Biography. Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov. Biographical information Colonel of tank forces in Chechnya Budanov

The former commander of a tank regiment, Yuri Budanov, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva, was denied parole. Unexpectedly, it turned out that the convict had not been in a maximum security camp for a long time, but in a colony-settlement with a rather lenient regime, which is not entirely usual for someone convicted of such serious violent crimes.

This decision was made by the court of the city of Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region, Interfax reports with reference to the press service of the regional department of execution of punishments. .

Budanov was arrested in 2000. On July 25, 2003, he was found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva.

The deceased was raped and at first the evidence pointed to the colonel, but then all these accusations “went away” from the case, and the posthumous rape was taken over by one of the servicemen, whom Budanov forced to participate in the secret burial of the girl he killed. For this, the soldier was amnestied. (He later publicly stated that he made a “confession” under pressure from the investigation).

This crime, committed by the commander of a Russian military unit fighting in Chechnya, received wide resonance throughout the world.

High-ranking military officials tried with all their might to exonerate Budanov from charges.

The court sentenced Budanov to ten years in prison. Budanov was deprived of the rank of colonel, the Order of Courage and the right “to hold certain positions within three years" (?! - approx..

Elsa Kungaeva's relatives left Russia forever. As the journalist stated then on the radio station “Echo of Moscow” Anna Politkovskaya, the Kungaev family left “for one of the European countries,” because Elsa’s parents are afraid that Budanov’s supporters will not leave them alone. They fear for the life and health of their other children.

The radio station clarifies that Yuri Budanov himself repeatedly threatened Elsa’s parents during the trial for the murder of Kungaeva. So, in his last word at the trial, Budanov promised “personally unscrew the head” of the girl’s father, Visa Kungaev.

Officially, since 2004, Budanov has been serving his sentence in colony No. 3 in Dimitrovgrad. Reports leaked to the press that Budanov had been given mild conditions of detention in the colony. Some directly indicated that the convicted Budanov was patronized by some generals and governors.

Budanov has already applied to the court four times with a request for parole.

At the beginning of 2007, Budanov's conditions of detention were significantly relaxed. He was unexpectedly transferred from a maximum security colony to a settlement colony, writes "Grani". How could this happen to someone serving time for murder? And even while on duty?

It is noteworthy that this was hidden from the press and public for a long time. A number of journalists simply could not find Budanov, and even versions were put forward about his secret release.

Then the press called it the “actual release” of the former colonel. There are no camp guards in the colony-settlement, and prisoners can live in their own house with their families.

This caused a wave of indignation in the Chechen Republic.

Anna Politkovskaya

"The death of the era of military banditry, or the case of Colonel Budanov"

All countries that started wars stumbled painfully over the problem of so-called war crimes and war criminals. Who should we consider these people sent by the country to kill and who exceeded their authority there? Criminals or heroes? And will the war “write off” EVERYTHING?..

Russia also has its own "Kelly". His name is Yuri Budanov. Colonel, commander of the 160th Tank Regiment of the Ministry of Defense, holder of two Orders of Courage for the first and second Chechen wars, representative of the Russian military elite. According to the majority, he is a suffering fighter, persecuted for his “patriotic faith.” From the point of view of the domestic minority, he is a murderer, looter, kidnapper, rapist and liar.

The trial of Colonel Budanov shocked the country, becoming a vivid demonstration of the worst sides of our entire life today - a society completely divided in relation to the second Chechen war, the fantastic cynicism and deceit of the highest Putin officials, the complete dependence of the judicial system on the Kremlin. And most importantly - a clear neo-Soviet renaissance.

Who is Budanov?

And why did his personality and fate become a symbol in Russia? It doesn't matter who you know...

Colonel Budanov found himself in the second Chechen war in September 1999, almost from the very beginning. His regiment was thrown into the most difficult battles: during the assault on Grozny, for the village of Komsomolskoye, in the Argun Gorge. During the brutal siege of the village of Duba-Yurt (the mouth of the Argun Gorge), Budanov lost many of his officers, and when in February 2000 the regiment was redeployed “for rest” - to the outskirts of the village of Tangi-Chu, Urus-Martan district, the commander, who was deeply affected by these losses , sent home to family in Transbaikalia, on vacation.

However, he did not last long there - his wife found him very internally changed, unbearable and even dangerous. One “fine” day, for example, he almost threw his eldest son from the balcony, believing that he was to blame for the bleeding abrasion on the hand of his little daughter, and only his wife hanging from behind the colonel prevented this infanticide...

Having interrupted his vacation, Budanov returned to Chechnya, telling his surprised colleagues that there were “troubles” at home.

March 26, 2000 (the day Putin was elected president) was also the birthday of the colonel’s beloved daughter; she was turning two years old, and the commander invited the officers to celebrate this occasion. By the evening everyone was pretty drunk, and they wanted to perform "exploits."

