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A notorious Russian serial killer known “The Werewolf” – who is already serving a life sentence for 22 murders – may be behind up to 37 more deaths, according to investigators digging into his crimes.

Mikhail Popkov, a 52-year-old former policeman from the city of Angarsk, north of Russia's border with Mongolia, reportedly told investigators that his kill total was 59.
He was already sentenced and convicted for 22 deaths and is awaiting trial for an additional 25 – while authorities told The Siberian Times Tuesday that they are looking into an additional 12 cases in which he may have been involved.


“The investigation will be very long because there are a lot of cases,” senior investigator Andrei Bunayev told the news website last year. “He names the places where bodies are hidden. We find these bodies, and check his involvement.”

Bunayev said investigators were re-examining biological traces that were previously overlooked in some cases.


Law enforcement sources told The Times it was likely Popkov’s total would pass those of other notorious Russian serial killers such as “The Butcher of Rostov” Andrei Chikatilo, who killed 52, and Alexander Pichushkin, the “Chessboard Killer”, who murdered 48.

In Popkov’s murders, he would sexually attack young female victims before killing them with axes, knives or screwdrivers, the website reported. Popkov would often offer victims rides in his police car before taking them to remote areas and raping and killing them.


“I admit my guilt in full... committing the murders, I was guided by my inner convictions,” Popkov previously told a court.

After being detained in 2012, he told authorities that he wanted to cleanse Angarsk’s streets of prostitutes.

The killer said he started the string of murders after suspecting that his wife was cheating on him when he found two used condoms in their home’s trash can.

But the condoms actually belonged to house guests, The Siberian Times reported.

“I just had some reasons to suspect her,” Popkov said. “I'm not looking for excuses, but this was the impetus for my future.”

Two of his victims were Tatiana Martynova, 20, and Yulia Kuprikova, 19, who were found dead in Angarsk after a night out in 1998.

“The pain does not go away - it was me who gave Tanya a ticket to go to a concert, and she was killed after attending it,” her sister Viktoria Chagaeva, told The Siberian Times.



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US President-elect Donald Trump has praised Vladimir Putin for not expelling American diplomats, despite a similar move by Washington in response to alleged election interference.
Mr Trump tweeted: "Great move on delay - I always knew he was very smart!"
Moscow denies any involvement in election-related hacking.
But in one of the last moves of the Obama presidency, Washington demanded Russian 35 diplomats leave the country by Sunday afternoon.
Mr Putin ruled out an immediate tit-for-tat response.
The row follows allegations that Russia directed hacks against the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, releasing embarrassing information through Wikileaks and other outlets to help Mr Trump win the election.
Several US agencies including the FBI and the CIA say this is the case, but Mr Trump initially dismissed the claims as "ridiculous". He has since said he will meet US intelligence chiefs to be "updated on the facts of this situation".
The Obama administration announced retaliatory measures on Thursday:
  • Thirty-five diplomats from Russia's Washington embassy and its consulate in San Francisco were declared "persona non grata" and given 72 hours to leave the US with their families
  • Two properties said to have been used by Russian intelligence services in New York and Maryland were closed on Friday
  • Sanctions were announced against nine entities and individuals including two Russian intelligence agencies, the GRU and the FSB
After the US announced it would expel diplomats, Russia's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had vowed Russia would respond to the "manifestation of unpredictable and aggressive foreign policy". But he hinted it might delay its action until Mr Trump became president.
Russia's foreign ministry suggested expelling 31 US diplomats from Moscow and four from St Petersburg.
But Mr Putin said his country would not stoop to "irresponsible diplomacy", and invited the children of US diplomats there to spend New Year's Eve at the Kremlin.
In a statement on the Kremlin website (in Russian), the Russian president wished President Barack Obama and his family a happy New Year, as well as Mr Trump and "the whole American people".

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President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow would not expel any US diplomats, a surprise decision after Washington turfed out Russian diplomats over alleged interference in the US election.

“We will not create problems for American diplomats. We will not expel anyone,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin, also inviting children of US diplomats to a holiday party in the Kremlin.

Indicating that the ball was in the court of the next US administration, Putin said however that Moscow reserved the right to retaliate after Washington’s decision to expel 35 diplomats, who have 72 hours to leave the country.

“According to international practice, Russia has all the grounds for a comparable response,” Putin announced, following a statement by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov which suggested a tit-for-tat response was in the works.

