Shadow glitch: Ex-prosecutor could influence court through stepson-juror
The jury panel, which is considering the case of Nikolai Kukushkin, a children's coach from Nizhny Novgorod, accused of murdering Mikhail Rashoyan, could have been formed illegally. This follows from the video recordings of personal conversations of the foreman of the board Lev Pavlov, which turned out to be in Izvestia. In it, the stepson of Ekaterina Pavlova, the former head of the state prosecutor's office of the Nizhny Novgorod regional prosecutor's office, declares that he was included in the panel at the initiative of his stepmother in order to persuade the jury to a guilty verdict. In a conversation with Izvestia, Pavlov stated that he had made up the story while drunk. The Nizhny Novgorod court noted that the concealment by the candidates for the jury of information preventing their participation in the case may be the basis for the cancellation of the verdict. Whether the information obtained by Izvestia will become a reason for the dissolution of the board is in our material.
"There are two grannies left, but I'll put the squeeze on them..."
The jury, which is considering the high-profile criminal case of Nikolai Kukushkin, a children's coach from Nizhny Novgorod, for the third time, could have been formed illegally. The man is accused of murdering Russian guardsman Mikhail Rashoyan in 2021, but one jury acquitted him, and the second broke up.
Izvestia has a video in which a man who looks like Lev Pavlov, the foreman of the current jury, tells his friend that he received this status on the initiative of his stepmother, Ekaterina Pavlova, the former head of the department of state prosecutors of the criminal judicial department of the Prosecutor's office of the Nizhny Novgorod region. According to the young man, before the jury selection, employees of the prosecutor's office came to his office and set a goal for him — to persuade the panel to a guilty verdict.
"We need [the foreman] to have his own people who will definitely put him in jail," Pavlov explains the reason why he was appointed to the board. He goes on to say (judging by the dates on the video, the conversations took place in mid—June) that he had already tried to influence the opinion of two jurors: "I walked around with one after the meeting, contacted the second one - I know her - and conveyed my thoughts. There are two grannies and two incomprehensible types left there, but I'll put the squeeze on them."
Next, the interviewee asks Lev Pavlov if the selectors knew that he was the prosecutor's son.
— No, we didn't know, we can't do that. There (during jury selection. — Izvestia) I was wondering if I had anyone connected with the structures. I hid behind the bars and sat in silence.
"And if someone finds out?"
— And if they find out, they will remove me and this whole process will be canceled.
Lev Pavlov, the prosecutor's stepson
A friend also asks Pavlov if he feels sorry for the accused. He replies that it's a pity, but if it wasn't for him, "someone else would have done it."
"The judicial system in our country does not provide for acquittals under the article he is under," explains Pavlov.
— Wait, you're a juror in this system. Why are you going to accuse him?
"Because I was told to do it."
"Did your mom tell you?"
- yes. She needs the case closed.
Among the employees of the prosecutor's office who came to give instructions to Lev Pavlov was Ekaterina Pavlova's former subordinate Tatiana Pankova, a law enforcement source told Izvestia.
As follows from these open sources, as of May 2025, Tatiana Pankova held the position of senior prosecutor of the Department of state Prosecutors of the Criminal Judicial Department of the Prosecutor's Office of the Nizhny Novgorod region. According to the source, after Ekaterina Pavlova's recent dismissal, it was Tatiana Pankova who took her place. Pankova represents the state prosecution during the Kukushkin trial.
How the rosgvardeyets died
The incident that led the Nizhny Novgorod jury to try Nikolai Kukushkin, a 33-year-old hand-to-hand combat coach, occurred on May 16, 2021. Then two companies collided on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street. On one side was Kukushkin and his comrade Grigory Artemenko, on the other — seven soldiers of the Russian Guard and one civilian, their comrade.
According to the investigation, the guards had a day off that day, they were dressed in civilian clothes and were intoxicated.
