote a statement against Rimma and Alexander about the theft of his property in the amount of 23 million rubles. Based on his statement, a criminal case was opened for theft. Beletskaya was afraid that she might go to prison, and in May 2013 she suggested that her daughter and son-in-law flee the country. Alexander and Valeria refused and tried to convince Rimma not to go anywhere. But, apparently, these beliefs did not work — the diplomat's widow suddenly disappeared along with her sons and her beloved cat Rimma. Valeria and Alexander decided that their relative had decided to hide, and did not report it to the police. However, Beletskaya's lawyer soon sounded the alarm. The apartment was inspected, and police found drops of blood on a wallet, CD, shirt and notebook left in the home. Carefully washed away traces of biological origin were also found throughout the apartment. Investigative actions began; a criminal case was opened under the article “Murder” into the disappearance of Beletskaya and two boys (at that time they were 10 and 12 years old).
In the meantime, Oleg Baev became active again. He managed to restore parental rights over his missing sons. In addition, in 2017, Baev reported two assassination attempts on him. Allegedly, after an unfortunate mistake with wounding a neighbor, Kuzmin and his wife decided to use the services of a hitman, but the latter eventually changed his mind about carrying out the order and began to extort money from the victim. However, only 14 years later, Baev reported that it was his stepdaughter who ordered the murder. Valeria was sentenced to 4 years in prison for this attempt. The second attempt allegedly took place on November 2, 2015. However, the Kuzmins were recently acquitted in this episode — the court did not establish that the crime itself took place.
But the couple were never released. They were arrested again — this time on charges of murdering Rimma Beletskaya and her sons. According to the working version, Victoria decided to do this for the sake of the inheritance. The whereabouts of the diplomat's widow and her children are still unknown.