Yakutia weekly digest: missing TV host, builder death, hospital birth
If anyone thinks nothing happens in Yakutia and everything is quiet, let them think again. The republic«s events chronicle surprises almost every day, with incidents that seemingly could not happen anywhere else. Why a TV host disappeared in Dubai, how a suicide in a pre-trial detention center is connected to an armed showdown among builders, and how a Yakut woman ended up giving birth right in a hospital hallway — all in this week»s digest by 14.RU.
TV host missing in Dubai
A host of a Yakut TV channel has gone missing. Social media only noticed in January, although the girl«s last post was on 21 October — it shows her posing with a friend in Dubai. She usually actively maintained her account, detailing each of her travels.
The journalist hosted an entertainment and educational program «Uonna…» on NVC «Sakha» (the National Broadcasting Company «Sakha»), but the program stopped airing in the spring. The general director of NVC «Sakha», Oleg Markov, said that the journalist worked for the company under a civil law contract. The contract expired on 30 May.
Several social media groups suggested that she might have had legal problems. This information was confirmed to us by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without specifying the reasons.
«Our consular staff provided her with full necessary assistance, ensured her speedy return to her homeland, she is in Russia,» the ministry said.
We wrote to the journalist on social media, but she has not read the message yet.
Construction magnate«s son dies by suicide in pre-trial detention center
On Wednesday, a tragedy struck the family of Yakut developers the Petrosyans, who own the companies «Yakutstroysiti» and «Novye Stroitelnye Tekhnologii» (New Construction Technologies), which built houses on Lomonosov and Longinov streets. The son of the founder, Hamlet Petrosyan, Anushavan, died by suicide in a pre-trial detention center (SIZO). A source informed the 14.RU editorial office.
Since 2023, Anushavan Petrosyan has been under investigation in a case of hooliganism by prior conspiracy involving the use of weapons. It concerns a shootout. According to a release from the republic«s prosecutor»s office, the conflict arose from disagreements over the quality of completed construction work. Three men conspired and, arming themselves with firearms, went to settle the dispute.
During the encounter with the workers, one of them fired twice into the air, and another punched the victim in the face several times, breaking his jaw. The workers started to run away, and one of the accused fired twice without aiming. He hit the left arm of one of the fleeing men. The men admitted their guilt during the preliminary investigation.
Two of the accused are 31-year-old Anushavan Petrosyan and his relative Samvel Petrosyan. The first was sentenced in October 2025 to three years and six months in a standard-regime penal colony, the second to three years and nine months. The third was a 31-year-old native of Ingushetia, Magomed Dzaurov, who was sentenced to six years and six months« imprisonment in a strict-regime correctional colony.
The Petrosyan family filed an appeal against the decision; the Supreme Court of Yakutia considered it on 27 January and left the sentence unchanged — this happened a day before the tragedy.
The 14.RU editorial office requested information from the Federal Penitentiary Service of Yakutia regarding the incident.
Family perishes in fire, Yakutia introduces special fire safety regime
On the night of 28 January, a house in the village of Nyurbachan in the Nyrba district of Yakutia burned down. By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had spread to the second floor, and everything was ultimately destroyed. After extinguishing the fire, the bodies of three children — aged 15, 12, and 3 — were found at the scene, along with their 49-year-old mother and a 55-year-old relative. A 4-year-old girl and her 27-year-old mother are fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit of the Nyrba Central Hospital, both in extremely critical condition.
A criminal case was initiated over the incident, taken under control by the central apparatus of the Investigative Committee.
The Telegram channel of the Yakutia Rescue Service reports that this is already the 120th fire since the beginning of the year, with 80 of the blazes in residential areas. The total number of fires is already 20 more than in the same period in 2025. Fourteen people have died, including nine children.
Because of this, after a meeting of the emergency commission, the head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, ordered the introduction of a special fire safety regime. It is in effect from 28 January to 28 February.
Nikolaev stated that he ordered enhanced prevention and the installation of more smoke detectors in homes. Official checks will be carried out in a number of districts to improve the discipline of service employees and the effectiveness of prevention and control.
«I specifically appeal to residents. Please pay attention to household safety. Simple measures like installing a detector, checking electrical wiring, and careful handling of fire sources in living quarters help prevent tragedies. Only through joint actions can we protect people»s lives and, above all, the lives of children,« he wrote.
