RUSSIA24 — Rassledovanie Eduarda Petrova
20261011 040500 UTC
627 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:14] Sometimes they return
[00:00:17] 10 years after the detention of Russia's
[00:00:20] most terrible serial killer,
[00:00:23] Angarsk police officer Mikhail Popkov, his
[00:00:27] victims interrupt the silence.
[00:00:30] Today, those who managed to escape alive from
[00:00:33] the maniac's hands accuse him of the most terrible
[00:00:37] crimes. Hello, Eduard
[00:00:40] Petrov is in the studio.
[00:00:43] Locksmith, police officer, firefighter, gravedigger in
[00:00:46] the cemetery, car transporter, these
[00:00:49] are the professions that Mikhail Popkov mastered in
[00:00:53] a quarter of a century, and he was also known as
[00:00:56] an exemplary family man and a good comrade. And
[00:01:00] only in 2012 it became clear
[00:01:03] that Popkov was living a double life. In that
[00:01:06] secret life he was a ruthless rapist
[00:01:09] and murderer, on whose account there were 83
[00:01:13] victims. In the Irkutsk region, where this beast mostly
[00:01:17] operated, he was feared like
[00:01:20] fire. And those few women
[00:01:23] who managed to escape death were terribly
[00:01:26] frightened and preferred to remain silent. from
[00:01:30] the killer, and only now, when Mikhail Popkov
[00:01:33] is serving his endless sentence in a Mordovian
[00:01:37] maximum security colony, they
[00:01:40] decide to remember the past. How many
[00:01:44] more crimes are on the account of the murderer and rapist
[00:01:47] Mikhail Popkov? Why do the victims
[00:01:50] of the Angarsk Ripper find the strength to
[00:01:53] talk about his atrocities, and what awaits
[00:01:57] the bloodiest criminal of the modern
[00:02:01] world? We took on this case and conducted
[00:02:04] our own investigation.
[00:02:45] I'll show you now, it's somewhere there,
[00:02:47] yes,
[00:02:51] here it is, mhm, here it is, she took it, that's it,
[00:02:54] Yuri Grishanovich is already a pensioner, but he continues
[00:02:58] to work as a driver. on a fire truck,
[00:03:02] he says that service helps him to distract himself from
[00:03:06] all bad
[00:03:07] thoughts.
[00:03:10] 25 years ago, Grishanovich's wife Natalia
[00:03:13] disappeared. On September
[00:03:17] 30, 1997, in broad daylight,
[00:03:21] a woman got into a taxi in the center of Irkutsk, going to
[00:03:25] school to her son, no one saw her
[00:03:27] again.
[00:03:33] I rushed to the Kirovsky
[00:03:36] district, I said, it's like this and that, well, it's already evening, it's
[00:03:39] already 9:00 or whatever time it was, I don't
[00:03:42] remember, well, I go
[00:03:46] in there, in general, the captain, explaining the situation,
[00:03:49] I say, it's like this and that, my wife disappeared, he sends
[00:03:52] me off, like, go get some sleep, she says you've been fooling around,
[00:03:55] she'll come
[00:03:59] back at night... I don't remember how the night passed, in the morning I'm back in this
[00:04:02] Kirovsky police station, I say, it's like this and that, what's going on, let's
[00:04:06] deal with it, for several years the search for his beloved
[00:04:09] wife became the main occupation of Yuri
[00:04:13] Grishanovich, he devoted all his
[00:04:16] free time to
[00:04:18] this, we worked with the men, there
[00:04:22] were a lot of these firemen in our unit, my brother
[00:04:25] gave me a bus, two
[00:04:28] buses, we went to look for her, maybe we ourselves
[00:04:32] got lost on the way, we walked along the roads and looked for her, well, in the Irkutsk
[00:04:35] forest, yes, well, of course, out of hopelessness, I don't
[00:04:39] know what to do, well, that's why we went there
[00:04:42] and looked for her,
[00:04:44] friends advised Yuri to turn to
[00:04:47] clairvoyants and even suggested several
[00:04:50] addresses. They showed a photo, well,
[00:04:54] they showed some places on the map where to go or not,
[00:04:57] what did they say, I... I don't remember what they said, some said that
[00:05:01] it's all over, you won't find anything, no one, it's already
[00:05:04] over, others said that
[00:05:07] wait, she'll turn up, she'll be found, like she'll come herself,
[00:05:10] well, everyone kind of did that.