The parties' versions of what happened vary. According to Nikolai Kukushkin, he and his wife, her friend, and friend Grigory Artemenko went for a walk in Nizhny Novgorod. We left the cafe well after midnight. The girls were laughing, singing, taking pictures along the way, and they fell a little behind their companions, who were walking a short distance ahead.
According to Kukushkin, on the way he went to a tobacco store, and when he returned, he saw how unknown young men approached his wife and her friend and began to persistently show them signs of attention. According to the defendant, he approached the men and asked them to leave the women alone, but they began to shower him and Grigory Artemenko, who came to the rescue, with obscenities.
A fight broke out. According to Kukushkin, it was started by Mikhail Rashoyan, a 19-year-old Russian guardsman who later died. He allegedly hit his friend first, and Kukushkin had to defend him.
"Later, the examination found a cut on my neck, it was a cut from some kind of blade," Kukushkin told Nizhny Novgorod journalists during the trial. — And when I realized that weapons were being used against me, I took out my multitool (a folding set of tools in a single case. — Izvestia) and began to defend himself. It is clearly visible on the recording that it was not a blow from my side, it was rather an attack from Rashoyan's attacker."
In turn, the Russian Guards unanimously declared that Kukushkin started the fight first. They admitted that they had drunk "some beer" that evening, and when they saw a group of girls on a pedestrian street, they decided to get to know them. At this time, Kukushkin approached and began to drive them away in a rude obscene manner. They tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't calm down. A fight broke out, during which Kukushkin took out a knife and stabbed Mikhail Rashoyan, as well as two other participants in the conflict. The wounded Russian guardsman was taken to the hospital, but he died on the way.
The next day, Kukushkin wrote a confession, he was charged with premeditated murder and attempted murder of two people and sent to jail. In court, these articles were reclassified to the milder "Intentional infliction of serious harm to health." Kukushkin spent a year and a half under arrest.
In October 2022, the first jury acquitted Kukushkin. The jury ruled that the defendant acted within the limits of necessary self-defense. But the prosecutor's office appealed the acquittal, and subsequently it was overturned, and the case was sent for a new hearing.
What did the relatives of the deceased say
The parents of the deceased, as well as his sister Alina, in an interview with Izvestia, called the erroneous version presented by Kukushkin. According to them, the fight began with a verbal altercation, and then Nikolai Kukushkin pushed Mikhail Rashoyan's friend.
- My brother stood up for his friend, struck the first blow. They were pushing each other, and at some point the brother fell, and Kukushkin took out a knife and stabbed," said Alina.
According to the victim's sister, his relatives in court "wanted to achieve justice first of all."
"It was very painful and insulting that he was released," she said. — We were prepared for the fact that he would be given a short term, a couple of years. But he was simply released in the courtroom and all charges were dropped.
In April 2023, the second panel of jurors began to consider the criminal case of Nikolai Kukushkin. During that trial, pressure was also exerted on some of the jurors, a law enforcement source told Izvestia. In particular, the head of one of the jurors, who at that time worked in a kindergarten, received a call from an employee of the prosecutor's office and asked her to make sure that she could not attend the meeting.
In a conversation with Izvestia, the kindergarten director confirmed the fact of the call.
— They said that it was necessary to close the case, so we must not let the employee go, load her with work, — she explained.
Eventually, the second panel of jurors broke up, and the court had to assemble a third one, which included Lev Pavlov. The trial in the Nizhny Novgorod district Court is still underway, and the next hearing is scheduled for August 28.
In April 2024, the Nizhny Novgorod military garrison court found three Russian Guards — Ivan Katasonov, Ivan Dolzhenka and Egor Myshlyaev — guilty of causing moderate harm to Kukushkin's friend Grigory Artemenko. The latter suffered a concussion and a fractured jaw during the fight. The court sentenced the Russian Guards to two years of probation with a probation period of two years and collected 300 thousand rubles in favor of the victim. The defendants partially admitted their guilt.
What Lev Pavlov said
Izvestia spoke with Lev Pavlov, who confirmed that Ekaterina Pavlova is his father's wife. When asked if his stepmother had asked him to be on the jury in the Kukushkin case, the man replied in the negative.