At first they decided to shoot at Tangi-Chu to kill with heavy guns, but the officer on duty in the regiment - reconnaissance company commander, senior lieutenant Roman Bagreev - refused to carry out the criminal order. For which he was first brutally beaten - by Budanov, who, having knocked down the senior lieutenant, beat him in the face with his boots, and by Budanov’s chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Fedorov, and then, by order of Budanov, he was put with his hands and feet tied in a hole dug on the territory shelf for arrested Chechens, sprinkled with lime on top, after which Fedorov also urinated on Bagreev and bit him on the right eyebrow...

By midnight Budanov decided to go to Tangi-Chu. Then, during the investigation, he will begin to say that he went there “to check the information he had about the possible location of persons participating in illegal armed groups,” and very cynically weave in a story about his faithful friend Major Razmakhnin, allegedly killed by a “sniper,” a photograph of which he kept in his breast pocket, and it was Elsa Kungaeva from Tangi-Chu.

So he went to “take it” in order to “hand it over to law enforcement agencies” in the future... But no one saw the photograph of her - neither the investigators, nor later at the trial. She is not in action.

So why did the drunken Budanov rush to the village at night? "For the woman." What is it simply called? And he took the BMP - infantry fighting vehicle No. 391. And the orderlies - soldiers Grigoriev, Egorov and Li-en-shou. The four of them drove straight to the Kungaevs’ house; the day before, Budanov's informant - a man who was involved in kidnapping people for ransom (now convicted for this) - showed it to the colonel as the house where the beautiful girl lives.

The soldiers grabbed 18-year-old Elsa, the Kungaevs' eldest daughter, and wrapped her in front of her four younger brothers and sisters in a blanket they took from there. She screamed, but she was loaded into the landing compartment of the infantry fighting vehicle and into the regiment. There the “blanket” was unloaded - Elsa’s long hair trailed along the ground - and carried to Budanov’s KUNG (unified cargo body) - the room where the colonel lived - and laid on the floor. Budanov ordered to guard the KUNG until further notice...

Other soldiers were also watching from the windows of neighboring tents. This is what one of them, Viktor Koltsov, will say later during the investigation: “On the night of March 26, 2000, he went on guard duty. When he changed his position and went into his tent, he saw the stoker of the chief of staff, Makarshanov. He said that “the commander brought the woman again.” So it's not the first time?

“The girl started screaming, biting, struggling... Budanov began beating Kungaeva, hitting her multiple times with his fists and feet in the face and various parts of the body... Having dragged her to the far corner of the KUNG, he threw her onto the trestle bed and began to strangle her with his right hand by the Adam’s apple. She resisted and as a result of this struggle he tore her outer clothing. These deliberate actions of Budanov resulted in a fracture of the right greater horn of the hyoid bone in Kungaeva... She calmed down after 10 minutes, he checked the pulse, there was no pulse... Budanov called Grigoriev , Egorova and Li-en-shou. They entered and saw in the far corner the naked woman they had brought, her face was bluish in color. On the floor there was a blanket in which they wrapped the girl, taking her from the house. On the same blanket there was a heap her clothes were lying there. Budanov ordered the body to be taken to a forest plantation, in the area of ​​the tank battalion, and buried secretly..." .

The main witnesses in the Budanov case were soldiers of the 160th regiment - Igor Grigoriev, Artem Lee-en-shou and Alexander Egorov. They were the colonel's orderlies and orderlies, served the commander, removed his KUNG, and accompanied him.

At dawn on March 27, this order of the colonel was also carried out - they buried the torn body of unfortunate Elsa, carefully covering the grave with turf. In the summer of 2000, the military prosecutor's office will decide to grant amnesty to these three soldiers as accomplices to the murder and kidnapping - in exchange for giving the "necessary" testimony - against themselves, and therefore "for" Budanov - on the main question: "Was there rape?"

The matter here is complicated and partly irrational: the officers serving in Chechnya, from the highest to the lowest, generally supported Budanov, however, with the following reservation, which I also heard more than once in Chechnya. “We understand that he killed... She’s a Chechen, that means she’s a militant. But why did you have to ‘get dirty’ - rape?”

Budanov knew these sentiments very well, and he, of course, wanted to correspond to them, besides, society as a whole is naturally opposed to violence... So, throughout the entire investigation, Budanov, wanting to “save face,” will categorically deny that that it was he who dishonored the girl before killing her. However, a difficult problem to overcome immediately arose: in the criminal case there was the very first forensic examination carried out during the opening of a secret burial, according to which the girl had all the signs of violence committed against her either immediately before her death or immediately after its occurrence, and therefore it is still unknown what "better" for an officer's image: to be a rapist or a necrophiliac...

