A well-known professor was charged in Russia after police found him in a river with a bag containing his lover’s dismembered arms.
Oleg Sokolov, 63, is accused of murdering his 24-year-old former student Anastasia Yeshchenko in St. Petersburg. According to the New York Times, Sokolov told the court that he and Yeshchenko had been lovers for five years but “lost control” during an argument and shot her four times with a sawn-off rifle.
“I don’t understand how it happened. Something like this has never happened to me before. She attacked me with a knife,” he said. “I repent.”
Sokolov, who worked as a history professor at St. Petersburg State University, was found in the Moyoka River on Saturday morning with a rucksack containing Yeshchenko’s severed arms and a gun that fires rubber bullets. Police have accused him of cutting her apart in order to dump the pieces and hide the crime.
As divers combed the river for more pieces of her body, the skeleton of a man unrelated to the case was discovered. Authorities believe the remaining pieces of Yeshchenko may have been swept out to sea by the current.
Authorities were also investigating reports that Sokolov beat some of his other students.
Sokolov is a renowned professor who specialized in the military history of France. In 2003, French President Jacques Chirac awarded him the country’s highest decoration, the Légion d’honneur, for his studies about French history.
Sokolov is also a historical reenactor who has worked as a consultant for TV and movie reproductions. He has appeared in historical reenactments wearing military uniforms from the Napoleonic era.
The university said in a Saturday statement that it had removed Sokolov from his position on its scientific committee.
“We learn with horror from the press the atrocious crime allegedly committed by Oleg Sokolov,” the statement said. “As professor of modern history at the University of Saint Petersburg … awarded the French Légion d’Honneur, we would never have imagined that he could have committed this horrible act.”
Sokolov is being held in pre-trial custody.