"I received a summons in my mailbox, no one asked me," he said. "And since I'm on the jury, I'm not allowed to divulge anything." But maybe, on a Friday evening, while intoxicated, I presented this story in an embellished way. It was made up, and there's no truth to it.
Izvestia tried to talk to Ekaterina Pavlova, but the former prosecutor declined to comment.
"I didn't give you permission to shoot," she said when she saw the smartphone with the camera on. "Should I throw my phone away?" I didn't give you permission. Get out of here!
Izvestia sent a request to the Nizhny Novgorod District Court asking how the selection of the jury in the criminal case of Nikolai Kukushkin was conducted and whether a possible conflict of interest was checked during the formation of the panel. The selection of the jury was carried out in strict accordance with the requirements of the law, according to the response signed by the chairman of the court, Nikolai Trofimov.
"The guarantees of independence and inviolability of judges are extended to the juror during the period of his administration of justice. Persons who prevent a juror from fulfilling his duties in the administration of justice are responsible in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation," the response says.
The court recalled that the presumption of good faith of the jury is assumed until proven otherwise in accordance with the procedure established by law.
"The concealment by the candidates for the jury of information regarding the circumstances preventing their participation in the case may be the basis for the cancellation of the verdict on appeal and cassation only on condition that it affected the objectivity and impartiality of the juror in reaching a verdict," the Nizhny Novgorod court noted.
Izvestia sent similar requests to the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court, the regional Prosecutor's Office and the Prosecutor General's Office.
Will the jury be dismissed
When forming a jury, the judge, prosecutor and the defendant's lawyer determine the degree of objectivity and impartiality of the candidates and, if necessary, can declare a reasoned challenge, Vladimir Voronin, managing partner of Altavista law firm, told Izvestia.
— For example, one of the candidates declares that he considers it fair if the person who committed the murder should be sentenced only to death, — the lawyer gave an example. — The second is that he had significant criminal experience in the past and has an acute dislike for the law enforcement system. Both are clearly biased and, due to their life experience, cannot be objective. Of course, such candidates will be challenged.
Current judges, prosecutors, investigators, interrogators, lawyers, notaries, FSIN officers, officials and private detectives cannot be jurors, Ilya Drozdov, lawyer at the Moscow Bar Association Union of Lawyers, told Izvestia. At the same time, their relatives are not directly limited in such a right.
— The participation of relatives is allowed if there is no direct interest in the case and the possibility of exerting pressure on the other members of the board, — said the lawyer.
The jury may be dissolved when there is reason to believe that its members are biased towards the case and are unable to reach a fair verdict, Vladislav Shvedchenko, a lawyer at the Moscow bar association Klishin and Partners, told Izvestia.
— The decision on dissolution is made by the judge at the request of one of the parties. In practice, this happens quite often. In a percentage ratio of about 20% to 80%, where 20 is the percentage of decisions on dissolution," the lawyer said.
The jury may also be dismissed due to a conflict of interest that has surfaced, Ilya Drozdov added. For example, when the juror turned out to be a relative of the victim or the accused, or if the jury was under pressure from one of the participants in the trial. However, the lawyer clarified, it is not enough to establish the fact of pressure on the jury, it is necessary to prove that this pressure significantly influenced the verdict.
"The reason for the dissolution may also be the falsification of the selection of candidates, when they concealed facts about themselves that could affect the process," the lawyer said. — Another reason is the violation of the secrecy of the meeting, when the jury discusses the verdict with outsiders. This is considered a gross violation and also entails the dissolution of the board.
The jury cannot be dissolved because of the negative behavior of one of the participants, but only because of the bias of the entire panel, Vladimir Voronin drew attention.
"If one of the jurors is found guilty of violations, he can be replaced with a substitute, while the panel will continue its work," he said.
In the case of a guilty verdict on a combination of two serious articles, Nikolai Kukushkin faces up to 30 years in prison, Ilya Drozdov summed up.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