So both Budanov and the investigation needed evidence that could bring parallel straight lines to a point... And then one of the soldiers - Egorov - told the investigator that it was he who raped the Chechen woman before burying her - and committed the outrage “with the handle of a sapper’s shovel.” , which he later dug a hole for the body...

For which he was amnestied. And this went on for almost two years. But in May 2002, due to some nuances of the political kitchen (for example, Putin’s friends in the international anti-terrorist alliance began to put pressure on him precisely in connection with the officers in Chechnya, who had become unhinged from impunity: if this is an “anti-terrorist operation,” then why are the military personnel behaving this way? ?), as well as previous gross mistakes made by Putin’s entourage for the sake of whitewashing Budanov and which suddenly crawled out (when a new, young and very talented Moscow lawyer, 28-year-old Stanislav Markelov, entered the case, previously known for leading the first cases in Russia on terrorism and political extremism) - and so, in May 2002, the military district court of the North Caucasus Military District, chaired by Judge Viktor Kostin, turned in a completely different direction and decided to delve into the details, which he had not allowed himself to do before...

And then Egorov could not stand it: a person is not a mechanism, he tends to be tormented by lies and everything that he saw enough of in Chechnya at the age of 18-19, which the vast majority will never see in their long decades of life...

In July 2002, Alexander Egorov, who at that moment had long returned to his home in the Irkutsk region, publicly stated that he did not rape the girl with a mining shovel, he gave testimony under duress...

And if so, then the rapist, whatever one may say, turns out to be an elite officer of the Russian army, crowned with glory and the most prestigious awards of the country...

Payback our way

The most surprising thing in Budanov’s case is that they decided to arrest him - the second Chechen war is such that there are many similar stories, but there are only a few arrested officers.

And Budanov would have come out unscathed if it had not been for the incident - the absence on March 27 in Chechnya of his immediate superior, General Vladimir Shamanov, one of the most brutal military leaders, the “beast” of the second Chechen war, commander of the “West” group.

The fact is that, according to the regulations in force in the army, permission to arrest one of the officers, as well as for the military prosecutor’s office to begin working on the territory of a military unit, can be given (or not given, at its discretion - no one can force has the rights) only the superior officer.

On March 27, Shamanov, a friend and like-minded person of Budanov, was on vacation, and his duties were performed by General Valery Gerasimov, a man who managed to maintain his officer’s dignity in the circumstances of the second Chechen war offered by the country. In the morning he was informed about what had happened.

The general himself went to the regiment, let in the prosecutor’s office employees and allowed Budanov to be arrested.

He tried to organize armed resistance, but then shot himself in the leg and surrendered. One of the investigators, Captain of Justice Alexey Simukhin, accompanied the arrested Budanov on the flight to Khankala, to the main military base, and said that while they were flying, the colonel kept asking what he should do, what was the “right” thing to say...

Budanov was already in the cell, and soon a psychological and psychiatric examination declared him sane and, therefore, subject to criminal prosecution.

Well, what next? This is where the “bleaching” began. That’s what they wanted in the Kremlin, where they realized that they had gone too far in “establishing the dictatorship of the law” in this particular case and that, if not stopped, society would learn the truth about the ongoing war, about which before they had only been told that it was a lie militants.

They wanted to - and again they made a big methodological mistake. In the case of “laundering” Budanov from criminal dirt, it was decided to follow the old path, proven in Soviet times.

The colonel was assigned a second psychological and psychiatric examination at the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry named after. Serbsky in Moscow, sadly replaced by his custom-made activities - on orders from the KGB - during the Soviet fight against dissent. The chairman of the commission on Budanov was Tamara Pavlovna Pechernikova, a professor-psychiatrist with 52 years of expert experience. The same one whose signature is on the “schizophrenic sentences” of the most famous Soviet dissidents of the 60-80s. Such as Natalya Gorbanevskaya (founder and first editor of the samizdat bulletin of human rights activists “Chronicle of Current Events”, was in a psychiatric prison for compulsory treatment, according to Pechernikova, from 1969 to 1972, emigrated in 1975) and Vyacheslav Igrunov (in 1976 for the dissemination of the "Gulag Archipelago" Pechernikova was declared "insane", spent many years in forced treatment, is now a State Duma deputy of several convocations, a long-time associate of Yabloko and Grigory Yavlinsky, director of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies).

In addition, Vladimir Bukovsky, one of the most famous Soviet dissidents, political prisoner, journalist, writer, doctor of biology, from 1963 to 1976, with short breaks, was alternately in prisons, camps and special psychiatric hospitals, remembers Pechernikova very well from his “deeds.” for the publication in the West of documents about the facts of “Pechernikova’s activities” - the abuse of psychiatry for political purposes, exchanged in 1976 for the leader of the Chilean communists Luis Corvalan and now living in the UK.

