Court Commutes Sentence for Elastik Explosion Defendant

Today, 4 February, a hearing was held in the regional court on the appeal of a victim of the 2021 explosion at the Elastik plant. Tatyana Shilova wanted to appeal the district court«s decision to commute the sentence of Alexander Yegorshin, the founder of Razryad LLC. It was Razryad that owned the production workshop where the first fire occurred.

Earlier, the district court changed his sentence from imprisonment to forced labor. As a result of the appeal hearing, the regional court left the lower court«s ruling unchanged, a source at the Ryazan Regional Court told YA62.RU.

The explosion in the workshop of the private explosives manufacturer Razryad at the Elastik plant in the urban-type settlement of Lesnoy occurred on 22 October 2021. Seventeen workers died. EMERCOM (the Ministry of Emergency Situations) said the fire was caused by a violation of the technological process. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on violation of industrial safety requirements resulting in the death of one or more people. The first to be detained were Alexander Yegorshin, founder of Razryad LLC, and Sergei Nistratkin, the general director.

In December 2023, the court sentenced the production managers involved in the case: Sergei Nistratkin, Alexander Yegorshin, Natalya Lukashina, and Irina Urubkova. The investigation and court found that they failed to fulfill their duties to ensure compliance with industrial safety requirements and safe working conditions.

Moreover, according to the court, they ignored and took no measures to eliminate systemic safety violations at the facility that they were reliably aware of due to their positions. Nistratkin received 6.5 years of imprisonment, Yegorshin 6 years, Lukashina 5.5 years to be served in a penal colony settlement. Irina Urubkova was sentenced to four years of suspended imprisonment. As additional punishment, they were banned from professional activity for 2.5 years.

As of January 2026, Razryad LLC is in the status of «The legal entity has been declared insolvent (bankrupt) and bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated.» Their website is also inaccessible.

On 15 August 2025, another explosion occurred at Elastik. This time 28 people died. There were also instances of miraculous rescues. A warehouse worker at Elastik managed to jump out of a car and lie on the ground during the explosion. She miraculously survived. After this tragedy, the Ryazan Investigative Committee opened another criminal case under the same article — violation of industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities, resulting in the death of two or more people through negligence.