**Belarus**

Korotkih Sergey Arkadievich was born 12.07.1974 in Togliatti. His family moved to the territory of Belarus. In 1992-1994 he served in the army of Belarus in a reconnaissance battalion. After completing his army service he enrolled in a KGB school, but was expelled after two years, in his own words, for connections with far-right radical groups, in particular the BPF (Belarusian Popular Front) party. In 1996 Korotkikh was arrested for participating in an opposition rally (the so-called “Chernobyl Way”), but soon was released. In 1999-2001, he was a member of the Belarusian branch of RNE (Russian National Unity). In 1999 he took part in a fight with Belarusian opposition activists Andrei Sannikov, Dmitri Bondarenko and Oleg Bebenin. Some researchers do [believe](https://zaborona.com/ru/institut-naczionalnoj-politiki-vylozhil-dose-v-kotorom-obvinyaet-sergeya-korotkih-v-rabote-na-speczsluzhby-rf/) it was part of his work for KGB.

**Russia**

After the defeat of RNE in Belarus, Sergei Korotkikh ended up in Russia. Together with Dmitry Rumyantsev, an aide to an LDPR deputy in the State Duma, he founded the right-wing extremist political organization National Socialist Society (NSO) in 2004. The organization “bizarrely combined open adoration to Hitler with sympathies for Vladimir Putin,” says russian journalist. The NSO promoted the scientific, technical, and cultural achievements of Hitler’s Germany, and hardened fighters for the “race war.” Sergei Korotkikh was a combat instructor. He was also in charge of the NSO’s financial operations and even [paid]() the salaries of Rumyantsev and the fighters “from his own funds.”

**Ukraine**

In 2014, Korotkikh came to Ukraine, where he went through the war in the Donbass as a scout with Azov battalion. At one time, the battalion was formed largely from representatives of right-wing radical organizations, as well as from soccer fans. In December 2014, Sergey Korotkikh received Ukrainian citizenship; during the ceremony, president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko thanked him for his service. After receiving his passport, Korotkikh made a career in the National Police, in particular, in May 2015, he took the position of head of the newly created Strategic Object Protection Police Department, where he worked until 2017. According to his 2015 declaration, Sergei Korotkikh bought himself two apartments in Kiev, an L-39 Albatross combat training plane and had a total of almost a million dollars. Also Korotkikh maintains friendly relations with the son of ex-Interior Minister Arsen Avakov Alexander.

**Murders**

On August 12, 2007, a video “Execution of a Dagh and a Tajik” appeared on the Internet. It shows two bound men on camera saying that they were “arrested by Russian National Socialists”, after which unidentified men in balaclavas cut off one prisoner’s head with a knife and kill the other with a shot to the back of the head, all against a swastika flag. Sergey Korotkih was officially [charged]() with double murder by russian state on August 24, 2021. He is officially wanted in Russia.
Israel director Vladi Antonevich shot a documentary Credit for Murder (2015) about this case. He claims that Korotkih executed both with his bare hands. Now he is [going]() after Korotkih.

On July 26, 2015, Azov ideologist and lawyer Yaroslav Babich was found dead in his own apartment in the children’s room in front of large portraits of his own three children. The official version of the investigation claims that it was suicide, but the widow Larisa Babich and a former prominent Azov spokesman Oleg Odnorozhenko disagree, believing that it was a murder committed by Korotkikh. The know was tied by a marine and Korotkih has made his career as a marine (his nickname is literally Boatsman).

**Current status**

After Avakov’s resignation Botsman has lost his position inside Ukraine state apparatus and was heavily attacked by other far-right groups as Gonor and politicians as Ilya Kiva.

Korotkih is extremely dangerous.