In Russia's Yekaterinburg, a scientist from the Academy of Sciences was beaten to death after preventing children from riding quad bikes on experimental fields

In Yekaterinburg, after being beaten, Nikita Zezin, director of the Ural Federal Agrarian Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, died, writes The Moscow Times.

According to Vyacheslav Wegner, a deputy of the Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly, who was the first to report the incident, on July 13, 67-year-old Zezin, along with his deputy Alexander Shanin, were inspecting experimental fields. In one section, the scientists noticed children aged 8-10 riding a quad bike through the crops, damaging them, after which they got stuck in the mud.

Zezin and Shanin asked the children for their parents' phone numbers, contacted them, explained what had happened, and offered to take the minors to the institute to hand them over to their families.

Around 6:00 PM, according to Wegner, four SUVs pulled up to the institute. From one of them emerged "two athletically built men, one of whom introduced himself as Arkasha."

As the deputy claims, the man — presumably the father of one of the children — attacked Zezin and began to beat him, accompanying the assault with obscene language.

"Everything was accompanied by shouts and threats. The children stood nearby, watching a person being beaten, and joyfully cheered, admiring the behavior of the enraged father," the deputy said.

After Zezin lost consciousness, the attackers, according to Wegner, turned to Shanin, beat him, and spat in his face. The deputy noted that Shanin is a combat veteran and a participant in the war in Afghanistan.

As Wegner reported, some time after the attack, Zezin's "heart gave out." The press service of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced that the scientist died on July 22.

Telegram channels Baza and "112", close to law enforcement agencies, claim that the official cause of death was a heart attack, but Zezin's relatives believe that the heart attack was provoked by injuries sustained during the beating.

Nikita Zezin dedicated more than 40 years to agricultural science.

At his initiative, research on corn cultivation was resumed in the Urals, and the breeding of winter triticale – a hybrid of rye and wheat – began. He was a professor at the Ural State Agrarian University, a member of the board of the Ministry of Agro-Industrial Complex of the Sverdlovsk Region, and on the council of the National Union of Breeders and Seed Growers. Zezin authored more than 260 scientific papers, monographs, and books. He was awarded the national P. A. Stolypin prize "Agrarian Elite of Russia" and received the insignia "For Merits to the Sverdlovsk Region" of the II degree.

As reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia, a criminal case has been opened regarding his death, and the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has taken the investigation under personal control.

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