From policeman to inmate to decorated officer to murder suspect. Hero of Russia Arkady Dorofeev goes on trial

The trial of Arkady Gennadyevich Dorofeev has begun at the Southern District Military Court, Mediazona has learned.

The case, referred to the permanent judicial panel in Donetsk, was initiated under articles covering “aiding and abetting murder by a group of individuals with public display and abuse of official authority by a group of individuals with the use of violence.” Abuse of authority with the use of violence is a common charge in torture cases.

The defendant’s full name matches exactly that of Hero of Russia, Second Lieutenant Arkady Dorofeev, who featured frequently in state media reports and appeared on pro-war Telegram channels to discuss the war.

Mediazona contacted Arkady Dorofeev’s son, Andrei, who confirmed that his father holds the title of Hero of the Russian Federation and has been in custody “for quite some time.” The trial is being held behind closed doors. Andrei Dorofeev clarified that, in his opinion, the case against his father had been initiated “unjustly,” but did not provide further details.

“I’m not ready to tell you right now, given the current situation in Russia,” he added.

Dorofeev, 54, is a resident of Barnaul in Siberia and a former police officer who joined the Wagner PMC at the start of the war against Ukraine, according to a post on the city’s official website describing a ceremonial reception for the mercenary and the mayor of Barnaul and the deputy governor of the Altai krai.

The state news agency TASS, citing the Ministry of Defence, reported that Dorofeev had “helped capture Ukrainian servicemen, thanks to information from whom units of the Centre army group were able to advance.” Dorofeev said he he had taken command of an assault on a fortified position after his commanding officer was killed, and that it was for this he received the Hero of Russia title. The Telegram channel Chernye Gusary (Black Hussars) published his New Year’s greeting.

Andrei Dorofeev told Mediazona that his father served as a police officer in the 2000s. When and why the elder Dorofeev left the force is unclear, but he was later convicted of burglary and making death threats. According to a published ruling by the Altai Regional Court, the former officer had been breaking into houses in Barnaul’s suburban communities, making off with household appliances, dishes, clothing, and food. Once, after breaking into someone’s dacha with a tire iron, he ran into the owners.

Dorofeev partially admitted his guilt but denied stealing a microwave, two dresses, two medical gowns, a camouflage suit, two pairs of men’s trousers, a men’s T-shirt, a set of children’s thermal underwear, four children’s T-shirts, two towels, a dozen eggs, a tin of stewed meat, a tin of pâté, two kilograms of beef, six
plates, and a welding machine.

He was arrested in 2019, and the court sentenced him to three years and eight months in prison. In 2022, he was tried again for theft, but the verdict in the second case has not been made public. He enlisted in the Wagner Group from Penal Colony No. 3 in Irkutsk.

His son Andrei assured a Mediazona reporter that his father did not go to war from the penal colony but had “left as a volunteer.” The website Peoples.ru makes no mention of Dorofeev’s criminal record, though one of the sections of his biography is titled “Reforging and Rising.”

Dorofeev’s call sign is Suradevi, the name of the Indian goddess of wine and winemaking.