Mother of military man from Kabardino-Balkaria to get compensation for his death

Irina Gonokova, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, requested court to oblige the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to pay 15 million roubles in compensation. However, the court reduced the requested amount tenfold.

In February 2023, a son of Irina Gonokova was sent on a service tour to the Kursk Region to carry out “tasks to defend the state border of the Russian Federation.”

According to the Russian MoD’s version, the son of Irina Gonokova perished on April 4 due to the fault of his colleague: when the Irina Gonokova’s son was rolling up a telephone cable in a field, his colleague fired from a submachine gun at his direction. The military man was wounded in his head and died on the spot. In August 2023, the colleague of the Irina Gonokova’s son was sentenced to two years of conditional imprisonment.

Irina Gonokova filed a claim to the Nalchik Garrison Military Court with a request to oblige the Russian Ministry of Defence and the military unit to pay compensation for the death of her son. The defendants questioned whether Irina Gonokova “suffered feelings of irreparable loss, grief, and sorrow” as a result of her son’s death, the newspaper “Gazeta Yuga” (Newspaper of South) reports.

The court found that the incident became possible by the fault of the commanders, who failed to organize proper control over firearms and ammunition. In that regard, the Irina Gonokova’s claim was partially granted: the court reduced the amount of compensation for moral damage from 15 million to 1.5 million roubles.