Pechernikova testified for the prosecution (KGB) at the trial against Alexander Ginzburg (journalist, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, publisher of the samizdat poetry collection "Syntax", first manager of the Public Fund for Assistance to Political Prisoners in the USSR and their families, established by Solzhenitsyn with royalties from the publication of "The Gulag Archipelago" ", who received prison sentences four times for dissident activities, was expelled from the USSR in 1979 in exchange for Soviet intelligence officers, died in France in July 2002).

And now, today, a commission under the leadership of such Pechernikova recognizes Budanov as insane. Moreover, only for the moment of committing crimes, which means that they are not criminally punishable for them.

However, completely sane before and after it, which means with the right to return to military service!..

Masterly removal of the colonel from criminal liability and even preserving the opportunity for him to be in the army. Of course, this was the only way to “wash” Budanov - and the authorities (the president, his administration, the Ministry of Defense - the “curators” of the process) took advantage of it.

However, this turned out to be a real psychiatric absurdity of our time, which, when it was made public, caused a wave of public indignation. At least in Moscow and European capitals. It became obvious that the repressive Soviet KGB psychiatry was preserved and perfectly assigned to “democratic” service. Why did it happen? Putin was bombarded with questions, especially active ones from Germany (the Bundestag intervened) and France: was it a coincidence that Pechernikova appeared in the Budanov case so many years after the fall of the communist system?

The answer was, of course, obvious - history, like a chronic illness, is prone to relapses, and we got them... Thus, the fulfilled order had far-reaching political consequences. The trial in Rostov-on-Don, which, it would seem, should have ended “tomorrow” with an actual acquittal, suddenly, on orders from the Kremlin, “today” (it was July 3, 2002) completely changed the course of the judicial spectacle (and at times it was, indeed, a pure performance in favor of Budanov), canceled the reading of the verdict, doubted the veracity of Pechernikova’s examination, appointed the next one and left Budanov in custody...

This Budanov-style non-freedom is a fundamental event of our time. Firstly, for the army itself, which, of course, has turned into a political repressive structure in Chechnya.

The army was really waiting to see if there would be a precedent at the trial in Rostov-on-Don? So, “is it possible” - like Budanov?.. When they said: “It is possible,” this signal was “correctly” understood in Chechnya, where officers who are at large continue Budanov’s work.

At the end of May 2002 (just when the examination exonerating the colonel was made public) in the “anti-terrorist operation zone” there was again a series of kidnappings of young women followed by murder. On May 22, for example, in Argun, right from her house No. 125 on Shalinskaya Street, at dawn, a pretty 26-year-old primary school teacher, Svetlana Mudarova, was taken away by the military.

Like Elsa Kungaeva, Budanov’s victim, she was stuffed into an armored personnel carrier in slippers and a robe. For two days, the military did everything to hide the place where they were holding the kidnapped teacher. On May 31, her mutilated corpse was thrown into the ruins of one of the Argun houses...

Secondly, the people of Chechnya were and are waiting for the outcome of the Budanov case. If the colonel wins, and not justice, it means that there is still no hope that Chechnya will be a territory where Russian laws apply, it will remain a land under the heel of bandits, and the people living there now make no difference what uniform and whose salary these bandits get it. The main thing is that they kill.

Good news! The vile Chechen bandit and murderer Yusup Temirkhanov, convicted of murdering the Russian hero Colonel Budanov, died in prison.

Yusup Temirkhanov, convicted of the murder of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, died in the Omsk colony, a lawyer named Roza Magomedova told RIA Novosti.

"He died in the medical unit of the colony from cardiac arrest. He always had health problems, The defense tried to get him released due to illness, but was unsuccessful,” she said.

Temirkhanov received 15 years in prison for the murder of Budanov in June 2011. An incredibly short sentence for premeditated murder, the Chechen killer was sure that he would not serve that either and would be released early on orders from above. But, there is God’s judgment and the murderer died where he belonged in prison!

Stop guessing: he was killed by Basayev's friend and "hero of Putin's Russia" Kadyrov, with the tacit consent of the Kremlin...Russian people's hero Yuri Budanov was killed because he loved our Motherland - Russia!

Chechen bandit and murderer Yusup Temirkhanov

Let's remember how it was!

On June 10, 2011, Yuri Budanov was killed with a vile shot in the back...a Russian soldier, a tank colonel, betrayed and sold by those who sent him to defend his Motherland. He was deprived of titles and awards, but they could not deprive us of the memory of him, just as they could not deprive him of the honor of a Russian officer. Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov was killed openly, in broad daylight, in a crowded place, on the eve of the day that modern Russian authorities is presented as “Russian Independence Day”.

