Ex-Minister of Education of the Arkhangelsk Region sentenced to five years in prison for intimate correspondence with schoolgirls

The Oktyabrsky District Court of Arkhangelsk sentenced the former Minister of Education of the Arkhangelsk Region Yuri Gnedyshev to five years and a month in a strict regime colony. According to the prosecution, he corresponded from fake Vkontakte pages with underage girls from 12 to 14 years old on topics of “sexual orientation”, and threw off a link to porn on one of them.

The victims were from different regions – from Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, Altai and Vladimir region. According to Mediazona, the parents of one of the girls contacted the police after seeing the correspondence. According to media reports, Gnedyshev’s pages were registered to the mobile number of the regional Ministry of Education, correspondence was conducted from his ip-address.

The Investigative Committee noted that the correspondence was conducted in parallel in December 2019. They also clarified that Gnedyshev did not send his nude photos to anyone.

The former Minister of Education first pleaded guilty, but later withdrew his testimony. Prior to his appointment as minister, Gnedyshev was the director of gymnasium No. 14 in Severodvinsk and worked as a mathematics and computer science teacher.