Mikhail Popkov, known as Russia’s most notorious serial killer, has received an additional ten-year prison sentence after a court conviction for the murders of two more women. This ruling raises his confirmed victim count to an alarming 92. The ex-police officer, now aged 61, was already serving two life sentences plus an extra 19 years for his horrific crimes, which experts suggest may total closer to 200 victims.
The Irkutsk court found Popkov guilty of murdering two 27-year-old friends in 2008. The women were killed near the Angarsk Electromechanical Plant, with their bodies later discovered in a forest along the M-53 highway. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Popkov confessed he intended to “get acquainted” with the women, who had rejected his advances.
“While one of the women was sitting in the defendant’s car, he slipped a rope around the neck of her friend, who was outside, and tightened it,” the committee reported. After ensuring the first victim was dead, he returned to the vehicle to kill the second woman in the same manner. Disturbingly, Popkov reenacted the crime during the investigation, providing chilling details of the murders.
This latest conviction relates to historic murders in Russia’s Primorsky region, approximately 2,400 miles from Angarsk, where the majority of his crimes were committed. After leaving the police force, Popkov moved to Vladivostok, where he sold used Japanese vehicles while continuing his violent spree. His victims were primarily solitary women aged between 18 and 50, whom he targeted from 1992 to 2011.
Popkov, a married father, claimed he was on a mission to “cleanse prostitutes” whom he believed abandoned their families. He described his motivations to a judge, indicating a distorted view of morality. A psychiatric assessment diagnosed him with homicidal mania, defined as an irrational desire to kill, although he was deemed mentally competent for trial.
Russia has maintained a moratorium on capital punishment since 1996. Speculation persists that President Vladimir Putin may consider reinstating the death penalty. Previously, condemned inmates faced execution by gunshot to the back of the head.
Home videos from the 1990s reveal Popkov wielding a knife, reciting a disturbing children’s rhyme associated with Nazi prisoners of war. His method of operation involved offering women rides in his patrol car, leading them to secluded areas where he assaulted and murdered them, often leaving their bodies in wooded locations or along highways.
Popkov once stated he could not remember the exact number of his victims, claiming he acted on “inner convictions.” A theory suggests that his violent behavior may have stemmed from discovering his wife, Elena Popkov, having an affair. Alexey Mulyavin, who confirmed a brief relationship with Elena, noted that Popkov did not catch them in the act but was aware of the affair.
“If I had seen the treason with my own eyes, I would perhaps have done everything differently,” Popkov reflected. His tumultuous emotions regarding his wife’s infidelity appear to have influenced his murderous impulses.
With the recent sentencing, Popkov remains a chilling figure in Russia’s criminal history, leaving a legacy marked by brutality and a profound inability to comprehend the devastation he caused.
