Federal Judge Brutally Murdered on Street in Kamyshin

A Kamyshin resident surrendered to the police after a brutal massacre of a federal judge near the Kamyshin City Court. Some sources claim that the suspect is a participant in the hostilities.

Reports of the murder of a federal judge in Kamyshin, Volgograd Region, appeared on the evening of August 14. Sources associated with the security forces reported details of the crime: the judge was shot on Sovetskaya Street near the city court building, after which the killer stabbed him and mocked the body.

Photos published by Telegram channels show that the bloody body of the murdered man with a knife sticking out of his head is lying on a busy street in daylight. Judge Vasily Vetlugin was shot with a Saiga hunting rifle, then “his genitals were cut off and put in his mouth, and then a knife was stuck in his eye,” Baza reported.

A 47-year-old resident of Kamyshin committed a crime motivated by jealousy, believing that his wife was having an affair with a judge. After the massacre, he did not hide, “waited for the police and surrendered,” claims Channel 112, which is connected to the security forces.

The Investigative Committee of the Volgograd Region reported that the case is being investigated under articles on murder with particular cruelty and illegal possession of weapons. The official statement from the agency says that the detainee is “engaged in commercial activities,” but a number of sources claim that the suspect is a serviceman who returned on leave from the combat zone in Ukraine.

The crime was committed by a “former participant in the military operation,” who “lived next door to the judge,” writes RBC, citing a source familiar with the situation. A refutation of this information, disseminated by several sources, was published by the Telegram channel “Tassovka” with reference to a source in the security agencies, writing that “the attacker has nothing to do with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Air Defense Forces.”

Detained Sergei Kibalnikov is the husband of court secretary Elena Kibalnikova, who worked with Vetlugin; her data is on the court’s website. From 1999 to 2016, Kibalnikov was engaged in business in the field of transportation and in March 2024 he “resumptied activities as an individual entrepreneur in the same field,” Mediazona points out (included in the register of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation). Journalists did not find any data on his commercial activities between 2016 and 2024.

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