Arthur Vaganov
Mass murderer
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- Gender
- male
- Country
- Georgia
- Location
- Abkhazia, Georgia
- Date of birth
- 1955
- Age at first offence
- 42
- Characteristics
- history of mental illness
- Victim profile
- Ten sleeping soldiers
- Method of murder
- Shooting
- Date(s) of murder
- June 2, 1997
- Years active
- 1997
- Date of arrest
- —
- Status
-
Died in custody
Committed suicide the same day June 1997
Background
Artur Vaganov was a Sergeant of the Russian peacekeeping force. He was described as a mentally unstable Russian soldier in a unit posted in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The offence
In June 1997, Sgt. Artur Vaganov woke up at a lonely Russian post in the small village of Sida and committed mass murder. He cut the post's communications, gathered together all the weapons, and opened fire on his fellow soldiers as they slept in their bunks. He shot dead 10 men and wounded three more before turning the gun on himself.
Lt. Gen. Dolia Babenkov told the Interfax news agency that Vaganov—who was “probalby drunk or pissed off about a hazing”—had “prepared for the murder beforehand, disabling the weapons” of his fellow conscripts. Babenkov said: “He wanted to kill all the 19 men on duty at the 203rd post.”
Investigation
Eyewitnesses said the building was still awash with blood the next day.
Outcome
Sgt. Artur Vaganov committed suicide the same day in June 1997.
Other details
A week earlier, Pvt. Yevgeny Gorbunov ran amok outside a military store in the Chita region of Siberia, killing five fellow soldiers and an officer.
The Russian Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which defends the rights of conscripts, said the army was suffering an epidemic of soldiers driven to murder by low morale, bullying and ill-treatment from superiors.
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