[00:05:42] search for witnesses, together with Irkutsk operatives he
[00:05:46] found a woman who saw how on that very day
[00:05:49] Natalia stopped a gray car and
[00:05:52] got into the front seat, at the wheel
[00:05:55] of the foreign car was a man in police
[00:05:58] uniform.
[00:06:06] Well, she noticed that she said she saw a woman who said
[00:06:09] she was wearing a leather...
[00:06:42] Nobody even suspected that the assistant operational
[00:06:46] duty officer of the Angarsk Department of Internal Affairs Mikhail
[00:06:49] Popkov in his free time cruised around the
[00:06:53] region in his foreign car in search
[00:06:56] of another victim.
[00:07:25] This is Tatyana Klemko. She,
[00:07:28] a native of Irkutsk, spent her whole life here, in
[00:07:31] the Jubilee
[00:07:32] microdistrict.
[00:07:36] Jubilee, probably, like in many
[00:07:38] districts. This was in the nineties.
[00:08:44] We spent the whole day
[00:08:47] with friends in the center on the embankment, then at
[00:08:50] the Trud stadium there was an open-air
[00:08:53] disco, in the Primursky area we
[00:08:56] caught a car, where are you going, it was
[00:09:00] 12 o'clock, I was sober, that
[00:09:03] is, well, normal, I sat in
[00:09:07] the front seat, the driver
[00:09:09] turned out to be talkative, he wanted to get to know me
[00:09:13] better.
[00:09:17] Along the way he started,
[00:09:20] asked me my surname, at that moment I had a different surname,
[00:09:23] well, my maiden name, and it's Polish from
[00:09:26] my grandfather, he said: "Oh, I haven't had any Polish women
[00:09:28] yet." This completely
[00:09:32] stressed me out, we were driving, I asked him to stop, to which
[00:09:36] he naturally did
[00:09:38] not react.
[00:09:40] The taxi driver abruptly turned around.
[00:10:12] with words, he would cut off my arms,
[00:10:14] legs,
[00:10:18] I was skinny, I remember that his hands were
[00:10:21] huge, well, really, they were.
[00:10:25] He grabbed my arms and steered with one
[00:10:28] hand,
[00:10:31] insane with fear Tatyana had already
[00:10:34] said goodbye to life, but fate gave her
[00:10:37] a chance, we had already driven into the cemetery, the road
[00:10:40] was narrow, that is, graves, a narrow
[00:10:43] road, it turned out to be a dirt road, it was clear that the person was not there for the first time, he
[00:10:46] was oriented, he understood where to go, I think so, well, no,
[00:10:50] it means, a person probably wouldn't have driven so
[00:10:53] confidently. At this moment a thought
[00:10:57] occurred to me that only one thing could save me, if his doors were not
[00:11:00] locked.
[00:11:05] It was also good that I was wearing pants, I kicked
[00:11:09] him, his steering wheel swerved, and
[00:11:12] I pulled the door open.
[00:11:15] The girl, headlong, ran to the exit of the cemetery, there on
[00:11:19] the wasteland the lights of a trade
[00:11:21] pavilion shone dimly, inside there was a seller, and as it was
[00:11:25] customary in those years
[00:11:28] A guy came out, a guard came out, I grabbed his hand and said, I won't
[00:11:32] let you go, well, that's it, at that moment a car drove
[00:11:35] out, he slightly slowed down, saw that I was not alone,
[00:11:39] then he drove
[00:11:41] down.
[00:11:45] Tatyana didn't go to the police then, she was scared,
[00:11:49] she called her friends, but what could the young
[00:11:52] guys do, they advised.
[00:12:01] She graduated from the institute, got married, got
[00:12:05] a serious job, she only remembered
[00:12:08] that terrible incident 15 years
[00:12:11] later, when Mikhail Popkov was
[00:12:14] arrested. Our program thoroughly
[00:12:18] covered the killer in the film "The Button as
[00:12:22] Evidence".
