Investigation into the vandalism of Izvestia military correspondent's apartment completed

The Gagarinsky inter-district investigation department of the investigation department for the South-Western Administrative District of the main investigation department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Moscow has completed the investigation of a criminal case against two residents of the capital. They are accused of vandalism and obstructing the lawful professional activities of journalists, including Izvestia military correspondent Valentin Trushnin.

The investigation found that in October 2023, the co-defendants, feeling a strong dislike and hatred for the war correspondents who cover the special operation in the media, painted pentagrams with threatening symbols on the front doors of apartments and walls of entrances at their places of residence, as well as placed burning wax candles.

In addition, the defendants photographed each image and sent a report on the completed task in one of the messengers, for which they received cash in the amount of 5 thousand rubles.

It is noted that the investigators questioned witnesses, reviewed materials from video cameras and searched the apartments of the accused. As a result, they managed to collect a sufficient evidence base, in connection with which the criminal case was transferred for sending to court.

The incident occurred in October 2023. On October 18, a drawing of a pentagram with a pig's head and candles placed next to it were found near the door of the apartment of the military correspondent of Izvestia. Trushnin himself was not at home, he is on a business trip in Israel.

Criminal cases were initiated under Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Vandalism") and Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Threat to kill"), because earlier subscribers from Ukrainian numbers had already sent threatening messages to the journalist. Later, a case under part 3 of article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Obstruction of lawful professional activity of a journalist") was also initiated. The attackers' arrest was extended several times. They turned out to be Vladislav Remnev and Svetlana Agibalova.

Commenting on the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Kiev regime had been carefully preparing an assassination attempt on Trushnin. According to her, the Ukrainian security services used a traditional technique for them, using messengers to involve Russians, who sent threats to Trushnin for a fee.