Sieverskodonetsk “mayor” detained on suspicion of involvement in a criminal gang

The head of the occupation administration of Siverskodonetsk in the Luhansk region Mykola Morgunov was detained on suspicion of participating in a criminal gang in Bryanka, the Russian Luhansk Information Centre reported, citing the press service of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia.

Morgunov is suspected of complicity in kidnapping for ransom and robbery. According to the Investigative Committee, since May 2014, when he was the mayor of Bryanka, Morgunov had been passing information to members of a criminal gang about wealthy residents, real estate and “significant” enterprises in the city “to organise kidnappings of people, their illegal detention, theft of property, as well as extortion of money as ransom for their release”.

The Investigative Committee stated that the gang leader and members have been arrested and are being prosecuted for 11 murders, six kidnappings, four robberies, two extortions and theft of enterprise property, but the crimes of which Morgunov is suspected do not include murder. However, the IC claims that all of the gang’s victims had a bad relationship with Morgunov and that in some cases the “mayor” incited the gang leader to kill them.

Mykola Morgunov was elected mayor of Bryanka in 2010 and was considered one of the most active mayors in the Luhansk region. In 2014, he stayed in the city and began cooperating with the region’s occupation authorities. In 2022, he was appointed head of the occupation administration in Siverskodonetsk.

Earlier, journalists wrote that in 2014, the paramilitary organisation Bryanka USSR operated on the territory of Bryanka, whose members tortured and killed residents.