Former St. Petersburg police officer who led arrests at protests gets suspended sentence for beating businessman
A St. Petersburg court has sentenced former police officer Ruslan Sentemov to three and a half years, suspended, on charges of abuse of authority, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported on July 2.
Prosecutors had sought a four-year prison term.
According to investigators, on the night of September 28–29, 2024, Sentemov went to a grocery store on Millionnaya Street where officers had detained the store’s owner, Vardan Arutyunyan, for selling alcohol after hours. Sentemov struck the businessman several times; surveillance cameras captured the incident. Arutyunyan was diagnosed with a head injury, a concussion, and bruises.
A month later, Sentemov — then serving as deputy head of police for public order at the Interior Ministry’s Central District department — was arrested, but was released two months later under a prohibition on certain activities. Sentemov paid the victim 100,000 rubles in compensation.
In court, he said he had not been on duty at the time of the beating. “In principle, I do not deny the events. I agree with everything, as evidenced by the subsequent compensation for damages and the public apology,” the officer said.
Ruslan Sentemov oversaw arrests at protest rallies and took part in the detention of opposition activists in St. Petersburg. He became widely known in 2018 after telling a participant at one protest: “The president of the Russian Federation has instructed citizens to address me as ‘Mr. Officer.’”
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