“Reserving the right to retaliatory measures, we… will be planning our next steps in restoring US-Russian relations based on the policies pursued by the administration of president Donald Trump,” Putin added.

“Russian diplomats returning to the motherland will spend their holidays with friends and family, at home,” Putin said, extending an invitation to “all children of US diplomats accredited in Russia… to the New Year’s and Christmas party in the Kremlin.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered stricter governmental measures to crack down on sales of surrogate alcohol, after dozens died from drinking a bath lotion. The death toll in the Siberian city of Irkutsk has risen to 62, with more than 30 people seriously ill. Mr Putin also wants new rules for compulsory labelling, plus tougher penalties for bootleggers. The deadly bath lotion contained methanol, which is highly poisonous. Excise tax increase Analysts say up to 12 million Russians drink cheap alternatives to regular, drinkable alcohol. These are often labelled as cosmetics or medicines, and are regularly sold via vending machines. The presidential orders, published on the Kremlin website, call for tougher rules on all products containing more than 25% alcohol, and on the retailing of medicinal and veterinary products containing alcohol. Police in Irkutsk check private stores to ensure they are not selling poisonous lotions Mr Putin also approved increasing excise taxes on surrogate alcohols, which would make them less profitable. The government has until July to create and submit the new legislation. The Siberian Times said the mass poisoning in Irkutsk was "now the worst such case in modern Russian history". Twelve people have been arrested in an investigation that has seen 1,500 premises searched and thousands of bottles of spirits confiscated. Investigators say the hawthorn-scented liquid carried warnings that it was not for drinking, but the label also said the product contained ethanol, rather than deadly methanol, which can also cause blindness. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered his cabinet to "sort out" the problem of selling such alcoholic products not intended for drinking. Mr Medvedev called their widespread sale through vending machines "an absolute disgrace". s boxed package of hawthorn bath essence was confiscated during an operation checking all private stores selling alcohol in Irkutsk Health Minister Oleg Yaroshenko said that almost half of those still being treated are not expected to live and were in a very serious condition. "They came to [the] doctors too late.... Only a miracle can save them," he was quoted by the Siberian Times as saying. The paper said that a doctor and a kindergarten teacher were among the victims and that many of those who died were discovered in their homes because they did not have sufficient time to call an ambulance. Most of the victims are reported to be aged between 35 and 50. One 33-year-old survivor said that he only drank a small amount of the lotion but still woke up blind the following morning.
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MOSCOW – The spokesman for President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday indicated that Moscow doesn't believe the gunman who killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey acted on his own, but refused to explain the reasons for the suspicion. "We shouldn't rush with any theories before the investigators establish who were behind the assassination of our ambassador," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who offered no suggestions about who those people might be. The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was killed Monday evening in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas of Ankara's riot police squad, was killed in a police operation. On Tuesday, Russia flew a team of 18 investigators and foreign ministry officials to Turkey to take part in the probe. Their plane returned with Karlov's body and his family. Russian officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who was visiting Moscow met the family at the Vnukovo airport late on Tuesday. Ankara has not made public any theories. But a senior Turkish government official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the press, said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone. The official said the killing had all the marks of being "fully professional, not a one-man action." Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said Altintas' behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack "gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training." Agar said the words the gunman uttered in Arabic were from a passage frequently cited by Jihadists. Altintas shouted: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" in Turkish during the attack, and also yelled "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great." He continued in Arabic: "We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad." Turkey has been rife with speculation about Altintas' motive and possible links. On Tuesday evening, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Cavusoglu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone and provided information on the assailant. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said Cavusoglu also told Kerry that both Turkey and Russia "know" that a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack. Turkey has accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed military coup in July aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accuses the cleric of wanting to destabilize Turkey. It is pressing the United States to extradite Gulen to Turkey to stand trial for his alleged role in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations. During the phone call, Kerry raised concerns about "some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination yesterday because of the presence of Mr. Gulen here in the United States," Kerry's spokesman John Kirby said. "It's a ludicrous claim, absolutely false," Kirby said. "We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions," Kirby added. Much of Turkey's media, both broadcast and print, has reported claims that the gunman had links to the Gulen movement, including reports of Gulen literature being found in his home, and of him having studied at a Gulen-run school
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