22.02.2026 02:00
Marianna Stupina, a former Deputy Minister who went missing after being convicted of corruption in Russia in 2012 and faked her own death to escape her sentences, was accidentally caught. Stupina, who lived a "ghost" life under a false identity for nearly 14 years, was apprehended during another investigation. The former bureaucrat will now face both her old and new sentences.
It has emerged that Marianna Stupina, the former Deputy Minister of Housing of the Astrakhan Region, who was convicted of corruption and fraud in Russia in 2012, staged her own death with a shocking plan to escape her prison sentence. The former bureaucrat, who lived for years under a false identity in another state and was officially considered dead, was caught by chance during a murder investigation.
HER HUSBAND IS INVOLVED TOO
According to leaked information from the Russian Investigative Committee, Stupina employed an unbelievable method to escape her 7-year prison sentence. The former deputy minister, who fled to the Tatarstan region, waited for the body of a woman who physically resembled her to be found by following missing person announcements. When a suitable body was found, her husband intervened; he went to the morgue and identified the body as belonging to Stupina. To increase credibility, he even presented a cesarean scar on the body as a "mark of his wife."
LIVED LIKE A GHOST FOR 14 YEARS
According to information compiled by The People from the Russian press, all cases against Stupina, who was officially considered "dead" with a forged death certificate, were dropped. However, in reality, Stupina led a secret life using a photocopy of another woman's passport to obtain a new identity. It was confirmed that she never severed ties with her family, through the examination of her daughter's phone records and her husband's later confessions.
THE LIE WAS EXPOSED BY A MURDER INVESTIGATION
This escape story, reminiscent of movies, came to an end when authorities reopened an old double murder case. During the murder investigation, as the traces extended to the former deputy minister's surroundings, the police determined that the woman considered "dead" was actually alive. In a raid, Stupina was caught red-handed in the house where she was hiding, along with the documents she used to conceal her identity.
SHE WILL FACE BOTH OLD AND NEW PUNISHMENTS
Years later, the former Deputy Minister Marianna Stupina, who was handed over to justice, will be tried with a new indictment prepared for crimes such as "faking her death," "misleading public institutions," and "forgery," in addition to the corruption sentence from 2012, as she is sent to prison.