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Retired Russian police colonel hopes to go to war after confessing to journalist murder

Screenshot: Fontanka

Screenshot: Fontanka

A retired Russian police colonel has confessed to the murder of a journalist and indicated where he buried the body, St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka reported on Monday.

Mikhail Smirnov, the former deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s anti-corruption department for the Northwestern Federal District, confessed to the 2004 murder of Fontanka journalist Maxim Maksimov. An operation to retrieve the body has begun.

Maksimov also wrote for the Agency for Investigative Journalism (AIJ), the predecessor to Fontanka, and published investigations into corruption in law enforcement agencies, one of which alleged that Smirnov had taken bribes in the course of his work. Maksimov disappeared on 29 June 2004, and his body has never been found. No one has been charged over his disappearance for over 15 years, although the AIJ suspected Smirnov’s involvement.

The Investigative Committee has said Smirnov also confessed to the murder of a shipyard director in 1998, the crime for which he was initially arrested in May. On that occasion, according to the investigation, Smirnov and his accomplices stopped a car, pretending to be traffic police, distracted the driver’s attention and placed an explosive device under the driver’s seat. The driver was killed while two other passengers were seriously injured.

Smirnov now hopes to sign a contract with the Defence Ministry and go to Ukraine to avoid facing criminal prosecution for the murders, Fontanka said.

A law signed by Vladimir Putin in March grants combatants immunity for crimes such as murder, theft, and rape, leading many convicted criminals to volunteer to fight in Ukraine in order to have their charges dropped. An updated version of the law signed by Putin in October extended the immunity to defendants who are still on trial.

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