Missing St. Petersburg boy Pasha still not found after suspect arrest

The man suspected of kidnapping was detained on February 2 outside Leningrad Oblast and is being brought to St. Petersburg.

The detainee is 38 years old. He was born in Luhansk Oblast, lived near Rostov-on-Don until 2010, then moved to St. Petersburg, where he married and had a child, but later divorced. At the end of 2025, he registered as an individual entrepreneur in Leningrad Oblast, did not experience financial difficulties, and often changed cars. There was no previous information about his involvement in crimes against minors, except for an administrative penalty in 2020 for disobeying a police officer. The man is registered in Vsevolozhsky District.

Late in the evening on January 31, investigators searched his house in the village of Yalgelevo, Lomonosovsky District, as well as at his ex-wife«s. Acquaintances of the suspect were questioned.

Police managed to reconstruct the disappearance. According to preliminary data, around 4:00 PM on January 30, Pavel exited the Lenta hypermarket and headed to the nearby fast-food restaurant Vkusno – i Tochka. There, he approached a car with a damaged bumper and possibly offered to wash the windows for money. After a brief conversation with the driver, the boy got into the car, which then drove away.

Nine-year-old Pavel went missing on the afternoon of January 30 after leaving to play from his home on Krasnoselskoye Highway, 38. More than two hundred volunteers participated in the search operations.

The Investigative Committee (SK) has opened a criminal case on charges of murder, and the criminal investigation department has created a special group to coordinate with police and Rosgvardia (National Guard).