The Supreme Court of Kabarda-Balkaria has begun hearing the criminal case against 24-year-old Nalchik resident Rustam Nogmov, who is accused of brutally murdering 86-year-old Nina Selezneva.
Nogmov is charged under two articles — the murder of a person who was obviously helpless to the perpetrator, committed with particular cruelty and out of hooligan motives, and the desecration of the body of the victim.
A forensic psychiatric examination conducted at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow found the defendant, Rustam Nogmov, sane.
Nogmov is reportedly a veteran and has received a medal for participation in the ‘special military operation’ — the term used by the Russian authorities for the invasion of Ukraine. He served as a rifleperson in the 78th motor rifle regiment of the 58th combined-arms army. Last year, he sustained a leg injury.
According to the investigation, early in the morning of 30 January, while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, he attacked a pensioner who was taking a walk in a park near the cultural centre on Iskozh. Selezneva was reportedly a fitness enthusiast and walked two kilometres every day.
Nogmov knocked her to the ground, beat her with his hands and feet for 20 minutes before strangling her to death. He then dragged the victim into nearby bushes, where he desecrated her body — he bit off the tip of her nose. Bite marks were also found on other parts of her body. In addition, using a ‘hard blunt object’, presumably a branch, he caused post-mortem injuries to Selezneva’s internal organs.
The Head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, has taken personal control over the investigation of the case.
Police stated that after the murder, Nogmov returned home, where he noticed that he had lost his phone. He then decided to return to the scene of the incident, where he was detained.
After hearing the charges, Nogmov pleaded guilty and expressed condolences to the victim’s family.
‘Yes, I started using drugs, I started spending time with the wrong people, I was not giving attention to my parents. I did not want this, God is my witness, I did not even have such a thought. I do not understand how this happened, and I ask you to forgive me, if you can,’ Nogmov said in court.
Selezneva is survived by her husband Eduard. The two had been married for 65 years.
‘When she did not return at the appointed time, [Eduard], who had traditionally already prepared coffee for breakfast, got worried and started calling his wife. But [Nina] did not answer. He followed her route, continuing to try to call her. Suddenly a man answered the call: he had found the phone in one of the alleys. Eduard […] approached the scene. And then not far from there he saw in the bushes [the] brightly coloured sportswear of Nina,’ the local newspaper Gazeta Yuga reported.
Crimes committed by ex-soldiers returning from Ukraine have been widely reported, and in general, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the crime rate has spiked to levels not seen since 2011.
After analysing open-source data, the independent Russian media outlet Verstka reported in February that over the last three years of the war, Russian soldiers involved in the invasion who returned to civilian life have killed and injured more than 750 people.
Experts have linked the rise in crime to the return of mercenaries and soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as the thousands of former prisoners who received amnesty for serving in Ukraine.
Elizaveta Chukharova
