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A 23-year-old veteran of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine has been arrested on charges of murdering an elderly woman in Nalchik.
According to the Kabarda–Balkaria Investigative Committee, Rustam Nogmov was walking on the morning of 30 January when he encountered 87-year-old Nina Selezneva, who was reportedly a fitness enthusiast and walked two kilometres every day.
CCTV footage shows an individual, who authorities identified as Nogmov, hitting the woman on the head and dragging her into the bushes, where police say he beat her with his hands and feet for 20 minutes before strangling her to death.
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.
In the following days, local Telegram channels added other allegations about the crime, claiming that after the beating, Nogmov raped Selezneva with a stick.
The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has taken personal control over the investigation of the case.
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.
Selezneva’s son Konstantin told Gazeta Yuga that Nogmov had served in Ukraine and returned home after being injured. Local blogs have also published photos of Nogmov in military uniform with weapons in his hands.
According to Konstantin, Nogmov’s father worked in the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, but reportedly quit his job after the murder.
Selezneva will be buried today in Nalchik.
Crimes committed by ex-soldiers returning from Ukraine have been widely reported, and in general, Russia’s crime rate has spiked to levels not seen since 2011 following the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
After analysing open-source data, the independent Russian media outlet Verstka reported in April 2024 that at least 107 people had been killed and another 100 were severely injured by former soldiers who had returned after fighting in Ukraine.
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.
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