‘We never collected animals in national parks’ Three Russian citizens are facing 40 years in Sri Lankan prison on smuggling charges, after local police found hundreds of insects and animals in their hotel room

Russian national Alexander Ignatenko is set to go on trial in Sri Lanka in late June. This February, this zookeeper from Rostov-on-Don arrived in the island country, along with two friends. They were arrested at a Sri Lankan national park and the authorities reportedly found hundreds of insect and animal specimens in their shared hotel room. Now these three Russian citizens are suspected of smuggling and could face lengthy prison sentences for violating Sri Lanka’s strict environmental protection laws. Ignatenko told Meduza that he was collecting the animals and insects simply out of love for zoology. 

This article has been edited and abridged for length and clarity.

Ignatenko arrived in Sri Lanka in February. He claims he was on vacation with friends.

Alexander Ignatenko, currently 27 years old, has had a fascination with the study of insects since he was a child. He graduated from the Zoology department of Russia’s Southern Federal University and even went on to grad school. He is now the head of the small mammals department at the Rostov Zoo. But he still studies insects and arachnids as a hobby and travels to other countries to “capture objects of his own interest in their natural habitat,” his wife Elena Bondarenko explains. 

In February, Alexander left for a vacation in Sri Lanka, along with two of his friends from college: Artem Ryabov and Nikolai Kilafyan. Ignatenko is the only practicing zoologist in the group, but Kilafyan is interested in biology and enjoys nature photography.

Ignatenko’s wife — who told Meduza that she had no plans of going to Sri Lanka with her husband for “personal reasons” — said that this was the first trip abroad that the three men had taken together. They were supposed to return to Russia on March 1. 

“I dreamed of going to this country for a long time. It’s very beautiful here. There are many nature zones. At that time, I thought the coronavirus was yet another type of bird [flu], like swine flu or another flu,” Ignatenko tells Meduza. 

Meduza was unable to obtain a comment from Ignatenko’s fellow-travellers: Artem Ryabov never answered our messages and Nikolai Kilafyan promised to reply, but had yet to do so at the time of publication. 

The Russians were arrested at a national park. Local authorities reportedly found over 500 animals and insects in their hotel room.

Ignatenko says he collected insects and other animals along the roads and in the hotel’s garden during the trip, in order to photograph them in good light and determine their species. He claims that he planned to put them all back. “I basically have a habit of collecting these specimens from light fixtures, where insects often die by the hundreds from the heat of the lamp. These animals are already dead, but they can serve science,” he explains. Before his trip, Ignatenko studied local conservation laws and says he is sure that he wasn’t violating them.

On February 26, the three Russians visited Horton Plains National Park, Ignatenko recalls. Shortly before closing time, Ignatenko and Kilafyan got distracted filming the sunset; Ryabkov went on ahead and waited for them by the car for about an hour. Ignatenko and Kilafyan got carried away filming and ended up running late — the exit to the park was closed.

This mistake sparked suspicions among the national park’s staff — they searched Ignatenko and Kilafyan, and called Ryabkov back from the parking lot to join his friends. All three of them were arrested. Local authorities found three dead beetles in Ignatenko’s pocket (he claims he found them outside the park the night before, and forgot to take them out). The authorities found another 184 species of insects inside the Russians’ car — including butterflies and bees, the leading local newspaper, The Sunday Times, reported. After this discovery, the Russians had their phones, cameras, and passports confiscated. They spent the night in an administrative building at the park, under guard.

The next day the police searched the room where the three men were staying, and reportedly found more than 500 different specimens of insects and animals. There were allegedly more than 20 different species, including chameleons, scorpions, and snakes. The full range of species remains unknown, but a number of the animals in the hotel room were alive.