The Internet and the media with relish posted a photo of a military officer lying on the ground and reminded everyone that this was a former colonel of the Russian army, accused of murder and rape of a Chechen girl, demoted and deprived of military awards, keeping silent about the fact that the investigation into the rape article fell apart in court , and the girl is a sniper, responsible for the lives of many Russian soldiers. The words spoken in Norway by the father of the Chechen sniper strangled by Budanov immediately appeared in the press and were widely replicated: “A dog is a dog’s death”...
Correspondents tried to photograph the soldier's face in order to place him on the pages of their liberal publications, to the delight of his enemies. The soldier did not give them such an opportunity, he was lying face down... The speaking and writing brethren immediately began to put forward versions of the murder... Revenge of the Chechens or the machinations of provocateurs...

Stop guessing: he was killed because he loved Russia!

This is how the life of one of the best Russian officers ended! He endured everything: the envy of his superiors, the betrayal of his subordinates, the deception of management, slander, trial, prison and threats. With the greatest humility he endured rejection, deprivation of merit, awards and general indifference, and feared only for the lives of his family and friends.
He received bullets from an unknown killer as retribution for the fear he instilled in the Chechen bandits. He was killed when, as they say, it is customary to take revenge: in the Russian Federation they have already forgotten about his case, which became a show trial of the “crimes” of federal forces in the second Chechen military campaign. Only in Chechnya did many shudder with hatred at the mention of his name, and the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, publicly stated that he would find an opportunity to “repay what he deserves” after learning about his parole.

For the Chechens, Budanov is a symbol of a strong Russia, a symbol of a Russian soldier who inspires fear in his enemies.

A man who saved hundreds of lives of his soldiers and officers in Chechnya and was ready to gnaw out the enemy’s throat for each of them was boldly and openly killed. A commander who experienced the death of his subordinates as a deep personal tragedy was killed. Are there such officers in our army now? After the murder of Budanov, all officials remained silent, without making a single statement.

Putin was silent, Medvedev was silent, the United Russia party was silent, the newborn Popular Front took water in its mouth... They have nothing to say... Budanov’s crippled fate is the work of those people who invented the term “counter-terrorist operation” and ordered it to be carried out by military parts of the Russian army. They have nothing to say, because only thanks to people like Budanov, the Russian army was able to crush a gangster den in Chechnya in 2000 and provide the Russian authorities with a relatively peaceful decade of rule.
Budanov’s martyrdom is only confirmation of his sacrificial life. He became the sacrifice that the cowardly Russian authorities agreed to make to their liberal god with the goal of the mythical pacification of Chechnya. No words are heard on the central channels in defense of the soldier who fell from bandit bullets, who defended Russia no matter what. In an era of general betrayal, the pursuit of profit, contempt for sacred things, he showed the image of a real officer, contrary to the orders of the incompetent leadership, coming to the rescue of the dying special forces, honoring his military duty, faithful to the oath.

He's gone. What a pity that he is no more! He did not participate in any political actions, did not strive for power and did not lie to the people, as many false patriots do. He simply loved Russia and the Russian people and always liked to say that he was serving not in the Russian army, but in the Russian army. He was simply doing what he loved, which he had dreamed of since childhood: to be a soldier. And he did it very well. His 160th Tank Regiment was the best in General Shamanov’s strike force when Russia needed a victory over the rebellious Chechnya. And the Chechens called him “animal”: the tankers spoiled too much blood for the militants... The fact that he was one of the best officers is confirmed by the facts: in his regiment the losses were an order of magnitude lower than in other regiments, and Khattab promised 100 thousand for Budanov’s head dollars.

Those who sent Colonel Budanov to Chechnya with arms in hand to defend the peace of Russian cities, brought him to trial and tried him not according to wartime laws, but according to peacetime laws to please PACE and the Chechen bandits...

Yuri Budanov... How much dirt was poured on him in the lengthy opuses of our pseudo-human rights activists, who faithfully worked out their foreign currency, how much betrayal and slander in court! The fate of a man that became a bargaining chip: a Russian officer was presented by the Russian authorities as a public whipping boy... He had his own truth, and this truth is much closer to ordinary Russian people. It is close to the soldiers of his regiment: 1,500 soldiers and officers, who, under pressure, refused to testify against their commander, and who were ready for an uprising, did not want to hand him over to the tribunal... Budanov’s truth turned out to be clearer to the judges of the North Caucasus District Military Court, who released him from criminal liability.

But his enemies had a different truth... Three Moscow lawyers repeated at the trial the accusations against Budanov that were heard in PACE and the OSCE regarding Russia, and stated that they would not allow the trial of the Russian officer to be transferred from political to criminal. Members of the European Parliament, who were not killed at Stalingrad, were constantly interested in the progress of the trial, and foreign media with pleasure “sucked up” the details of the “crime”.

