One of the most famous Russian killers Alexey Sherstobitov, known in criminal circles as Lesha Soldat, divorced his wife Marina Sherstobitova (Druzhko) while serving a sentence in a penal colony. This was reported to Lenta.ru by a high-ranking source in the law enforcement agencies, and the information was confirmed by the court.
The spouses have no children and have not declared property claims against each other. Due to the non-appearance of the plaintiff and the defendant, the decision was rendered the day before it entered into force.
In the 1990s, 57-year-old Alexey Sherstobitov worked for the Orekhovo Organized Crime Community (OCC), one of the most feared gangster groups operating in the capital region. He was arrested in 2006 and sentenced to 23 years in a high-security prison.
Even while he was serving his sentence, Sherstobitov started writing books.
After the publication of one of them, Marina Druzhko (nee Sosnovskaya) entered into correspondence with him. The correspondence turned into a romantic relationship, and on June 9, 2016, Sherstobitov and Druzhko, who is 17 years younger than her chosen one, registered their marriage in the maximum security colony
Since 2020, Marina Sherstobitova stopped visiting her husband and did not tell him her new address.
Most of the royalties for Sherstobitov's books went to Marina's account, and she did not transfer the money to her husband. According to some reports, she demanded fees from journalists for interviews with him, but kept the money for herself under false pretenses. It was after losing his income that the convict began to think about divorce.
Marina Sherstobitova was born in Leningrad in 1985, and in 2005 she married the actor and director Sergey Druzhko. In 2006, a son was born to them, but a few months later they divorced and Marina was soon deprived of parental rights.
She claims that she started corresponding with Sherstobitov “out of professional interest” - as a psychiatrist who feels the deep repentance of the condemned, but in professional circles they have heard nothing about such a colleague.
The convict himself dedicates one of his books to her, in which the main character is an expert psychiatrist from the navy, who at the end of the story dies at the hands of her lover, a professional killer.
Currently the ex-wife of Lesha Soldat lives in St. Petersburg.