Speaking to Meduza, Ignatenko said there were no more than 100 “insects, arthropods, and other animals” in the room. “Most likely, papaya and mango seeds [from the fruit] we had eaten the night before were initially added to the case, [the seeds] were dumped out of the garbage bag, which was lying in the corner of the room. I saw them take it away,” Ignatenko says. He himself did not consider the species he collected to be very rare. He also underscores that it was the police who individually packed up the animals, not himself or his friends.

The prosecution believes the Russians are smugglers, but friends and colleagues don’t buy it

On February 27, Ignatenko and his friends were sent to a detention center for the duration of the investigation. According to Ignatenko, their hearing lasted no longer than five minutes, and no one listened to their arguments. 

According to Sri Lankan media, the men are suspected of preparing to smuggle animals: the prosecution claims they were travelling all over Sri Lanka, in order to find and gather specimens of local species. What’s more, the prosecutor is not excluding the possibility that the detainees were involved in smuggling in India and Uganda, before arriving in Sri Lanka. Ignatenko’s wife confirmed that her husband has been on tourism trips to India, as well as Tunisia and Uganda — she was with him on two of these occasions. Ignatenko is convinced that these additional suspicions were “dragged in” because of the visas in his passport. 

The Russians were kept in a 150-square-meter (1,600-square-feet) Sri Lanka jail cell, which they say they shared with another 86 prisoners. Although they had to sleep on the concrete floor, Ignatenko and his friends say they did not face any violence or harassment, and they have been allowed to write to their family members using the Internet. 

Ignatenko later developed an ulcer from eating spicy food and was transferred to a hospital for treatment. Then, on April 4, all three men were released on their own recognizance. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the local authorities decided to free as many inmates facing minor charges as possible, to avoid an epidemic within the prison system. Meanwhile, the Russian embassy stated that Ignatenko and his friends were released due to diplomatic intervention. In conversation with Meduza, Ignatenko confirmed that the embassy “played its role in the release.” 

The Russians are now staying in the small town of Ella, where one of the prison’s employees found them housing. The owner of a local guest house (empty due to the coronavirus) has allowed them to stay there, free of charge. 

That said, they are each looking at fines of up to three million rubles ($40,830) or prison sentences of up to 40 years if they can’t pay the fine, Ignatenko’s lawyer told him. In total, they are facing charges on 227 counts, but the court proceedings have been delayed due to quarantine restrictions. 

Two of Ignatenko’s friends, who spoke to Meduza on condition of anonymity, say they are certain that he and his friends are not smugglers. His colleagues at the Rostov Zoo also find the charges hard to believe. The zoo’s director, Alexander Zhadobin, says he has faith in his employee. He described Ignatenko as a promising staff member who’s passionate about his work: “Even if there were some illegal actions on his part, I think it was unintentional,” Zhadobin says.

“I’m sure that he did not pursue the corrupt objectives that he is possibly being accused of, but acted exclusively out of scientific interest,” said Ignatenko’s close friend, Viktor Barkasov.

The three men are due to go on trial in late June. Until then, they’re collecting money using social networks. 

On May 11, Ignatenko’s wife launched a fundraiser to pay the fines. She told Meduza that it has raised more than 250,000 rubles ($3,400), so far. “Collecting this kind of sum through the efforts of my family is impossible, even if we take out every possible loan and mortgage the apartment,” Ignatenko says.

Ignatenko’s supervisor, Alexander Zhadobin, also emphasized that the Rostov Zoo and the Russian Zoos’ Union are preparing an appeal to the Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka, requesting help for Ignatenko. 

Speaking to Meduza, Ignatenko’s wife, Elena Bondarenko, emphasized that no Russian officials have yet contacted her. The embassy itself stated that it is “in constant contact with the Russian citizens and a lawyer,” and said that their court date is set for June 28.

And at the end of the day, Alexander Ignatenko, Artem Ryabov, and Nikolai Kilafyan all maintain their innocence. “We never collected animals in national parks. We did not kill a single animal, much less transport [them], and were not preparing to take them for smuggling,” Ignatenko says.