[00:12:25] For several decades, a serial maniac operated in the Irkutsk
[00:12:28] region, an unknown killer brutally murdered young
[00:12:30] women, most of the crimes were committed in
[00:12:34] Angarsk. The Angarsk maniac was shown
[00:12:37] on TV, and Tatyana Klemko immediately
[00:12:40] understood who exactly she got into
[00:12:43] the car with on that fateful summer
[00:12:46] night. I understood that it was him, and
[00:12:50] they also showed me photos of his car,
[00:12:54] and they showed... the interior of the car, and I
[00:12:57] understood, I directly remember that the interior was exactly
[00:13:01] the same.
[00:13:04] These gigantic hands, Popkov really has such a powerful
[00:13:07] hand, I heard about it later on, his hands
[00:13:11] really, well, with one hand, that is, I couldn't
[00:13:13] break free, and his face is such, of course, ordinary, not memorable, but
[00:13:17] generally ordinary, he is an ordinary person, you'll see him in a crowd, and you won't
[00:13:21] notice him.
[00:13:28] In our program, we have repeatedly reported on
[00:13:31] the investigation of numerous crimes committed by Mikhail
[00:13:34] Popkov.
[00:13:37] Let us remind you, his bloody record includes
[00:13:41] 83 murders, 82 women
[00:13:44] and one man, by the way,
[00:13:46] a police officer.
[00:13:49] A significant contribution to the investigation of the case
[00:13:52] of the Angarsk maniac was made.
[00:14:25] a hunter looking for his prey, who was looking for his prey,
[00:14:29] was looking for it this way, that is, yes, we see
[00:14:32] that the process of finding a victim,
[00:14:36] finding her and tracking her down in the future
[00:14:39] and bringing his intention to her murder to an end,
[00:14:43] was quite lengthy, he
[00:14:46] could just drive around the city, look for a victim,
[00:14:49] get some pleasure from it, but not kill
[00:14:52] anyone. There was... as we now have
[00:14:56] it according to the case, that he found and killed, but both
[00:14:59] brought him a certain
[00:15:00] pleasure.
[00:15:04] Popkov was tried three times, after the first life
[00:15:08] sentence, he recalled his old crimes
[00:15:11] twice more, but only now have those victims
[00:15:15] who managed to survive
[00:15:17] begun to emerge.
[00:15:38] For the last 20 years, Sofia Salakhaddinov has lived
[00:15:42] in Spain. She was born and raised in Irkutsk,
[00:15:46] went to study in St. Petersburg, where
[00:15:49] she met a handsome Spaniard. Soon
[00:15:52] the young couple got married and went to her husband's homeland in
[00:15:56] the capital of the Balearic Islands, the city of Palma de
[00:15:59] Mallorca. Sofia got a job in a car sales
[00:16:03] office, and at the same time studied
[00:16:06] to be a cosmetologist.
[00:16:45] crimes, when I saw the report, of course, I immediately recognized
[00:16:48] him,
[00:16:50] that is, even after so many years, after more than 20 years, you
[00:16:54] recognized this person, yes, that's the same policeman who
[00:16:58] once abused you, it would probably be hard
[00:17:01] to forget his face,
[00:17:05] his smile, that is...
[00:17:10] but it's definitely him, and I have no doubts
[00:17:14] about it at all. Sofia is sure that the man
[00:17:17] on the screen is the very man who
[00:17:20] committed a crime against her. More than a quarter
[00:17:24] of a century has passed since then, but that day
[00:17:27] was etched in the woman's memory
[00:17:29] forever. I remember perfectly
[00:17:33] how it was, I was waiting for the bus, it was
[00:17:37] already cold, it was nineteen ninety- four,
[00:17:39] November, and a car stopped and there
[00:17:43] was a man and a woman sitting, and they say: "Girl,
[00:17:46] can we give you a ride, get in," and at
[00:17:50] that moment, well, I was probably about 14,
[00:17:53] maybe 15,
[00:17:56] yes.
[00:18:04] I got in, it seemed to me at that moment that they were...
[00:18:07] acquainted.
