Russian court arrests soldier for murdering woman and attempting to abduct her daughters

A Russian court has remanded a soldier in custody for carrying out an attack in the southwestern Kursk region on a large family in which one person died, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Monday.

Dmitry Stenkin, from the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, had previously been convicted of rape, making death threats, assaulting a police officer, and violating parole conditions, and had agreed to serve in the army as an alternative to yet another prison sentence, Mediazona wrote.

In the early hours of 30 April, Stenkin broke into the home of the Larin family, in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, and demanded that they show him their identity documents before opening fire, local news outlet Pepel reported. Olesya Larina, the mother of the family, was killed and her husband was seriously injured. The couple’s three daughters survived unscathed.

It is unclear why Stenkin chose the Larins’ home. “The police said he was either under the influence of drugs or something else,” the couple’s son Ilya, who lives separately, told independent news channel ASTRA.

Family friend Alexander Zuev, who was the first to arrive at the crime scene, told ASTRA that Stenkin had attempted to shoot him too when he arrived. Zuev ran to get help, at which point Stenkin got into Zuev’s car along with two of the Larin children and attempted to escape, but was stopped and disarmed.

Olesya Larina was buried on Friday, while her husband remains in an artificially induced coma.