The Russian supreme power silently observed the progress of the show trial... Silently? Did you observe? His regiment, which came to the defense of its commander, was disbanded in four days... The acquittal was overturned, the composition of the court was changed... He was sentenced to 10 years. They were stripped of two Orders of Courage and demoted to the rank and file...

Anyone would have broken down... But it was Budanov. An unbending man... He calmly accepted his lot and accomplished a new, spiritual feat, enduring all the suffering, not blaming anyone for anything... Only sometimes, when he was about to be accused of new “crimes,” did he declare that he would bring a counterclaim for hundreds of killed, tortured, Russian soldiers and officers executed, strangled, buried, burned in Chechnya...

Russian colonel Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov with his whole life confirmed the truth of the old Russian proverb: “And there is only one warrior in the field - if he is cut in Russian”! Having gone through the difficult life path of a Russian officer through the crucible of reforms and the collapse of the army, Budanov became a person personifying the best cadres of the Russian army during the sad Yeltsin-Putin reforms. Having survived the retreat from Eastern Europe and the collapse of the USSR, he refused to swear allegiance to Belarus, where he ended up, and to go live in Ukraine with his parents. He wanted to serve Russia. And he served her at the risk of his life, living at the same time in a wretched barracks “Khrushchev” in Transbaikalia with his wife and two children...

Having served almost the entire sentence assigned to him, he was released from prison on parole. But his war was not over. He was threatened and he understood that sooner or later they would get him... He turned to Russian law enforcement agencies for protection, but he was denied protection... He was killed on Friday, the last working day on the eve of the long weekend, on the eve of the day of Yeltsin's Russia, which he served and who openly betrayed him...

It’s hard on my soul... Because people like Budanov suffer and die tragically in Russia... But people like Abramovich, Chubais, Kadyrov and a whole legion of similar enemies of Russia live well... It’s hard because there’s no end in sight this timelessness...

He was deprived of titles and awards, but they could not deprive us of the memory of him, just as they could not deprive him of the honor of a Russian officer.

Sleep well, great Russian soldier!

24.11.1963 - 10.06.2011

Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov was born on November 24, 1963 in the city of Khartsyz, Donetsk region, Ukrainian SSR.

In 1987 he graduated from the Kharkov Guards Higher Tank Command School. Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1999 (in absentia) - Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

After graduating from college, he served for three years as part of the units of the Southern Group of Forces on the territory of Hungary, and then in the Byelorussian SSR; After the collapse of the USSR, he continued to serve in the Russian Federation.

In October 1998, he was appointed commander of the 160th Guards Armored Regiment, stationed on the territory of the Trans-Baikal Military District (since December 1998 - the united Siberian Military District).

Since September 1999, together with the regiment, he took part in military operations on the territory of the Chechen Republic.

In January 2000, he was awarded the Order of Courage and received (early) the rank of colonel.

On March 30, 2000, Yuri Budanov was arrested by officers of the military prosecutor's office on charges of kidnapping, rape and murder of 18-year-old Chechen Elza Kungaeva.

During the investigation, Budanov testified that, considering a resident of the village of Tangshi-Chu Kungaeva to be a sniper of one of the gangs, he ordered his subordinates to deliver the girl to the regiment, after which - during interrogation - he strangled her, since Kungaeva allegedly resisted and tried to take possession of the weapon. Subsequently, Budanov, without denying the fact of the murder, insisted that he acted in a state of passion.

On February 28, 2001, in the North Caucasus District Military Court (Rostov-on-Don), the trial began in the case of Budanov, who was charged with crimes under Articles 126 (kidnapping), 105 (murder) and 286 (abuse of official powers) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation .

In July 2001, the North Caucasus District Military Court announced a break in court hearings in connection with a psychiatric examination of Budanov at the State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry named after. V.P. Serbsky (Moscow). In October of the same year, after passing the examination, Budanov was transferred back to Rostov-on-Don.

On December 16, 2002, an expert opinion was announced in the North Caucasus District Military Court, according to which Budanov was declared insane due to the consequences of shell shock.

On December 31, 2002, the North Caucasus District Military Court adopted a decision to release Budanov from criminal liability and send him for compulsory treatment, but on February 28, 2003, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized such a decision as unfounded and made in violation of substantive and procedural law and sent the case is being reviewed again (however, the preventive measure against Budanov remains the same - detention in a pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don).

On July 25, 2003, the North Caucasus District Military Court found Budanov guilty of abuse of office, as well as the kidnapping and murder of Kungaeva. According to the court ruling, Budanov was stripped of his military rank and the Order of Courage and sentenced to ten years in prison to be served in a maximum security colony (when sentencing, the court took into account Budanov’s participation in the counter-terrorism operation and the presence of minor children), after which he was transferred to a colony YuI 78/3 (city of Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region).