[00:18:13] He introduced himself, said that he was
[00:18:16] a police
[00:18:18] officer, and yes, a police
[00:18:21] and we drove
[00:18:23] further.
[00:18:26] Soon the man stopped the car, and his companion
[00:18:29] got out.
[00:18:33] Sofia was left alone with the stranger.
[00:18:40] We were driving towards Sverdlovsk market, where it
[00:18:44] was, you know, I can't exactly
[00:18:47] say, I don't remember that
[00:18:49] either.
[00:18:53] I asked him where we were going, we somehow very
[00:18:56] quickly reached that
[00:18:57] place.
[00:19:01] Then the next
[00:19:04] thing was that he essentially said, "Come
[00:19:08] on, no
[00:19:10] talking, no scandals, undress."
[00:19:14] He got out of the car, opened
[00:19:17] the trunk, took out
[00:19:19] a blanket.
[00:19:23] Well, actually, he committed violent
[00:19:27] acts. Why didn't the criminal
[00:19:31] deal with his victim, as he did in
[00:19:35] dozens of cases, now we can only guess
[00:19:38] about it, maybe someone scared him away, or maybe he
[00:19:42] just really liked the young lady. Whatever
[00:19:46] the case, the rapist shoved the crying girl into
[00:19:49] the car, asked where to take her,
[00:19:52] and then gave her
[00:19:54] a lecture.
[00:19:57] He told me that next time, think with your head when
[00:20:00] you get into a car with strange
[00:20:04] men.
[00:20:06] When... we drove up to the house, I got out, ran into
[00:20:10] the entrance, moreover, I ran into a different
[00:20:13] entrance, not mine, I flew to the fourth floor, waited until
[00:20:17] he drove away, then only then returned
[00:20:20] home. Frightened Sofia did
[00:20:24] not go to the police. The girl was scared, and
[00:20:27] it was somehow shameful to report what happened.
[00:20:31] She didn't say anything to her parents
[00:20:33] either.
[00:20:37] I was afraid to tell my father the situation,
[00:20:41] because my dad was quite
[00:20:44] strict, and I probably was afraid to tell anyone
[00:20:48] anything, that is, I didn't tell anyone
[00:20:50] anything at all.
[00:20:53] Perhaps, it was my mistake that I didn't tell
[00:20:57] dad, that we didn't go to the police
[00:21:00] at that moment, didn't write
[00:21:02] a statement.
[00:21:05] No one knows how many more women, like Tatyana
[00:21:09] Klemko and Sofia Salakhaddinova, still
[00:21:12] keep their meeting with Mikhail
[00:21:15] Popkov a secret.
[00:21:50] sentenced to life imprisonment serial killer
[00:21:53] Popkov, is serving his sentence in a maximum
[00:21:56] security colony in Mordovia, in the village of Torbeevo,
[00:22:00] it is also called Torbeevsky Central.
[00:22:21] Here, a hundred and fifty inhuman people
[00:22:24] live out their lives: terrorists, murderers,
[00:22:28] pedophiles and leaders of organized crime groups.
[00:22:57] According to our information, maniac Popkov is going to give
[00:23:00] confessional testimony for several more
[00:23:03] crimes, and while he has not written any
[00:23:06] official papers, we decided to meet and talk to
[00:23:10] him.
[00:23:43] 35 or 55, at any age
[00:23:46] it's important to know what's up with money, but only every fourth person knows about the means.
[00:24:20] Yes, you, what about VTB? Post Bank joined us, and now VTB is almost
[00:24:24] everywhere. And can I send money to my parents? Of course, money transfers worldwide
[00:24:27] with a joint deposit of up to 15% per annum
[00:24:31] at the post office, this is a classic.
[00:24:32] классика.
[00:24:35] Dom RF Bank knows that when you invest in caring for
[00:24:38] loved ones, you always want to give more, and even
[00:24:42] more.
[00:24:45] Open up even more opportunities with a rate of
[00:24:47] 14.5% per annum on... a deposit at Dom RF Bank.
[00:24:51] Dom RF Bank - for those who build
[00:24:53] life.
[00:24:56] Want to drink? Sing? Want a more powerful laptop?
[00:25:00] Drink!
