Russian MP convicted of murdering his wife killed on Ukrainian front
Alexander Khakonov, a former deputy of the Taseyevsky District Council from the LDPR party, who had been serving a sentence for the brutal murder of his wife, was killed while fighting in Ukraine.
According to the publication Mediazona, citing the registry of inheritance cases, the 53-year-old occupier died in August 2024. Khakonov joined the front in June 2023 directly from pre-trial detention, signing a contract with the Wagner Private Military Company. This allowed him to avoid serving the long prison term to which he had been sentenced shortly before being sent to the war.
In June 2022, a Russian court sentenced Khakonov to nine years and eight months in a strict-regime colony. According to the investigation, in March 2022 during an argument, he struck his wife 19 times with his hands and twice with a knife in the chest, after which he took the body to a rubbish dump and covered it with construction debris. The day after the murder, Khakonov went to the police to report his wife missing, attempting to deflect suspicion.
During the trial, the former deputy admitted his guilt but tried to justify his actions as being in a state of temporary emotional disturbance. He claimed that his wife had refused him intimacy and allegedly insulted him as a husband, which provoked his aggression.
Khakonov’s case is another example of how in Russia, people convicted of particularly serious crimes are sometimes allowed to gain freedom by participating in the armed aggression against a neighbouring state. The case highlights a broader trend of Russia recruiting criminal elements into occupational units to replenish losses at the front.
On the front, Ukrainian forces also eliminated the “Teacher of the Year” and a member of the Russian national sword-fighting team.
