Two residents of the village of Novostepanovka have been convicted of the illegal hunting of animals, the hunting of which is prohibited, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 2, Article 258 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and the illegal hunting of especially valuable wildlife listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and protected by Russia’s international treaties, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 3, Article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On 8 July 2021, the Svobodnensky City Court of the Amur Region sentenced each of the offenders to five years and two months in a general-security penal colony. The court decision also deprives each person of the right to engage in hunting activities for a period of two years and two months.

In addition, 2.3 million roubles was recovered from the convicts in favour of the state, represented by the Amur Region’s wildlife management department , as compensation for the environmental damage caused by killing an Amur tiger. The verdict has not yet come into legal force.

Pavlik the tiger returned to the wild together with his sister, Yelena, in the spring of 2019. The predators were released in the Arkharinsky District of the Amur Region. Yelena chose to stay in the Khingan Nature Reserve, and Pavlik left to explore remote areas.

The tigers’ location was monitored via signals from the GPS transmitter in their tracking collars. On 8 September 2020, Pavlik’s collar stopped transmitting signals, which could result from a temporary technical problem or permanent damage to the device, including due to the tiger’s death.

A response group of the Amur Region’s department for wildlife and protected area conservation immediately set out for the tiger’s last known geolocation. After examining the area, experts of the hunting supervision service found Pavlik’s carcass several kilometres away from the village of Novostepanovka in the Svobodnensky District of the Amur Region, and immediately reported it to law enforcement. They also sent in all the gathered evidence, including on persons that could be involved in the killing. Police officers arrested two locals suspected of the crime.

The Amur Tiger Centre expresses special gratitude to the police, the Amur Region Investigative Department of the Russian Investigative Committee and the Amur Region Prosecutor’s Office for their effective investigative work that helped bring to justice those guilty of killing the Amur tiger.

As of today, this is the harshest punishment ever handed out for a crime against an Amur tiger.