A shootout in Moscow on Tuesday evening left one suspect dead and another in custody in a high-profile kidnapping and murder case.
The two suspects, who reportedly fought in Ukraine after being recruited into the Wagner mercenary group while imprisoned, were said to have kidnapped and murdered a victim from the Russian city of Penza, and later their getaway driver.
Kidnap, murder, law enforcement shootout
Russian media said the two men kidnapped and killed an unnamed 39-year-old man in Penza between Jan. 29 and 30, then fled to Moscow, where the shootout took place on Tuesday evening.
Little information is released about the kidnapping case, including the identity of the victim and the motivation for the kidnapping and murder.
The shootout took place when, on Tuesday, Russian authorities attempted to apprehend the suspects, who then barricaded themselves in an apartment building at a house on Rublevskoye Highway in Moscow. One suspect was killed in the shootout while the other was arrested. Authorities reported no other casualties.
State media RIA Novosti, citing the Russian Investigative Committee, said a dead man, identified as a taxi driver for the suspects, was later found in a taxi in western Moscow.
The driver is said to have requested 85,000 rubles ($1,117) from the suspects, who refused to pay after arrival and presumably murdered the driver.
“It has been preliminarily established that the taxi driver agreed to take the suspects to the capital for 85,000 rubles, but upon arrival they refused to pay,” the committee said in a statement.
Alleged convict soldiers in Ukraine
A wanted notice shared by local state media on Jan. 30 identified the suspects as 41-year-old Mikhail Leontyev and 39-year-old Alexey Lanchikov. The outlet cautioned that the two were armed and advised against approaching them.
While the outlet said Leontyev murdered two people in 2014 and was sentenced to “23 years in a maximum-security penal colony” a year later, it said he was released “due to unfavorable circumstances” without elaboration.
But Cheka-OGPU, a Russian investigative outlet, claimed the two joined the Wagner mercenary group in 2022 and were later pardoned.
“The two men from Penza, Mikhail Leontiev and Alexey Lanchikov, were serving sentences in prisons until 2022. There, they signed contracts with the Wagner PMC and were sent to combat operations. After the contracts expired, they returned to their usual civilian life,” the channel wrote, citing its unnamed source.
In October 2023, Russian soldiers returned home after fighting in Ukraine – the majority of them former Wagner mercenaries – were linked to at least 27 murders. UN data suggested about 170,000 Russian convicts were recruited to fight in Ukraine by 2024, and over 1,130 former prisoners returning from the war were later re-accused of crimes, according to Novaya Gazeta Evropa.
Kyiv Post cannot independently verify Cheka-OGPU’s claims. Russian authorities have yet to comment on the two’s alleged military service.