[00:25:02] It's profitable, no matter how you pay with the payment service
[00:25:05] Yandex Pay.
[00:25:09] What if you can buy an apartment without disadvantages? Read in reviews about
[00:25:13] houses and residential complexes what is not in the ads. Choosing where there are more
[00:25:16] advantages is a good story. Avito
[00:25:19] Real Estate. We wish you
[00:25:22] happiness. Transfer your pension to VTB. Every tenth person can
[00:25:26] receive 20,000 rubles. And 1,000 rubles guaranteed.
[00:25:30] VTB. For him, buying a TV is more important
[00:25:33] than a vacation. And how many inches do you need for happiness? 85.
[00:25:37] I would have paid it off in six months, but the overpayment would be
[00:25:40] huge. I really don't want to pay interest.
[00:25:43] Comrade authorized person. Who will pay it? The store
[00:25:46] will pay. We will arrange it. Your TV.
[00:25:50] Halva, from Sovcombank, it has an installment plan of 10 months without
[00:25:53] interest, you only pay for the goods, all interest will be paid by
[00:25:57] the store, this is fair, this is Halva,
[00:26:00] smart. Come on, hurry up,
[00:26:04] we're late.
[00:26:08] Yes, mom, what, do you have nowhere to put your money? Don't even
[00:26:11] think about transferring it back, that's it, come on, we're late.
[00:26:14] опаздываем,
[00:26:19] Grandma transferred it to me, she told you not to
[00:26:22] tell, care is more expensive
[00:26:24] than money. Now there is no commission for transfers
[00:26:28] and utility payments in Sberbank
[00:26:30] Online.
[00:26:32] Legendary benefits for everyone who receives a salary to an
[00:26:35] Alfa-Bank card, 10,000 rubles every month, transfer
[00:26:39] your salary to Alfa-Bank until the end of October and get a rate of
[00:26:42] 20% on your deposit, not just profitable, Alfa profitable!
[00:27:00] Calmness in investments! helps not to succumb
[00:27:04] to emotions, to remain calm, VTB my
[00:27:07] investments help. 5 months of guaranteed income,
[00:27:10] 35% per annum in the first month.
[00:27:14] VTB my investments, calmness is rewarded.
[00:28:09] In the Torbeevsky Central, we were shown how Mikhail
[00:28:12] Popkov lives and works.
[00:28:16] Here he is, in uniform with the letters
[00:28:19] P-Z on his chest, a lifer,
[00:28:22] sitting at a sewing machine, on
[00:28:26] the window of the work cell, a gridded
[00:28:29] marking on the patterns, carefully one by
[00:28:33] one he stacks the blanks.
[00:28:36] Next to Popkov are three more convicts, all
[00:28:40] notorious villains, nowhere to put a stamp,
[00:28:44] they sew without stopping.
[00:28:47] Here the command sounds, attention, convicted
[00:28:50] Popkov, the maniac jumps up from his workstation,
[00:28:53] instantly puts on his hat, the other
[00:28:56] convicts at this time put away their tools
[00:29:00] and freeze with their hands raised.
[00:29:45] For an interview with us, Mikhail Popkov was brought
[00:29:47] to the investigation room and locked up for
[00:29:51] safety. The serial killer had met with
[00:29:54] our film crew many times, so he habitually
[00:29:58] put on a professional lapel microphone on his uniform.
[00:30:34] I'm used to it, I worked at night for a certain
[00:30:38] period of time, now
[00:30:41] I work during the day, a five-day working
[00:30:44] week, you sew, well, I'm kind of
[00:30:47] learning, what are you sewing? Everything,
[00:30:50] in general, well, I understand that this is some kind of workwear
[00:30:54] for some utility services, mhm, well, in
[00:30:58] general, nothing complicated, probably, yes, you've mastered a lot of professions, no,
[00:31:02] I... you know, I haven't dealt with this before, for example, I
[00:31:05] personally would be able to sew some jeans
[00:31:08] now, for example, or a jacket,
[00:31:12] one.
[00:31:15] Popkov has been in Torbeevsky Central for 3
[00:31:18] years, he arrived here after another third
[00:31:22] life sentence.
