Russian researcher ‘tries to kill’ colleague after months at outpost

A researcher at a Russian Antarctic post has been charged with attempted murder after apparently suffering a breakdown.

Oleg Belogusov was stabbed in the chest by a fellow researcher

A researcher at a Russian Antarctic station has been charged with attempted murder after apparently suffering a nervous breakdown following months of isolation in extreme conditions.

The motive for the knife attack at Bellingshausen Station on King George Island is unclear, but Russian news agency Interfax cited “tensions in a confined space”.

Sergey Savitsky, 54, is accused of stabbing Oleg Beloguzov, 52, in the chest in the station canteen. They had been working together for more than six months at the station, which lies 120km off the coast of Antarctica in the South Shetland Islands.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Alexander Klepikov, head of the Russian Antarctic expedition. He added that 12 people remained at the base, which is researching climate change over the past 2000 years.

Mr Beloguzov was flown to hospital in Chile, the nearest country to the base, in a critical condition.

Mr Savitsky surrendered to the station chief after the attack and was sent home to St Petersburg, a journey that took 11 days. Police met him at the airport and put him under house arrest.

“It’s bad that everything worked out like this,” Mr Savitsky said before he was taken away by police. He said he was unlikely to be offered further employment at the station: “Who needs a person who waves a knife around at the Antarctic?”

Comforts at Bellingshausen, founded by the Soviet Union in 1968, are minimal. Internet coverage is patchy and the station can only receive one television channel — Russian state media’s Channel One. Problems with food supplies mean that researchers do not eat fresh fruit or vegetables for months.

Former Russian Antarctic researchers say, however, that there is no shortage of vodka, which is shipped in. After official supplies run out, staff often distil their own spirits. “People can stay drunk for up to a week,” said Sergei Bushmanov, who worked at the Vostok base in the Antarctic from 2009 until 2011. Russian media said that staff often suffered from insomnia, headaches and mood swings caused by the extremes of the polar day and night. “When the atmosphere is tense, people get agitated quickly, they are apprehensive, always looking behind their shoulders,” said Sergei Nikitkin, a former employee.

Although snowstorms are frequent, conditions at the base are relatively mild, with temperatures rarely lower than -5C. Researchers have nicknamed Bellingshausen “the resort”.

A Russian Orthodox church, one of the few permanent structures in Antarctica, opened on the island in 2004, and the priest stays all year round. The wooden Holy Trinity church was built in Siberia, taken down, shipped out and rebuilt by researchers. Patriarch Kirill visited Bellingshausen in 2016, hailing it as an ideal community and praising the “solidarity” among researchers.

The Times