Smirnov went to war from the colony, where he was serving a sentence for murder. In 2015, during a “drunken quarrel” he beat a girl, strangled her with a sheet and drowned her in a bathtub. Based on the 2015 verdict, Smirnov killed the girl during a drunken argument when she “insulted his honor, dignity, pride and sexual orientation.”
The man returned from Ukraine in April 2023.
According to the verdict, in May he called his neighbor and asked him to help repair the plumbing - Smirnov said a pipe burst in his apartment. When the neighbor entered the apartment, he discovered that there was no breakage. He reported it to Smirnov. The former Wagnerite responded by jumping on the neighbor and began choking him. After that, he tried to stick a fork into the victim, and then, dragging the man into the bedroom, began to beat him on the head. After several blows, Smirnov stuck a knife into the man's neck and left. The man, clasping the wound with his hand, was able to run out of the apartment and get home, where his wife called an ambulance.
However, Smirnov did not stop there. Leaving his neighbor to bleed to death, Smirnov stole a phone from his apartment and went to the home of the parents of his childhood friend Igor Kopytko, whose girlfriend he had previously “paid attention to” and whom he was going to “take for himself”.
There he killed Kopytko's mother, stabbing her multiple times and slitting her throat.
When the police came for the ex-Vagnerian, he jumped from the fourth floor, breaking his legs and lower back.
The Orienburg court sentenced Smirnov to 18 years in prison for murder and theft. In sentencing, the court cited Smirnov's participation in the war with Ukraine and the presence of a medal “For Bravery” as mitigating circumstances.
