The Angarsk City Court of the Irkutsk Region sentenced former Wagnerite Alexander Novikov, who killed a native of Ukraine during a dispute about the war, to six years in a maximum security colony (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code). The publication Sibir.Realii drew attention to the court's decision.
The verdict says that Novikov quarreled with the man with whom he was drinking and stabbed him in the neck, from which the man died on the spot. In court, the Wagner man admitted guilt and refused to testify. At the same time, during the preliminary investigation, he said that he had a fight with an acquaintance because he insulted the Russian military and Novikov himself.
One of the witnesses told the court that the men had quarreled over the war in Ukraine — the Wagnerian said that he had participated in the battles, but his acquaintance did not believe him. Another witness claims that Novikov explained his act by saying that the man accused him of killing “the Ukrainian people, and [the deceased] himself was Ukrainian by nationality.” The victim's sister said in court that he was born in Ukraine.
Six years in prison is the minimum sentence for murder. The court recognized Novikov’s participation in the war, the presence of awards from the Wagner PMC and a state award, as well as positive characteristics from his place of service as mitigating circumstances for such a decision. The man also has a young child and sick relatives whom he helps, the court was told. Novikov had no previous convictions.