Hunted by Russia for 20 years:
September 4, 1999: They found him in a wood outside the city. The grass under 34-year-old “Mikhail” was colored red, but the man had stopped bleeding from the wounds in his head and upper body.
When they called to him, he did not answer. When they shook him, he did not respond. But when the cadets at the war school listened to him, he breathed.
At a hospital in the town of Tula, Mikhail took his last breath until days later. Then the police sounded the murder alarm.
Killed the father – can go free
Meanwhile, 27-year-old Aleksandr packed his things and left town, his home and his wife. He headed north. To Norway.
Here Alexander started a new life. With a new name, a new job and – eventually – a new family.
20 years later, he was stopped by the police in a random traffic control at Kløfta, and was overtaken by the past.
Dagbladet has anonymised and given pseudonyms to three people in this article: The murder victim Mikhail, the neighbor and witness Sergei and convicted murderer Aleksandr. Dagbladet knows their identities.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075258.jpg?imageId=75075258&x=0&y=61.840025292444&cropw=100&croph=25.29244388239&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
After the fall of the Soviet Union, “the wild 90s” followed in Russia.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075306.jpg?imageId=75075306&width=1800&height=1026)
Unemployment and crime went up, wages and life expectancy went down. Hardly anyone was spared.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75073807.jpg?imageId=75073807&x=0&y=7.9399141630901&cropw=98.909435751541&croph=57.22460658083&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin had to drive a pirate taxi to speculate on income.
In 1999, Aleksandr worked in the management of a large company in Tula. The city is home to half a million inhabitants, is located 185 kilometers south of Moscow and is best known as the birthplace and burial place of the author Lev Tolstoy.
“Those were tough times, for both businesses and companies. Instead of money, we worked for different goods. I sold everything to give the employees a salary in cash “, Aleksandr later explained.
Rumor has it that he was a successful businessman with a lot of money.
Then he got unwanted attention.
![TULA: The city was an important arms manufacturer for the Soviet Union during World War II. Tula secured the southern flank during the defense of Moscow, and the subsequent counter-offensive. Photo: NTB TULA: The city was an important arms manufacturer for the Soviet Union during World War II. Tula secured the southern flank during the defense of Moscow, and the subsequent counter-offensive. Photo: NTB](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75073826.jpg?imageId=75073826&width=980&height=559)
TULA: The city was an important arms manufacturer for the Soviet Union during World War II. Tula secured the southern flank during the defense of Moscow, and the subsequent counter-offensive. Photo: NTB
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September 3, 1999: Aleksandr had agreed to a meeting, and was in an apartment in Tula. Here he is said to have met Mikhail and another person.
“Every respectable businessman needs a ‘roof’,” Mikhail is said to have told Aleksandr.
Mikhail is said to have demanded $ 1,000 a month in protection money. Alexander is said to have refused.
‘I’ve never been a businessman and I did not need protection. I tried to convey this to him, but he did not want to hear “, he later explained.
Then Mikhail and the other person must have locked Aleksandr in a room.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075529.jpg?imageId=75075529&x=0&y=19.349457881568&cropw=100&croph=66.722268557131&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
August 21, 2019: Several police patrols carried out routine traffic checks at Kløfta, just outside Oslo, this day.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075555.jpg?imageId=75075555&width=1800&height=1026)
In one of the cars they stopped, then sat 47-year-old Aleksandr.
For 20 years he had lived illegally in Norway and used at least four different names.
She had gotten a job. Here he had acquired ownership interests in at least one building and construction company. Here he had a girlfriend and children.
In all 20 years, Alexander was also charged with the murder of Mikhail.
To the police who stopped him, he said he was from Ukraine, and showed a Ukrainian driver’s license with a name other than his own.
The police sensed trouble. They did not find him in any of their systems, and asked Alexander if he had a passport. The passport was at his girlfriend’s home, he explained. The police called the girlfriend and asked.
“No,” replied the girlfriend.
![- DID NOT KNOW: Aleksandr claims that he did not know Mikhail was dead. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov - DID NOT KNOW: Aleksandr claims that he did not know Mikhail was dead. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75074175.jpg?imageId=75074175&width=980&height=559)
– DID NOT KNOW: Aleksandr claims that he did not know Mikhail was dead. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov
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September 3, 1999: After a while, Aleksandr escaped from the apartment in Tula.
He needed help, and contacted his neighbor “Sergei”.
A couple of months in advance, Sergei is said to have told Aleksandr that he himself was “a thank you” to several businessmen in Tula.
“He is a zero”, Sergei is said to have said about Mikhail when Aleksandr told what had happened. Sergei offered to help, and together they sought out Mikhail.
Sergei and Mikhail are said to have discussed the matter with each other, but the only thing they are said to have agreed on was that they disagreed. They needed some kind of mediator, and decided to seek him out.
Together, Aleksandr, Sergej and Mikhail got in a car and drove out of Tula.
Towards the suburbs and woods by the war school.
August 23, 2019: At 15.25, the district court will be adjourned. 25 minutes earlier, Aleksandr was produced for imprisonment by the Police Immigration Unit (PU).
Already the day he was arrested, PU had begun work to deport him. The question was just where.
![Vera (23) killed by ex Vera (23) killed by ex](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/73572151.jpg?imageId=73572151&x=0&y=0&cropw=69.907407407407&croph=65.83850931677&width=151&height=107)
Vera (23) killed by ex
While Aleksandr was in custody, the police conducted a series of searches on several of the names he had used in Norway.
