Convicted rapist Artur Kositsyn works with tourists in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk following his release from prison, according to the Telegram news channel SHOT.
The 49-year-old obtained a new passport under the name Artur Samoilov after leaving a penal colony in Russia's Sverdlovsk Region, the channel reported. In Novorossiysk, he mainly meets visitors from the airport and drives them around local sightseeing attractions.
According to SHOT, Kositsyn first tried to find work in the Urals after his release from the correctional colony. He then moved south to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast.
Name change and move to Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk is a major port city on the Black Sea in Krasnodar Krai, a region in southern Russia that draws large numbers of domestic holidaymakers each year. Sverdlovsk Region, where Kositsyn served his sentence, is a federal subject in the Ural Mountains where Russia's penitentiary system operates multiple correctional colonies.
In Russia, an internal passport serves as the primary identity document required for employment, domestic travel and residence registration, and citizens can legally change their name through civil registry offices to obtain a new document. SHOT is a Russian news channel on the Telegram messaging platform that regularly reports on crime, court cases and law enforcement.
Moscow court sentence and 2005 to 2009 attacks
The Nagatinsky District Court in Moscow sentenced Kositsyn to 14 years in a penal colony on 5 July 2011. The court is a district trial court in southern Moscow that hears criminal and civil cases in the Russian capital.
Judges established that from 2005 to 2009 Kositsyn committed 39 counts of rape and violent sexual assault against women of various ages in Moscow and the surrounding Moscow Region.
During the attacks, Kositsyn followed his victims into residential building entrances and lifts. Once inside, he threatened the women with a traffic police baton fitted with a built-in awl and raped them.
In Russia, traffic police inspectors use a striped handheld baton to direct road traffic and signal drivers to pull over for roadside checks. An awl is a pointed metal tool typically used for piercing leather or wood.
Police detained Kositsyn on 10 December 2009 after another attack. He had worked in law enforcement for eight years prior to his arrest and was immediately dismissed from the service.
