
A macabre CCTV video shows the moment a leading Russian military professor threw body parts of his murdered student lover into a river, police say.
Historian Oleg Sokolov, 63, has been detained on suspicion of shooting then dismembering Anastasia Yeschenko, 24.
The footage, recorded at 4am, highlights the respected academic, Russia’s leading expert on Napoleon, disposing of the woman’s severed legs and other body parts into the Moyka River in St Petersburg, according to law enforcement.
In the clip, a man is seen chucking three packages into the icy waters close to his home as an unsuspecting cyclist rides past.
When he came back with more body parts, he fell into the river seeking to dispose of the arms, which he had carried in a backpack, according to reports.
Sokolov was pulled out of the waters “suffering from hypothermia” and was detained.
New details today emerged of the shocking case, with claims that after killing his student lover, the professor hosted a party in his luxury apartment while his victim’s body was locked in a spare room.
The woman had been shot at least four times with a rifle after an argument, say reports.
One bullet hit her in the head and she died immediately.
After the party, Anastasia’s body was cut up with a saw.
Contrary to earlier reports, when police entered the flat only her severed head was still there.
The victim’s mother Galina Yeschenko, 49, is a police lieutenant-colonel who travelled from Krasnodar to identify her daughter.
Her father Oleg Yeschenko said: “I was not personally acquainted with him.
“But Anastasia never said anything bad about him.
“So what happened shocked us.”
A custody hearing was due to be held today with Sokolov facing a criminal investigation for murder with a 15-year maximum sentence.
Sokolov’s met his first wife, also called Anastasia, when he was a 34-year-old schoolteacher and she was his student, aged 16, say reports.
She later died of cancer.
The professor at St Petersburg State University is married but separated from his second wife Anna.
She is said to have known about his relationship with Anastasia Yeschenko, who was his student.
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