On May 17, 2004, Budanov submitted a petition for pardon to the President of Russia, but on May 19 he withdrew it. The reason for the recall was the uncertainty with Budanov’s citizenship, since he was drafted into the USSR Armed Forces back in 1982 from the Ukrainian SSR (On May 21, 2004, Budanov was given a passport as a citizen of the Russian Federation).

On September 15, 2004, the Ulyanovsk regional pardon commission granted Budanov’s new request for clemency, but this decision led to protests from the Chechen public, as well as a statement by the head of the government of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, that if Budanov was released, “we will find an opportunity to reward him.” according to his deserts,” and on September 21, the convict was forced to withdraw his petition.

Subsequently, the courts several more times - on January 23, August 21, 2007, April 1 and October 23, 2008 - denied Budanov parole, until on December 24, 2008, the Dimitrovgrad court of the Ulyanovsk region made a decision on his conditional release. -early release.

In Chechnya, this court decision caused numerous protests.

On June 9, 2009, it became known that Yuri Budanov was interrogated as a suspect in a criminal case regarding the murder of residents of Chechnya. According to information from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, in 2000, 18 residents of the Chechen Republic were illegally deprived of their liberty at a checkpoint located near the settlement of Duba-Yurt, Shalinsky district of the Chechen Republic. Three of them were subsequently found killed. A number of local residents claimed that Yuri Budanov was involved in committing this crime.

On June 10, 2009, the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office announced that Budanov had been cleared of suspicion of murdering residents of Chechnya. According to the materials of the Investigative Committee, Budanov testified that he could not physically be at the checkpoint located near the settlement of Duba-Yurt, Shalinsky district of the Chechen Republic during the periods of time when 18 residents of Chechnya disappeared there without a trace. Budanov's testimony was confirmed by the materials of the criminal case.

RIA NEWS

In October and November 1999, when a shell exploded and when firing at a tank from a grenade launcher, he twice suffered brain contusions.

On December 31, 1999, when the President of Russia abdicated power, Russian intelligence officers, Chechen fighters in the “negotiated” village of Duba-Yurt, and three kilometers away “silently” our tanks, following the order of the chief of staff of the “West” group, Major General Alexei Verbitsky, not to interfere during a secret operation.

They - 20 people out of more than a hundred - were saved only because two of Colonel Budanov’s subordinates violated the order: the officers, when they realized that the reconnaissance company was simply being killed and there was no smell of any secret operation there, sent their tanks to Duba-Yurt.

At first, Budanov’s track record was no different from thousands of others like him. The standard officer ladder slowly stretched upward: commander of a platoon, company, battalion, the first Chechen war, the first shell shock... Everything changes dramatically on the eve of the second Chechen war, when 36-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Budanov, having graduated in absentia from the Academy of Armored Forces, accepts the position of commander of a separate tank regiment (almost 100 tanks). A month and a half later, the regiment was moved from Transbaikalia to Chechnya, under the command of the commander of the Western Group of Forces, General Shamanov. “Russian General Ermolov,” as Shamanov was enthusiastically called then, liked the young and promising regiment commander.

Very quickly Budanov receives the rank of colonel and the Order of Courage. And soon the country will recognize its heroes by sight: the front page of “Red Star” is decorated with Budanov’s photographic portrait. The regiment gains a lasting reputation as the best in the group. (Komsomolskaya Pravda, 2002)

The most important thing is that Budanov passed half of Chechnya with negligible losses. Just one dead driver! No other commander could boast of this. But at the end of December fighting began in the Argun Gorge. The task of Budanov’s regiment is to take three dominant heights. Here the successful colonel suffered his first losses.

It is difficult to maintain discipline in an army that has stopped. Budanov did this according to his own understanding: he yelled at his subordinates, occasionally throwing phones and anything else he could get his hands on at them. They say that the door to his kung was riddled with bullets, because the colonel had adopted the fashion of shooting if someone came to him without knocking.

One day Budanov witnessed how a contract soldier pointed out to a comrade Major Arzumanyan who was passing by: “Brother, shoot this “chock” with a cigarette... The Colonel became furious. Having beaten the soldier on the spot, he immediately went to his tent and brought the beaten man a carton of cigarettes: “This is for you to smoke, son.” And remember, you cannot call an officer a “chock.”

“I don’t consider him a scumbag,” says the colonel’s lawyer Anatoly Mukhin. - A servant, a patriot... The concepts of “honor, army, readiness to close the embrasure if the Motherland needs it” are not an empty phrase for him even now. Do you know what Shamanov nicknamed him? Water carrier. For constantly dedicating a regimental vehicle to bring drinking water to Tangi-Chu. And under Budanov, on his own responsibility, he opened the passage for three and a half thousand refugees to the regiment checkpoint, although he had strict orders not to do this. I just realized that this could turn into a riot..."

