Ilyas Nikitin, a man wrongly accused to bombing the St. Petersburg subway. Islam News Ilyas Nikitin grew up in Bashkortostan, a Russian region tucked between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. He graduated from the Ryazan Military Academy, and served with Russia’s armed forces in Chechnya. A reserve army captain today, he works as a truck driver. Ilyas Nikitin didn’t murder anyone in St. Pete