Case of bus with shift workers falling off cliff sent to court
A bus with shift workers fell into a quarry in the summer. The incident occurred on the closed territory of the Denisovsky Mining and Processing Plant (GOK). There were 31 passengers in the cabin of the NEFAZ-4208-34 bus.
Investigators initiated two criminal cases — for the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements for the life and health of consumers, which through negligence caused the death of two or more persons, and for violation of traffic rules and operation of vehicles. The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, took control of the situation.
Thirteen people died in the accident, two suffered severe injuries. After the tragedy, a day of mourning was declared in the Neryungri district. The head of the republic, Aisen Nikolaev, flew to the site.
In the past week, on 26 January, investigators finished the investigation, handed the case to prosecutors, and they sent it to court with an indictment. The deceased driver is accused — according to the investigation«s version, he fell asleep at the wheel. Since the accused died in the accident, a close relative will represent him.
Woman gives birth on hospital floor
A Yakut woman gave birth on the floor in the hallway of the admissions department of the Perinatal Center of Republican Hospital No. 1 on 28 January. The baby was diagnosed with a linear fracture of the right parietal bone and is in intensive care.
She described the incident in the Mom Life app. The next day, the Yakutia Ministry of Health reacted. In her post, she stated that the registration desk staff did not respond and demanded documents for processing.
«While my husband was getting the documents, I stood massaging, and I gave birth. I screamed, yelled that the head was already out, took off my tights, and at that moment the child flew out of me onto the floor, after which they started moving,» wrote the user Marrrssll.
In the comments, the woman said that a few days before giving birth, she had already come to the Perinatal Center with practice contractions. On 28 January, her real contractions started at 07:00, and she gave birth three and a half hours later.
The official comment from the republic«s Ministry of Health indicated that the woman arrived at the hospital on her own at 10:33, and she was already in the pushing stage (the final stage before the baby emerges. — Ed.); a minute later, at 10:34, she had given birth.
The Yakut woman«s post gathered several hundred comments, with women divided into two camps: the majority sympathized with the situation, but there were also those who condemned the mother for not being quicker — she did come to the hospital three hours after the contractions started. By the evening of 29 January, she had already deleted the publication.
Foreigners flood Yakutia
Yakutia has been flooded with foreigners over the last two weeks. Britons, Dutch, Indians, and Brazilians come and film content. Famous Russians also visited the republic: Pavel Volya, Stas Natanzon, and Denis Bukhintsev.
Everyone especially liked the Dutchman Frank — blogger rankvd. He flew to Yakutsk from hot Bangkok and spent two weeks in the regional capital. The risk-taking guy left Yakutsk airport building without a hat and in a regular sweatshirt, and immediately started coughing. He got frostbite on his nose, dove into an ice hole in minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) frost, and ate Yakut delicacies, which, by the way, he did not particularly like.
The tour operator fed the Dutchman raw foal liver with salt, boiled moose nose, the traditional milk drink byrpakh, and fried fish caught during ice fishing.
The liver did not impress Frank; the blogger even fought off bouts of vomiting. The moose nose also did not appeal to the guest; Frank chewed it for 10 minutes before swallowing it. But the blogger liked the fish and the taste of byrpakh. He compared byrpakh to a milky version of Coca-Cola. The blogger published a video of his travels on his YouTube channel, which gained 1.5 million views in a week. Although he does not have that many subscribers — a little less than 30 thousand.
Which other foreigners came to Yakutia and what they did here can be seen in a detailed review.
New Year symbol made from cow dung
Sculptures of New Year symbols made from dung are a long-standing Yakut tradition. It was started in December 2011 by the legendary folk master Mikhail Bopposov — he made a dragon in honor of the coming 2012, and he had been making similar sculptures since 1998. The sculptor«s imagination was always top-notch: he even created a family of monkeys on a palm tree, one of them holding a poem about the importance of dung, a plump mouse in a chair, and a rabbit beating a drum.
In 2021, Mikhail, unfortunately, became seriously ill; he was diagnosed with cancer. The entire republic was in mourning. For the first time in 12 years, there was no sculpture for the New Year. Then the sculptor«s brother Ivan decided to take up the tradition. Mikhail continues to fight the illness.
This time the dung sculpture was a bit late — Ivan made it a month later than usual, but it still caused a stormy reaction. Especially online, the meme «What the beginning of the year is like, so is the symbol» went viral.
