A Russian woman described in reports as an escort has been ordered held in custody for two months over the alleged assassination of a Putin submarine commander who defected from Ukraine.
Margarita Reutt, 32, is facing terrorism charges linked to the death of a senior officer in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The victim has been identified separately as Robert Shageev, 49, a high-ranking naval figure. Reports claim he was killed after Reutt, allegedly acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence, detonated an explosive device hidden in a rubbish bin as he passed by.
Shageev died at the scene of the blast in Sevastopol, the Russian-occupied naval port in Crimea.
Officials in both Russia and Ukraine have not publicly confirmed details about the victim.
Shageev defected to Russia in 2014, when he was captain of Ukraine’s only submarine, the Zaporizhzhia, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea.
He later assumed a senior role in the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet and was suspected of commanding a brigade accused of striking Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and residential areas with deadly Kalibr missiles.
Ukraine had for years branded him a “traitor.”
The Leninsky Court in Sevastopol today detained ‘Ukrainian agent’ Reutt for two months pending investigations by the FSB security service.
Reutt, a Russian citizen known for criticising Putin’s war, could face up to three decades in jail if convicted.
Margarita Reutt (pictured), 32, has been charged with terrorism leading to the death of a senior Black Sea Fleet officer
Margarita Reutt, 32, appears in Sevastopol court
The victim was separately named as high-ranking Robert Shageev (pictured), 49, and reports say he was killed when the woman – acting on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence – detonated a bomb she had concealed in a rubbish bin as he walked past
Under FSB interrogation, she refused to express remorse for taking the officer’s life, according to Russian media reports.
The present charge carries up to 20 years for a woman, although her eventual sentence could rise to 30 years if prosecutors bring additional charges and she is convicted of multiple offences.
Reutt was born in Yaroslavl and previously ran a travel agency which failed, but then worked as a biologist, ‘where she was involved in the production of vaginal suppositories with floral ingredients.’
She also appears on escort websites, according to reports.
It is unclear – if true – when and how she was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence as an agent and bomber.
Last year on a train from Samara-Adler train, it is alleged she shouted, ‘Serves you right, Russians!’ in response to news of a drone attack on a railway station.
Reutt had said she was ‘ashamed to be Russian’.
‘She travelled frequently throughout the country.
‘She also travelled abroad, most frequently to Egypt and Turkey.’
Reutt planned to flee abroad after carrying out the attack, she told the FSB, according to Mash.
She had purchased a ticket from Sochi.
A female friend of the victim recorded an emotional video at the scene of the blast, a residential area of Sevastopol, a port that has been the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet for hundreds of years.
She bemoaned how Putin’s war has led to ‘terrible times’.
‘This is where the terrorist attack happened,’ she said.
‘I’m speechless because I personally know this man [and] this family.
‘I’ve been sick all day today. I drove by this morning, I didn’t know it was him. Then I found out.’
She branded suspect Reutt a ‘half-woman…she doesn’t even repent for taking a man’s life.
‘And she left a family without a father, children without a father.’
The family friend said: ‘I’m just completely shocked by this situation.
‘This is the second terrorist attack in my neighbourhood in 18 months.
‘People are being killed. I don’t want to say names. It’s terrible, these are truly terrible times we live in.’
When contacted by reporters, Shageeva’s wife Alla hung up the phone.
