A woman whose sister and mother were allegedly stabbed to death in their Brooklyn apartment by the “Russian Rambo” told The Post, “I hope he rots in jail” – but she also accused the U.S. of feet-dragging that allowed him to remain free for more than two years.
Svetlana Prikhodko said she is “relieved” Nikolai Rakossi is finally behind bars for savagely slaughtering her mother and sister back in 2011 and called him “a dangerous killer who ran to the U.S. once… and now was preparing to run again.”
But she claims Rakossi could have been captured much sooner if the U.S. had not waited so long after the murders to alert Russian authorities about the case.
“I do not have an exact date on when the Russian authorities received case documents from the U.S., but it was very recent,” she said from her home in Switzerland. “As soon as the case was opened on the Russian side, they were extremely effective at finding and arresting Rakossi.”
The former Soviet paratrooper was arrested last week in the Russian region of Tula, about 140 miles south of Moscow, where he had been hiding out with relatives since he skipped town after butchering girlfriend Tatyana Prikhodko, 56, and her daughter Larisa, 28, at their Sheepshead Bay apartment in April 2011.
Although Russian law does not allow its citizens to be extradited, authorities in that country agreed to arrest “Rambo” and put him on trial there based on evidence supplied by authorities in the U.S.
“Because Rakossi is a Russian citizen, Russia has jurisdiction over the case and he will not be extradited,” said a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn DA’s office. [We] will continue to work very closely with Russian authorities to see that he is brought to justice.”
But for Svetlana, Rakossi’s capture came two years too late.
“The U.S. took an unacceptably long time to process the evidence, to translate the documents, and then to send them to the Russian authorities,” Prikhodko said. “Arresting Rakossi is only a first step in this long process, but I am relieved that he has finally been caught, especially because behind bars he cannot hurt anyone else.”
Rakossi is currently being held at a Tula detention center where he is awaiting a trial date, which is expected to start sometime in December, sources said. In the mean time Russian prosecutors will comb through an exhaustive list of documents based on forensic evidence handed over by U.S. authorities that will show how the ruthless killer mercilessly knifed the two Mount Sinai Hospital nurses.
“As far as his relatives [who harbored Rakossi] are concerned, I would like them to imagine for one second losing their loved one, a daughter, a granddaughter or a sister at the hands of this killer — and then see how willing they will be to hide him,” Prikhodko said.
“I hold them fully responsible for protecting him as their actions have also endangered everyone else around them.”