[00:31:25] How is the usual routine, wake-up call at
[00:31:27] what time, like those at
[00:31:30] six, well,
[00:31:33] wake-up call, we clean the cell, and what is there to clean,
[00:31:36] it's always clean there, well, we wiped the dust, mopped the floors in
[00:31:40] turns, then
[00:31:42] exercise.
[00:32:22] here everyone got vaccinated
[00:32:24] I didn't even
[00:32:29] feel any slight malaise
[00:32:32] people say that some people, well, a day
[00:32:36] or two, well, first of all, a good immune system
[00:32:39] all such symptoms of a cold you
[00:32:42] are what? Well, she says that
[00:34:06] you were driving with a woman, that
[00:34:09] a car stopped, and there was a man and
[00:34:12] a woman sitting there.
[00:34:35] a joke and began very emotionally
[00:34:38] to recall what car he had at that time,
[00:34:42] simply put, to make excuses. What if
[00:34:45] someone mistakes me for someone else or
[00:34:48] takes me for someone else now?
[00:34:53] I had three cars at that time, for which I am
[00:34:56] being accused of crimes, this is a VAZ 2121
[00:34:59] Niva, light beige in color, then a Honda
[00:35:03] Integra, silver,
[00:35:06] in Russian, in Soviet style, wet
[00:35:09] asphalt, mhm, a blind headlight that opens
[00:35:12] when turned on, three-door.
[00:35:19] Mikhail Popkov made it clear
[00:35:22] that he had nothing to do with this
[00:35:25] story, and that he did not know Sofia
[00:35:28] Salakhaddinova and was seeing her for the first time,
[00:35:32] and besides, who knows what the woman imagined after so many years,
[00:35:35] but as for possible new confessions, Popkov
[00:35:39] nods affirmatively, yes, he says there are still
[00:35:42] sins. And
[00:35:46] how many more episodes will you have?
[00:35:50] I don't know, but two, probably, two more episodes, yes, and where, in which
[00:35:53] cities? We have everything there, in the city
[00:35:57] of Irkutsk, everything in Irkutsk,
[00:35:58] yes.
[00:36:06] Is that really true, do you really remember
[00:36:08] all this?
[00:36:10] A hypnotist, a specialist,
[00:36:13] worked with me, who activated
[00:36:16] my memory.
[00:36:24] Why Mikhail Popkov is enviable.
[00:36:57] Not to say that the word "relax" doesn't fit,
[00:37:01] probably not quite, you don't work, but it's not work, I just didn't work,
[00:37:05] I sat, I had the opportunity, well,
[00:37:09] I sifted through a huge mountain of literature,
[00:37:11] and books that I never even imagined existed.
[00:37:15] представлял, что существует.
[00:37:31] There is no doubt that in the near future, new
[00:37:34] criminal cases will be initiated
[00:37:37] against serial killer Mikhail
[00:37:40] Popkov. It is obvious that all
[00:37:43] official papers will be sent to the investigative
[00:37:46] bodies of the Irkutsk region, where
[00:37:49] this beast mostly
[00:37:52] operated.
[00:37:56] So, how realistic is it today to prove Popkov's involvement
[00:38:00] in crimes twenty years
[00:38:02] ago? If
[00:38:05] Popkov gives self-incriminating
[00:38:08] testimony, reports some circumstances of the committed crime or
[00:38:11] victims, all this is very simple
[00:38:15] and quickly checked, so in case such information is received, of course,
[00:38:18] it will all be worked out and checked, and if guilt is
[00:38:22] proven, charges will be filed, that is, there will be subsequent
[00:38:25] criminal cases, a continuation.
[00:38:40] The only difficulty in investigating such crimes is that
[00:38:43] a long period of time has passed, and
[00:38:46] some people, yes, who could have been eyewitnesses, witnesses to those
[00:38:50] events, they are simply no longer
[00:38:53] there. The story of the search for the Angarsk maniac, his arrest,
[00:38:56] every year... is overgrown with new details, and
[00:39:00] this is not surprising, for example, today we know that Mikhail
[00:39:04] Popkov was so confident in his
[00:39:06] impunity, so believed that he would never be
[00:39:10] found, that he himself voluntarily provided
[00:39:13] biological material for examination, and before
[00:39:16] his arrest he personally came to the police station and gave
[00:39:20] explanations.
