The Cleaners (serial killers)
gang of Russian neo-Nazi serial killers
The Cleaners (Russian: Чистильщики, romanized: Chistilshchiki) were a gang of Russian serial killers and neo-Nazis. Between 2014 and 2015, they killed more than 15 people in Moscow, the Moscow Oblast and the Yaroslavl Oblast. Their victims of choice were mainly the homeless and alcoholics. On October 23, 2017, the Moscow City Court sentenced the member Pavel Voitov to life imprisonment, Elena Lobacheva to 13 years' imprisonment and Maxim Pavlov to 9 years and 6 months' imprisonment in a penal colony. Vladislav Karataev was sentenced to 16 years, and Artur Narcissov to 9 years and 6 months, which were to be served in a corrective labour colony.
Murders
The members met in far-right groups on the social media website VKontakte. The leading role among the participants was taken by Pavel Voitov: he distributed roles, made decisions and actively led the activities of the gang. The motives for the killings were the desire to "clean the city", and "hatred of alcoholics and homeless people". According to the investigators, they wanted to "contrast themselves with others and show their superiority".
They committed murders with particular cruelty in different parts of Moscow, as well as the Moscow Oblast and the Yaroslavl Oblast, from July 2014 and February 2015.
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