Search after search came back without results, but in the end the police got a hit in Interpol’s database. Aleksandr was charged with a murder in Tula in 1999.
For almost ten years he had been wanted internationally, and Russia had, through Interpol, issued a so-called “Red Notice” on him – an arrest warrant.
Norwegian police contacted Russian prosecutors and told them that the man they had been looking for for 20 years had been arrested in Norway.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75074175.jpg?imageId=75074175&x=0&y=57.173447537473&cropw=74.420264002854&croph=42.826552462527&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
December 1, 2021: From a cage with steel sprinklers in Tula District Court, Aleksandr explained for the first time about the murder of Mikhail.
Alexander did not even know Mikhail was dead, he explained. He denied firing a weapon and spoke with it against the prosecution’s main evidence:
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75073926.jpg?imageId=75073926&x=0&y=0&cropw=100&croph=88.888888888889&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
September 3, 1999: Aleksandr and Sergej have explained the same thing about the events that led to the murder of Mikhail, but both believe the other fired the weapon.
In the car on the way to the mediator outside the city, Sergei and Mikhail started arguing.
Suddenly Sergei stopped the car along the road, got out of the car and dragged Mikhail with him, Aleksandr claimed.
Mikhail tried to defend himself, but the balance of power was, to put it mildly, skewed. Sergei pulled Mikhail after him as he struck. Then I heard the sound of fighting, at the trunk opened and closed and a bang. That was probably the shot. After a while, Sergei returned. I thought Mikhail had simply run away. I did not ask questions. I was afraid for life, Aleksandr said in his testimony.
![PLACE OF FINANCE: In this area, the cadets found Mikhail. Exactly where he was shot, the police never managed to comment. Here from a reconstruction. Photo: Russian police PLACE OF FINANCE: In this area, the cadets found Mikhail. Exactly where he was shot, the police never managed to comment. Here from a reconstruction. Photo: Russian police](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75073884.jpg?imageId=75073884&x=0&y=0&cropw=82.494004796163&croph=100&width=688&height=393)
PLACE OF FINANCE: In this area, the cadets found Mikhail. Exactly where he was shot, the police never managed to comment. Here from a reconstruction. Photo: Russian police
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Sergei explained himself differently.
After the car stopped, Aleksandr is said to have retrieved a shovel from the trunk, and together they are said to have dug a hole in the ground to scare the victim, according to Sergei.
At some point, Mikhail should have managed to escape. While he was running, Aleksandr allegedly shot him so that he fell to the ground, Sergei claimed.
Then Aleksandr should have gone to the offer and shot him again, according to Sergei.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075801.jpg?imageId=75075801&x=0&y=30.575539568345&cropw=100&croph=57.553956834532&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
June 23, 2020: The pandemic had put an end to air traffic between Norway and Russia, so when Aleksandr was extradited to Russia, the handover was made over Storskog in Finnmark.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075808.jpg?imageId=75075808&x=0&y=24.10071942446&cropw=100&croph=57.553956834532&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
For the first time in 21 years, he was back on Russian soil.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75075907.jpg?imageId=75075907&x=0.6193425440686&y=20.171673819742&cropw=99.380657455931&croph=57.22460658083&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
In the months before, Aleksandr and his Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes, the Russian-speaking lawyer who represented spy convict Frode Berg, had fought to stop the extradition.
![](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75073903.jpg?imageId=75073903&x=0&y=13.884892086331&cropw=100&croph=57.553956834532&width=2070&height=794&compression=80)
He believes the evidence against Alexander was weak.
– We argued against extradition. There were major weaknesses in the evidence, the most important of which was a testimony from a person who himself had an interest in pointing out my client, Risnes tells Dagbladet.
They were not upheld in the district court, and appealed to the Court of Appeal. They were not upheld there either.
– He has said the same thing all the time: That he is blamed for what someone else has done, Risnes says.
December 24, 2021: The Orthodox Church also celebrates Christmas on December 24, but because they follow the Julian calendar, the days come 13 days later.
Around the same time as Christmas morning rolled over Norwegian TV screens, 49-year-old Aleksandr was found guilty of the murder of Mikhail.
He was sentenced to twelve years in prison, which will serve time in a prison colony under a so-called force regime.
The court emphasized the prosecution’s assessment of the evidence, and did as Russian courts do in 99.78 percent of cases: Rendered a joint verdict in favor of the prosecution.
![WILL APPEAL: Aleksandr's Russian lawyer says they will appeal the case. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov WILL APPEAL: Aleksandr's Russian lawyer says they will appeal the case. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov](https://www.dagbladet.no/images/75074171.jpg?imageId=75074171&width=980&height=559)
WILL APPEAL: Aleksandr’s Russian lawyer says they will appeal the case. Photo: Artyom Zhiltsov
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This despite the fact that the murder weapon was never found and the bullet that allegedly killed Mikhail disappeared in police custody.
“There is not a single piece of evidence that speaks for Alexander’s sake, with the exception of a witness who has an interest in slandering him,” his Russian defender told Dagbladet.
Sergei, the prosecution’s crown witness, does not want to comment on the case.
The Russian lawyer says they will appeal the case.
– If we do not achieve justice in the Russian courts, we will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the defender says.
Until further notice, Aleksandr is still in custody in Tula awaiting transfer to a penal colony. His girlfriend and his child still live in Eastern Norway.
Sources: District Court, Court of Appeal, Tula District Court, Russia’s Central Prosecutor’s Office, Sloboda newspaper.
Photo: Artjom Zjiltsov, NTB, Christian Roth Christensen, Russian police, Google Maps.