[00:39:23] Our employees brought him a summons, delivered it to his
[00:39:26] wife at home. His wife then gave it to Popkov
[00:39:30] himself. Popkov, not only did he not fail to
[00:39:33] appear for the summons, he, suspecting nothing, came and gave
[00:39:37] testimony that yes, he was a former police officer, he had blood group
[00:39:40] three, he used to have a Niva, he provided
[00:39:43] his biological sample, that is,
[00:39:46] voluntarily, the sample was sent for examination, and
[00:39:50] a month later the result came that Popkov's genotype
[00:39:54] was 100% consistent with three genotypes, specifically from the series of
[00:39:57] women, that is, it was assumed that Popkov was indeed the serial
[00:39:59] killer.
[00:40:04] Artyom Dubynin, the very person who worked for many years
[00:40:07] in the group investigating the bloody
[00:40:10] crimes of the then unknown Angarsk
[00:40:13] maniac. It was he who once detained Mikhail
[00:40:17] Popkov. Modest, short, he is not at all
[00:40:21] like a movie superhero. At the moment when I
[00:40:24] retired, yes, I retired in 2018.
[00:40:28] in the city of Angarsk, at least 28 women who went missing
[00:40:31] between 1992 and 2011 under similar circumstances
[00:40:34] have not been found, and their whereabouts
[00:40:37] or their bodies have not been discovered
[00:40:41] or identified. I believe that there are
[00:40:44] more victims
[00:40:46] of Popkov in Angarsk and the surrounding
[00:40:50] areas, whom he either buried,
[00:40:53] burned, or drowned, so that their bodies
[00:40:57] would not be found immediately. And
[00:41:18] another point that people didn't pay attention
[00:41:22] to before is that a few years before the maniac
[00:41:26] was arrested,
[00:41:40] it seemed so obvious: neatly collect
[00:41:43] DNA from all law enforcement officers
[00:41:47] and security forces in Angarsk, and you would have
[00:41:51] the result in five minutes. In reality,
[00:41:54] it wasn't a five-minute job. Some people had moved
[00:41:57] to other regions, some had died,
[00:42:00] and some didn't want
[00:42:02] to give their DNA. In
[00:42:06] addition, the cost of one...
[00:43:01] He rose to the rank of general, at that time he was a senior detective of the criminal investigation department of the Irkutsk Department of Internal Affairs, he recalls a series of
[00:43:04] rapes and murders near the village of Meget, which
[00:43:08] is near Irkutsk. She remained alive and said
[00:43:12] that the criminal was a police officer.
[00:43:16] Her story is standard: she got into a stranger's car,
[00:43:19] he grabbed her hands,
[00:43:21] his grip was iron, and he drove her into the forest.
[00:43:25] For a long time, according
[00:43:28] to her, this rape continued,
[00:43:32] but then he said,
[00:43:34] "Okay, you can live,
[00:43:38] I like you, you can live."
[00:44:10] because the time was, to put it mildly,
[00:44:13] turbulent, and girls simply,
[00:44:17] and men too, not everyone would get
[00:44:20] into a car,
[00:44:23] they could be robbed, killed, so, therefore,
[00:44:27] they would get into a car without fear,
[00:44:30] and you could only get into a car
[00:44:34] with someone well-known,
[00:44:36] or a person in one form or another...
[00:44:42] Kononov reported his assumptions to his superiors,
[00:44:45] they, of course, listened, but no decisions were
[00:44:48] made, and there's no one to blame for that. At that time,
[00:44:52] in the Irkutsk region, people were shot, killed, and
[00:44:55] robbed every day, and the police were literally
[00:44:58] exhausted, there weren't enough officers, and
[00:45:02] they also had to look for an invisible
[00:45:04] colleague.
[00:45:51] Well, this is the department, this is Valentina Vasilievna,
[00:45:54] this is Natalia, where is Natalia,
[00:45:57] here she is, here she is the second one, with light hair, yes, I think she is even in
[00:46:01] this suit, or something like that, hmm, well, this is somewhere
[00:46:04] around '97, and she graduated from the institute and went to work in a bank, yes
[00:46:08] or how, she worked.
