- Vladislav Kanyus served less than year of his 17-year jail sentence for murdering Vera Pekhteleva before he was released and recruited into the Russian army
Vladimir Putin has pardoned a sadistic murderer who stabbed his ex-girlfriend 111 times while raping and torturing her for three-and-a-half hours — because the killer fought in Ukraine.
Vladislav Kanyus, 27, had served less than a year of his 17-year jail sentence for murdering Vera Pekhteleva, 23, before he was released and recruited into the Russian army.
The move to free him and clear his criminal record after serving six months in the military has been denounced by the victim’s heartbroken mother Oksana, 49, who said ‘scum’ Kanyus will now be free to attack other women.
Kanyus had subjected Vera to nearly four hours of brutal torture, raping her and slowly killing her with repeated stab wounds after she broke up with him and demanded her belongings back.
The 27-year-old then strangled Vera with the cable of an iron.
The case caused a scandal in Russia because neighbours, hearing her screams, made seven calls to the police, but they were ignored.
In court, the case was branded an ‘especially cruel murder’, with Vera being tortured and killed with ‘sick sadism’, according to human rights campaigner Alyona Popova.
The victim’s heartbroken mother Oksana has now spoken out against Putin for pardoning her daughter’s killer.
She is dumbfounded about the decision to allow him to fight in the war after he killed Vera, and fears for her own life.
She asked: ‘How could a cruel murderer be given a weapon? Why is he sent to the front – to defend Russia?
‘He is scum. He is not a human being.’
Challenging Putin, she demanded: ‘Do you think he changed his ways? Of course not.
‘His only purpose was to crawl back to freedom. He’s done that now, and what will he do next? He’ll rip apart, he’ll rape and kill.’
The grieving mother explained: ‘This was a blow at me, that decree [to pardon the murderer] by President Putin….
‘My child will rot in her grave. I’ve been deprived of everything – my life, any hope. I don’t live, I exist.
‘And he is pardoned with release from further serving his sentence, his criminal record is now expunged by the [court] verdict…
‘This simply finished me off, it just totally finished me off. I am a very strong person. But this lawlessness of our state, it just pushes me into a dead end. I don’t know what to do next.’
The killer ‘can at any moment kill any of us, the victims, out of revenge,’ she said.
The mother has recently seen documentary evidence of Putin’s decree pardoning the monster after earlier being told he had been released to fight in the war.
It means the killer was fully pardoned six months after serving in Putin’s war on 28 October.
It exempts him from further jail and removes his criminal record for rape and murder.
Human rights campaigner Alyona Popova urged Russians: ‘Don’t be silent. Scream as loud as possible.
‘If we remain silent, we will simply accept the fact that such murderers will walk our streets.’
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
