60-year-old actor Mikhail Efremov is serving a sentence in penal colony No. 4 in the Belgorod region. The court sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison for a fatal accident. A drunk artist (traces of drugs and alcohol were found in his blood) in an off-road vehicle crashed on a double-decker road into a van driven by courier Sergei Zakharov. The man was seriously injured and died in hospital. Rumours have repeatedly appeared that Mikhail Efremov’s lawyer will file a petition for the actor’s release on parole. Efremov received the right to parole last spring – according to Part 3 (clause “b”) of Article 79 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, “conditional early release from serving a sentence” can be applied when a person convicted of a serious crime has served at least half of the sentence. Taking into account the stay in the pre-trial detention centre, half of the term is overdue.
There were rumours about the artist’s imminent release on parole. It turned out that it was premature. The actor’s lawyer, Yuri Padalko, believes that it is premature to apply for parole at the moment. Now they are only preparing and collecting the necessary documents, including certificates about Efremov’s health. According to the artist’s acquaintances, he has health problems and regularly visits the medical unit.
The decisive factor in the court’s decision on parole is the characterization of the convict’s colony administration representatives: whether he has taken the path of correction, etc. It will be taken into account whether or not financial compensation was paid: Efremov compensated the family of the deceased with more than four million four hundred thousand rubles. The application for parole may be submitted next year.
Actor, director, writer and public figure Ivan Okhlobystin wrote on his Telegram channel on August 20, 2024: “There is talk of early release of Misha Efremov. Let me remind you that he was sentenced to seven and a half years for a serious crime – the death of a person in an accident. They can be released due to health conditions. They say that lawyers are collecting documents – characteristics, medical certificates in order to apply for parole. Efremov has been in prison for three and a half years, he is sick. We love him very much and continue to love him. Because he helped everyone he could help in life. Well, this is how it happened: I got into, as they say, bad company; bad inclinations, broad soul. Everyone betrayed him. I will not leave him, of course. We visited him in prison, they treat him very well there, because he is a very good person, everyone can see that. In fact, he has a decent environment there. He works as expected, they do not make concessions to him.”
Mikhail Efremov and his current wife Sofia Kruglikova have three children. The artist also has three more children.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS.
Okhlobystin says that his comrade is a very conscientious person: “He is bitterly worried about what he has done, and this is not a stressful conscience, but a realistic one. He is a man of heart; he is very conscientious. He was disappointed by passions and excesses, but that was his profession and his environment. The last few years have been a bad environment.”
As you know, Efremov has asthma and there are other chronic diseases: age, long-standing illnesses and a lifestyle with bad habits have taken their toll. In an interview with the KP.RU website, Okhlobystin recently reported: “Of course, the crime committed required a certain punishment. But Mikhail already had health problems before this. In addition, the water there is calcareous and now Misha’s lower teeth have fallen out and it is impossible to fix them in place because he needs implants. Well, this is a “part of the household”. At the same time, Mikhail is undoubtedly of great interest to Russian culture, because he is a great actor and director.”
Today Okhlobystin elaborates on this theme: “He needs to restore his teeth. Besides, good directors are needed now. Of course, he will not allow himself any more comedy projects, and that would be strange. But it will work, I really hope so. I hope that the management of Sovremennik will have enough intelligence and wisdom to bring him back and be able to stage classics and dramas. The whole situation made a difficult impression on him: without fundamentally changing, he became different.”
Mikhail Efremov was sentenced under Art. 264, Part 4, Paragraph a of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – imprisonment for a serious crime. The lawyers take a balanced approach to applying for parole and do not rush. The public’s reaction to the artist’s possible parole next year will depend on the degree of his repentance and the artist’s behavior, on what he will do when he is free.
