On Saturday, the Russian historian Oleg Sokolov was drawn from the river Mojka in St. Petersburg. He was carrying a backpack in which the police found two severed arms. Sokolov is said to have tried to sink the body parts. Later, the investigators found a female body, a head, and a bloodstained saw in his apartment on the Mojka.
The 63-year-old suspect is said to have already shot the 24-year-old Anastasia Yezhchenko in the dispute with a sawed-off shotgun and to have her body cut. The argument on 7 November had turned around his children from another relationship.
Sokolov is married for the second time. He told the court that the doctoral student of St. Petersburg State University had been his mistress for several years. "During the dispute, we lost control," the news agency Interfax quotes. "I do not know how it happened." The young woman attacked him with a knife, Sokolov said. He then shot her four times. He regrets the act.
According to Russian media reports, the professor of the State University of St. Petersburg wanted to take his life after sinking the body parts. Accordingly, he wanted to throw himself disguised as Napoleon of the Peter and Paul fortress.
Anantoly Maltsev / EPA-EFE / REX
The Russian police at salvage operations in the course of the investigation against Sokolov
In search of more body parts, divers in the mojka first encountered the body of a man, but according to first findings, it bears no relation to the death of the young woman. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, Sokolov is being held in custody until January 8, in a solitary cell. His lawyer's request to house him until the house arrest was not granted.
The historian is considered a proven connoisseur of Napoleon Bonaparte, over which he has written several books. As an expert, he appeared in several documentary films. He also taught at the prestigious French Sorbonne and is a member of the French Legion of Honor.
Dmitri Lovetsky / AP
The historian suspected of murder Oleg Sokolov liked to show himself in historical costumes
Students described the scholar, who liked to show himself in historical costumes with his partner, as gifted lecturers, but also as an eccentric. The University of St. Petersburg has dismissed the murder suspect in the meantime, it was "shocked by this monstrous crime," it said in a statement.