St. Petersburg man stabs ex-girlfriend to death outside women’s crisis center

A man attacked a 27-year-old woman with a knife at the entrance to a women’s support center in St. Petersburg’s Kalininsky district, Fontanka reported.The woman was waiting for someone to open the door. The man stabbed her several times, then slit her throat. Footage published by Fontanka shows that she managed to open the door and step inside before the attack, but the man forcibly pulled her back outside.He then went about half a kilometer away, called the emergency number 112, and confessed to the killing. He was detained, and a criminal investigation was opened.Fontanka reported that the attacker was the woman’s former live-in partner. According to the Telegram channel Baza, he regularly beat her. In September, she decided to leave him and went into hiding. But he first reported her missing to police, then began searching for her himself.Efforts to pass a domestic violence law in Russia have been underway for more than 10 years. The New People party made another attempt in 2024, but the government did not support it. In 2026, Andrey Klishas, who chairs the Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, said that “Russia has yet to find its own way of combating domestic violence that would win support across different segments of society.” Nina Ostanina, who chairs the State Duma’s Committee on Family Protection, said a domestic violence law could scare men away from marriage.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.