Don't shoot the taxi driver: a military judge will be tried for fighting on the road

The Higher Qualification Board of Judges (HCCC) has agreed to initiate criminal proceedings against Albert Trishkin, a former judge of the 2nd Western District Military Court, in the case of shooting with unregistered weapons. According to investigators, in August 2024, during a traffic conflict, Trishkin first insulted a taxi driver, and then shot him with a traumatic pistol "found behind garages", wounding him in the leg. In July 2025, the chairman of the TFR appealed to the board with a proposal to initiate a case. Trishkin faces up to five years in prison, the lawyers said. The judge did not deny his guilt, and immediately after the decision of the HCCC he resigned. The details of his case are in the Izvestia article.

What is Albert Trishkin suspected of?

The Investigative Committee will be able to open a criminal case against Judge Albert Trishkin of the 2nd Western District Military Court. The Higher Qualification Board of Judges (HCCC) gave permission for this on July 16. Immediately after this decision, Trishkin resigned, Irina Zhirnova, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Western District Military Court, told Izvestia.

According to the materials of the pre-investigation check, in August 2024, during a traffic conflict, Trishkin shot a taxi driver in the leg with a traumatic pistol. A taxi driver came to fulfill an order at a house in the Moscow region. Moving in reverse on the roadway of the courtyard, the taxi driver blocked the path of a Hyundai Santa Fe car driven by Trishkin.

"In connection with this, the latter had a personal hostility towards the driver, to whom he began to express abusive and derogatory expressions," the chairman read out to the board.

Trishkin initiated the conflict, the conclusion says. He fired Makarov's traumatic pistol into the taxi driver's leg, "which caused the latter a double bullet wound." The incident was caught on surveillance cameras. There is a recording where you can see Trishkin pointing a gun at the taxi driver, and after the shot he grabs his left thigh.

Albert Trishkin is a military officer, and there is information in his file that he mastered the subject "small arms fire training" with a "good" grade.

Upon the fact of the emergency, the taxi driver wrote a statement to the police and asked to bring to criminal responsibility "a man he had never met before."

Judges in Russia are special subjects, and the UK can initiate criminal proceedings against them only with the consent of the VKKS. Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee, addressed the board on July 7, 2025.

Investigators want to open a case on several counts of intentional infliction of moderate harm to health (Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, Trishkin shot the taxi driver out of hooligan motives, motivated by hatred or enmity.

What the former judge said

In his first statement, the driver wrote about two shots, and in the final document there was only one, a representative of the TFR told the court. According to him, there was indeed one shot, but the bullet split into two parts.

"We've been checking for a long time, and this issue has been resolved," he said.

Albert Trishkin drew attention to the discrepancies in the conclusion and stated that he did not agree with the UK's submission.

The inconsistencies, he said, relate not only to the number of shots fired, but also to the rehabilitation period of the potential victim. The ex-judge allegedly has information that the taxi driver was able to go to work a little earlier than the deadline fixed in the documents. In addition, one of the medical reports does not refer to a moderate, but a mild degree of harm to health, Trishkin noted.

"The driver's testimony is also contradictory, there are a lot of inaccuracies that have not been evaluated in the presentation," he said.

According to Albert Trishkin, from the very beginning he did not deny that he was the initiator of the conflict. According to him, there were subjective reasons for this: over the past three years, he has repeatedly been involved in serious accidents involving taxi drivers, and in one case he even almost died. And on the eve of the incident, Trishkin found out that he was listed in the Ukrainian Peacekeeper database and was generally very worried "about the events in the country."

"I was in a heightened emotional state for many reasons," the judge said. — That doesn't excuse me, I'm wrong. Everything happened solely due to my personal lack of restraint.

According to Trishkin, during the conflict, he first showed the driver a weapon, and the driver tried to grab it from the judge's hands and generally behaved aggressively, which allegedly there are witnesses.

The ex-judge's colleagues had a question about where he got the weapon from. Trishkin replied that he had found the gun two days before the incident not far from work, behind the garages, "between the third and fourth garages," and expressed his willingness to show the place to the investigation. Then, according to him, he did not examine the gun, but simply put it in the car with the intention of handing it over to the police department on the next business day.

— I discovered the presence of cartridges in the pistol after the incident. Being in a depressed emotional state, I got rid of the weapon after these events," the judge said.

According to Trishkin, he apologized to the victim and tried to negotiate moral compensation. But the driver called different amounts each time.

— He started with 600 thousand rubles, and in the end he asked for ten times more. That's how he reached six million," he said and stated that he was obliged to compensate for the damage and would continue to strive for this.

Trishkin's colleagues wondered if the UK's representation was a consequence of his professional activities.

— No, this is solely a traffic conflict, — said the judge.

Albert Trishkin was appointed a judge of the military court in 2016. He specializes in criminal cases. For example, he sentenced Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front, on charges of justifying terrorism. This year alone, Trishkin has dealt with ten cases of terrorism and mercenary activities, the media reported earlier. Until 2016, Trishkin worked as deputy chairman of the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow.

What threatens the ex-judge

In this case, much will depend on whether the investigation and the court believe in Trishkin's version of the discovery of the pistol, Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the bar association "Your Legal Attorney," told Izvestia.

"If he hadn't fired that gun, his version would have looked quite working," the lawyer noted. — But in this situation, the issue of illegal possession of weapons will remain at the discretion of the prosecution and the court.

Criminal prosecution of a judge is always an emergency situation for the judicial system, Alexey Gavrishev, head of AVG Legal, noted in a conversation with Izvestia.

"Such cases in Russia are the exception, not the rule," the lawyer said. — On average, no more than 10-15 cases are initiated against judges per year, and only a part reaches the court.

According to the article on intentional infliction of moderate harm to health with the use of weapons, the maximum penalty is up to 5 years in prison. But at a certain stage, Alexey Gavrishev believes, the judge may be charged with other articles.

Among them is hooliganism with the use of weapons (Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) — if the intent to grossly violate the order is proven outside the context of necessary defense. The penalty under this article is up to 7 years in prison.

Trishkin may also be charged with illegal arms trafficking (Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) if it is established that the judge actually kept the found weapons without notifying the police — up to 6 years. Also, Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the threat of murder is possible if there is evidence of verbal threats with weapons with a penalty of up to 2 years in prison.

According to the lawyers, the public status of the judge and the presence of weapons, even if "found", may be an aggravating factor. This may raise questions for the investigation about the motives and adequacy of his actions.

"However, the circumstances of the incident indicate a bilateral conflict in which the victim himself could have provoked the development of events,— said Alexey Gavrishev. — In addition, the position of the victim, who changes the amount of compensation from 600 thousand to 6 million rubles, distortion of testimony and attempts at bargaining can be regarded as pressure on the person involved or an attempt to monetize the conflict.

Albert Trishkin has already admitted the fact of the shooting, expressed his willingness to compensate and demonstrated a certain level of remorse. This, as a rule, affects the conclusions of the court when sentencing, the lawyers summarized.