Russia’s greatest jailbreaks From helicopter hijacks to identity swaps: the country’s most audacious escapes

On September 1, two men convicted of trying to set fire to a Russian military enlistment office escaped from a pre-trial detention center in Yekaterinburg. According to local news reports, Alexander Cherepanov and Ivan Koryukov may have broken free through the building’s roof. At the time of this writing, Cherepanov has been recaptured. While such escapes are rare in Russia, they are not unprecedented. In response to the getaway in Yekaterinburg, the transparency project Department One recalled seven other successful jailbreaks, three of which were carried out by a single inmate. Meduza summarizes these escapes, which have relied on bribes, digging with makeshift tools, a hijacked helicopter, and at least one alleged violation of the laws of physics.

I’m the helicopter captain now

In March 2012, Alexey Shestakov, serving 24 years for murder, orchestrated a spectacular escape from the IK-17 prison colony in the Vologda region. After bribing the deputy warden for access to a mobile phone and privileges that allowed him to roam outside his cell, Shestakov spent three months planning with accomplices Alexander Rusakov and Tatyana Vazhalina. The latter two hijacked a helicopter at gunpoint and forced the pilot to fly to the prison, where Shestakov grabbed a climbing rope thrown from the aircraft. All three were recaptured within hours. Although he’d already served 12 years of his original sentence, Shestakov received an additional 24 years, while his accomplices were given sentences of 11 and 12 years. The corrupt prison official received a four-year sentence.

Fool me thrice

Alexander Solonik, infamous for his ambidextrous shooting style, achieved three successful escapes. In 1988, after being sentenced to eight years for rape, he simply pushed past the courtroom’s bailiffs, smashed a window, and jumped from the second floor. In 1990, while in custody again, he escaped prison by digging a tunnel and cutting through a sewage pipe. For the next four years, he worked as a contract killer. Solonik’s most famous escape came in 1995 from Moscow’s notoriously brutal Matrosskaya Tishina detention center — the first successful breakout from that facility. Using climbing equipment, he and a bribed guard named Sergey Menshikov descended from the roof to a waiting car. Both fled to Greece, where Menshikov was soon found dead. Solonik was killed in 1997.

The ole switcheroo

In 2013, Uzbek national Farrukh Toshmatov evaded felony drug trafficking charges by escaping from Moscow’s Presnya detention center through a simple identity swap. When his cellmate Buned Tojibaev was scheduled for release on minor theft charges, Toshmatov gave guards Tojibaev’s name during prisoner transport. Since both men looked similar and spoke little Russian, the guards didn’t notice the switch. To this day, Toshmatov remains at large.

The wire

In September 2001, three inmates escaped from Moscow’s Butyrskaya detention center through an elaborate tunnel. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Vladimir Zhelezoglo and Boris Bezotechestvo found a wire in the prison yard and used it to create a tool that revealed weak spots in their cell floor. They dug through concrete, sand, plaster, and bricks to reach heating pipes in the basement. To avoid getting lost on their way out, Zhelezoglo and Bezotechestvo recruited a third inmate, Anatoly Kulikov, who bought the prison building’s blueprints from a guard for $1,000. Once free, Zhelezoglo and Kulikov hid out with the latter’s sister, but Kulikov’s brother and a neighbor alerted the police. The two runaways were recaptured in a police raid that used gas grenades. Bezotechestvo evaded arrest for another 18 months.

Shaolin magic

In 2010, Belarusian theft suspect Vitaly Ostrovsky escaped from Butyrka’s psychiatric ward — the first breakout from the SIZO-2 facility in more than a decade. While being escorted to the showers, he noticed an unlocked door, pushed past a guard, and scaled a 4.5-meter (about 15 feet) wall topped with razor wire by gripping small brick protrusions. The watchtower guard never saw him, and prison officials claimed that Ostrovsky’s physical feat should have required training in the special forces or martial arts. Nevertheless, he was recaptured two years later in Finland and extradited to Russia.

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