The convicted former head of the Serpukhov district attempted to take his own life due to the eviction of his 89-year-old mother.

Alexander Shestun, former head of the Serpukhov district near Moscow, has reported that on 3 December he attempted to take his own life in Penal Colony No. 6 in Bezhetsk, a town in the Tver region. This was reported by Novaya Gazeta, citing his letter.

The reason, he said, was the eviction of Shestun’s 89-year-old mother, Zoya Semenova, and her 90-year-old husband from their only home in Serpukhov. The house was confiscated in connection with his criminal case; previously, his underage children had also been evicted, and property had been seized from his relatives and acquaintances as well.

Security officers had come to his mother’s house at night, carried out searches, refused to allow doctors in, and summoned her for questioning at the FSB. Semenova suffered a stroke, but continued living in the house despite threats of criminal prosecution. Another house where Shestun’s mother could have lived had been looted after its seizure. According to Shestun, the elderly couple is now wandering from place to place with their dog.

“Having learnt this terrible news, I was so desperate that I cried like a child…,” the political prisoner wrote.

He hopes that publishing his letter will help his mother secure at least a rented home.

• Alexander Shestun was detained in June 2018 on charges of exceeding official authority (part “v” section 3 article 286 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, he unlawfully transferred a plot of land into the ownership of a legal entity at a preferential price. The charge was later reclassified as fraud on a particularly large scale (section 4 article 159 of the Criminal Code). Additional charges followed: legalisation of funds obtained through crime (part “b” section 4 article 174.1); illegal business activity (article 289); and large-scale bribery (section 6 article 290). At the end of 2020, Shestun was sentenced to 15 years in a high-security penal colony.
• In August 2022, the Domodedovo City Court in the Moscow region gave Shestun an additional six months in prison. He was found guilty of three charges: threatening or using violence in connection with the administration of justice (section 1 article 296), insulting a judge (section 2 article 297), and insulting a government official (article 319). According to his lawyer, Mikhail Trepashkin, Shestun partially admitted guilt on the charge of insult, but denied making threats.