[00:46:45] The hope of finding his wife, who disappeared
[00:46:49] in September 1997, does not leave the pensioner Yuri
[00:46:52] Grishanovich.
[00:46:54] We talked about his family tragedy at the beginning
[00:46:58] of our program. He is sure that sooner
[00:47:01] or later he will definitely find out what happened
[00:47:04] to his beloved Natalia.
[00:47:08] He remembers that he himself was once suspected
[00:47:12] of the murder of a loved one. Then they came
[00:47:16] to me, one investigator came,
[00:47:20] let's say, we'll look at you, check you. I say,
[00:47:24] well, go, look, in the sense, we'll check you again, yes,
[00:47:27] again, listen, did you have, I understand that this is a bit
[00:47:30] rude question, Yuri Vladimirovich, did you have any
[00:47:34] quarrels with your wife, any arguments, maybe,
[00:47:37] on that basis, well, yes, who didn't,
[00:47:40] well, not to that extent, of course, it's a household matter,
[00:47:44] we argued, made up, understood,
[00:47:47] well, so even if you were suspected of,
[00:47:51] let's say, your wife's murder. Well, they have to
[00:47:54] work through everything,
[00:47:56] who am I to them that they know me, or what, well, so,
[00:48:00] they came about
[00:48:00] three times,
[00:48:05] there are many photos of Natalia in Yuri
[00:48:09] Grishanovich's house, they are everywhere,
[00:48:12] in numerous albums, on the table, walls.
[00:48:16] Grishanovich learned from a TV program
[00:48:20] that the maniac Mikhail Popkov was operating in the region.
[00:48:27] After watching our program, the button as evidence,
[00:48:31] he himself came to the local Investigative Committee
[00:48:35] department and once again told his story to the investigator.
[00:48:38] The pensioner does not rule out that his missing wife
[00:48:42] became a victim of the killer Popkov.
[00:48:45] It seems that Yuri Grishanovich knows all the stories
[00:48:49] of missing women in the Irkutsk region,
[00:48:53] he remembers their names. First Kazimirova disappeared,
[00:48:57] then the school teacher
[00:48:59] Leonova, and I don't remember how,
[00:49:03] in short, I found her relatives and tried to talk to them,
[00:49:07] well, in general, it was an attempt, we came,
[00:49:11] I came to her, they lived there during the December
[00:49:14] events, well, I wanted to talk about what was what, but
[00:49:18] for some reason, they didn't really want to communicate, I don't know why.
[00:49:24] And I still haven't found her. We will not discuss
[00:49:27] the criminal code here and speculate on the
[00:49:29] severity of punishment for such bloody
[00:49:33] maniacs as Mikhail Popkov. We will simply present
[00:49:36] the opinions of the people with whom we recorded interviews for
[00:49:40] our program.
[00:49:44] What will be harder for a person: to live their whole life
[00:49:47] in the conditions in which Popkov is currently held,
[00:49:51] or would it be easier for him to receive the death penalty?
[00:49:55] No, it's not needed, why would it be?
[00:49:59] Everyone already understands
[00:50:00] that life imprisonment is
[00:50:04] the same as the death penalty, just in a different
[00:50:08] form,
[00:50:08] so to speak.
[00:50:12] Yes, I think it is needed.
[00:50:15] If he isn't here now, who
[00:50:17] will tell? You know, to be honest
[00:50:21] with you,
[00:50:55] Even several life sentences are unlikely
[00:50:58] to reform the cruel maniac killer Mikhail
[00:51:01] Popkov. His story
[00:51:04] confirms the theory of the inevitability
[00:51:07] of punishment,
[00:51:11] and it's good that in his case, justice
[00:51:14] prevailed not somewhere in the heavens, but
[00:51:17] on Earth, those who accidentally survived
[00:51:21] a meeting with...
[00:52:30] These are the stories we heard from women
[00:52:34] who managed to escape the clutches of the Angarsk maniac
[00:52:38] Mikhail Popkov. This was our investigation
[00:52:41] from the Irkutsk
[00:55:59] Our army.