Kaliningrad's governor fires new advisor after media learns about connections to murderous nationalist group

Update: Hours after Novyi Kaliningrad's report, Governor Alikhanov fired Leonid Simunin, thanking the news media for bringing Simunin's background to his attention. “Of course, a person with such dubious experience won't be my advisor,” the governor said, explaining that his administration hired Simunin without his knowledge.

Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov has appointed a new construction and housing advisor who apparently was a witness in a 2015 murder trial against a Russian nationalist. Leonid Simunin testified in the case against Ilya Goryachev, who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Goryachev’s group, the Russian Nationalists’ Combat Organization, reportedly had contact with the Kremlin through Simunin, who has also served as a pro-Kremlin youth activist and advised separatist leaders in Donetsk. When testifying in 2015, Simunin said he coordinated many projects with Goryachev, but never heard anything about murders or the Russian Nationalists’ Combat Organization.

Officials in Kaliningrad have neither denied nor confirmed that Governor Alikhanov’s new advisor is the same man who appeared as a witness in Goryachev’s trial, but the news outlet Novyi Kaliningrad says the biography presented by the region’s government matches what is known about Leonid Simunin from the case.