That's all the gas: a doctor was convicted for the death of top defense manager Konoplev

On November 27, Presnensky District Court of Moscow passed a sentence on a doctor guilty of the death of Dmitry Konoplev, deputy head of the defense holding High-Precision Complexes. Inna Mozebakh, an employee of the XeoSpa medical clinic, received a two-year colony sentence with a suspended sentence until her minor son turns 14. It was she who conducted the xenon therapy session during which 46-year-old Konoplev died. The case against the management and owners of the clinic is still pending. What influenced the court's verdict and why the mother of the deceased refused a civil suit against the accused, although she called her actions "a disgrace to the profession" - in the material "Izvestia".

Cardiac arrest under xenon

November 27 Presnensky district court handed down the first verdict in the case of the death of a top manager of the Russian defense industry Dmitry Konoplev. He was deputy director of Vysokototchnye kompleksy holding, which develops and manufactures modern air defense systems, PTRKs and other weapons.

The trial was held in a special order: the doctor Inna Mozebakh pleaded guilty under Article 238 of the Criminal Code ("Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements") and made a deal with the investigation, testifying against the management of the clinic.

The court agreed with the prosecution, which asked to sentence the woman to two years' imprisonment in a general regime colony, taking into account mitigating circumstances, including the presence of a minor child. Inna Mozebakh will begin serving her sentence in four years, when her son will be 14 years old.

Dmitry Konoplev, Deputy General Director of JSC High-Precision Complexes, Managing Director of JSC KBP

Photo: TASS/Alexei Nikolsky

The injured party is satisfied with the court's decision, Dmitry Sokolov, the representative of Dmitry Konoplev's mother, told Izvestia. Earlier, she refused the civil claim of 10 million rubles. According to Nelly Konopleva, she herself is a dentist by profession and considers the actions of the clinic's staff and management "a disgrace to the profession," but she is not ready to measure her loss in money.

Dmitry Konoplev, 46, died during a xenon therapy session in one of the Moscow City towers in the summer of 2022. His sudden departure from life caused a resonance in the media. The Investigative Committee checked the actions of the clinic's staff and, after expert examinations, opened a criminal case.

At the trial, Inna Mozebach said that she worked in the clinic almost from the moment of its opening in 2020. Her medical specialty is endocrinologist. To work with xenon, she received additional training upon employment.

- She performed xenon inhalation procedures to relieve stress, improve sleep and for anxiety," Mosebach told the court of her duties at the time.

At the sessions, the woman appeared depressed, asked the court to speak sitting down and covered her face with her hands.

Xenon therapy machine

Photo: RIA Novosti/Kirill Kallinikov

According to Mosebach, on the day of his death, Konoplev warned that he had had a little to drink on the eve of the session. But the doctor did not deny him the procedure, although alcohol is a contraindication, Mozebach admitted in court. She hooked Konoplev up to a xenon inhalation machine and sat next to him. At one point, the woman noticed that Konoplev was not breathing. Mosebach called her colleagues for help, tried to resuscitate him and called an ambulance. The medical team that arrived on the scene pronounced Konoplev dead.

Mozebach also insisted that she had long asked the clinic's management to install a device that would warn about the dangerous content of xenon in the breathing mixture, but was constantly refused.

Konoplev's mother questioned this testimony. She involved the developer of xenon therapy devices and software in the case. He was able to extract the log files of the device, from which it appeared that the patient was not breathing from the fifteenth minute from the beginning of the procedure. The session lasted a total of 40 minutes, but Mosebach only discovered that Konoplev was not breathing when the procedure was over. The time to save the patient was lost, and the ambulance crew that arrived on the scene could only state that Konoplev had died.

What is the danger of the xenon therapy industry?

During the investigation Inna Mozebach pleaded guilty and made a deal by testifying against her colleagues at the clinic. Together with Mozebach, the clinic manager Alena Geletskaya, who was responsible for attracting clients and recruiting staff, was also detained in the case. Daria Shcherbakova, the owner of XeoSpa, left Russia immediately after the case was initiated. She has now been arrested in absentia and put on an international wanted list. In 2023, the investigation identified another beneficiary of the business - Yakov Chetverikov. He was also detained. Now the case of Geletskaya and Chetverikov is being heard in court.

- They were driven by indifference and self-interest. The more gas they give to the client, the more he will pay," her representative Dmitry Sokolov commented on the victim's position to Izvestia.

Mozebah's lawyer Dmitry Kuzovkin clarified that the defense is not yet ready to comment on a possible appeal of the verdict.

Photo: Izvestia/Eduard Kornienko

Konoplev was not the only one who died as a result of unfair services using xenon. Earlier "Izvestia" published an investigation about the xenon therapy industry.

The procedure is based on the developments of Soviet scientists, who were the first to propose the use of xenon for anesthesia during operations. However, in the 90s it was found an alternative use as a therapeutic procedure for the prevention of stress, depression and high psychological loads.

Xenon therapy sessions are expensive, cause euphoria in patients, somewhat comparable to the effect of taking drugs. However, unlike illegal substances, xenon is legal and leaves no traces in the body.