Journalist Sasha Sulim described the meeting with the maniac Popkov as disappointing due to the lack of expected evil

Journalist Sasha Sulim, who interviewed Angarsk maniac Mikhail Popkov, described the impression of their first meeting. She recalled her interaction with the criminal in an interview with blogger Madonna Moore, available on YouTube.

“While they were leading him [to me], I thought: “Now, I’ll look true evil in the face.” And for the moment when I looked, I thought: “Why don’t I feel anything?” (...) An ordinary guy was sitting opposite me,” the journalist said. She also added that she and Popkov were sitting opposite each other at a small table, because of which she could clearly see the maniac’s face.

However, when they finished the conversation and Popkov was taken out into the corridor, the criminal seemed different to her. “It was a criminal. How can we represent them in psychophysics? (...) I thought: “Is this even him?”,” the journalist noted. She admitted that this difference left a vivid impression of the meeting.