A jury at the Moscow City Court has returned a guilty verdict against Aslan Khagundokov, a native of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the 2012 stabbing death of Oleg Gvozdev, an official at Russia's Social Insurance Fund, the newspaper Kommersant reported.
Seven of the eight jurors found Khagundokov guilty and ruled that he did not deserve leniency. Despite the verdict, the motive for the killing was never established, either by investigators or by the jury during the trial, according to the newspaper.
Investigators say that on November 19, 2012, Khagundokov and an unidentified accomplice stabbed Gvozdev several times in the chest. Gvozdev, 33, headed the department responsible for organizing state procurement orders at the Social Insurance Fund. He was found dead in the courtyard of a building on Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street in central Moscow.
Links to gambling business
Gvozdev had ties to a gambling business in the Moscow region operated together with Ivan Nazarov, whose venues reportedly operated under the protection of prosecutors. A series of criminal cases connected to that network failed to produce results, Kommersant noted.
The Social Insurance Fund is a Russian state body that manages compulsory social insurance payments, including sick leave and injury compensation, for workers across the country.
Defense disputes evidence
Khagundokov's lawyer has argued that the case lacks direct evidence against his client and has challenged the reliability of genetic testing used by prosecutors.
Khagundokov was linked to the Gvozdev killing while already serving a 13-year sentence for a separate crime, the murder of Rostov-based businessman Pyotr Arzhanik. Arzhanik was found with a gunshot wound in a garage on April 21, 2014. As in the Gvozdev case, investigators never determined a motive for that killing either.
Acquittal overturned
Khagundokov was acquitted of Gvozdev's murder in 2025, but prosecutors successfully appealed the ruling, leading to the case being reopened and retried before the jury that has now convicted him.