Budanov’s condition became depressing after heavy fighting in the Argun Gorge, where many of his fighting friends were killed by snipers. Budanov was sent on leave. His family noticed drastic changes in his behavior - irritability, nervousness, constant headaches, unmotivated outbursts of rage. He constantly cried over the photographs of his dead friends, vowing that he would find “that same sniper.”

Former commander of the 58th Army of the North Caucasus Military District, General Vladimir Shamanov about Budanov. “He never hid behind the soldiers. It happened that in order to eliminate sniper beds (they were located in the cemetery of the village of Duba-Yurt, occupied by militants), Budanov broke forward in a tank with a crew, without additional escort. He was everyone's favorite because he never paid for a single successful operation with a soldier's life. This was his commandment." (Russian News, 2001)

Poem

They say about him: he was a real warrior,
A Russian soldier for his Little Russia.
- Forgive me, brother, that you became guilty,
In Russia, the Tsar is the one most to blame.

They bypassed Russia,
They caught the firebird by the tail,
And from under the explosions he wrote funerals,
And life was shattered on the sniper’s nose.

Your path is marked with orders and gunpowder,
And let someone express a different thesis.
You were, they say, responsible for Russia,
And he slept sweetly behind your back.

Two years ago, Yuri Budanov was killed. Hero of two Chechen wars, holder of the Order of Courage. A hero who courageously accepted and endured martyrdom for the sake of “pacifying Chechnya.” Killed brazenly, cynically, like a gangster - in front of his wife, in the very center of Moscow, in the middle of the day.

Three months before his death, he warned law enforcement agencies about surveillance. And what? They couldn’t (or didn’t want to?) protect him from a bandit’s treacherous bullet in the back. The enemy was unable to destroy the soldier in open battle; for a long time he tried to break the spirit of the Russian soldier with a string of trials, prison, and persecution. And, as a sign of his powerlessness, he killed.

Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov was born on November 24, 1963 in a small town in the Donetsk region. He graduated from the Kharkov Higher Command Tank School in 1987 and served in Hungary and Belarus. After the division of the Soviet Union, he refused to serve in the forces of independent Belarus - probably in vain. The Russian army sent him to the very wilderness, to Transbaikalia. Budanov did not object, and from company commander of the 160th Guards Tank Regiment he rose to regiment commander, simultaneously graduating from the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces. Participated in two anti-terrorist campaigns in Chechnya. He proved himself to be an excellent commander.

His regiment suffered virtually no losses, and peaceful Chechens were never subjected to any violence by his subordinates. He himself received three severe concussions, but always remained in service. Hundreds of officers like him passed through Chechnya during almost ten years of military operations in this region of Russia. Why did the black lot fall on Budanov?
Back in the first crazy war in the North Caucasus, Budanov saved a group of special forces soldiers who found themselves in a hopeless situation. Someone betrayed the scouts, they were trapped, ammunition was running out, the weather was unflyable, and the helicopters could not help. Fortunately, Budanov’s unit was not very far away, and his tankers pulled the special forces with their armor out of the utter hell. Then it turned out that the regiment commander acted almost contrary to some orders from above. Maybe , There were forces that did not like this tanker’s initiative.

The scouts were saved, and none of the civilians in the villages through which Budanov’s tanks walked were killed. There was nothing to judge him for. However, it is quite possible that some kind of mark was placed on it then.

The second Chechen campaign began with Shamil Basayev’s attack on the peaceful villages of Dagestan at the end of the summer of 1999. The attack was repulsed, the Russian army entered Chechnya. At the beginning of August of the same year, Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin decided to make an inspection voyage to Dagestan, to the Botlikh region, taking with him many generals and colonels. The visit of the National General Staff was prepared and took place in compliance with all secrecy measures. Alas, the highest military officials of the Russian army were already expected. Four kilometers from the landing site of Kvashnin’s group of helicopters, a firing point of an anti-tank guided missile system - ATGM - was equipped. As soon as the helicopters landed, the militants opened fire. But Kvashnin and the generals accompanying him managed to leave their Mi-8s. Two helicopters were destroyed, killing: Hero of Russia Mi-8 pilot Yuri Naumov, helicopter navigator Alik Gayazov and special forces reconnaissance soldier Sergei Yagodin. As experts later found out, the shooter was a real master. From the actual maximum flight range of a guided missile, only a sniper, who can be counted on one hand in the world, could hit the helicopters.

A few months later, the location of Budanov's regiment was subjected to a similar attack. A Niva appeared on a hill, four kilometers from the tank group on duty. A group of people in camouflage came out and began to install the ATGM launcher in a businesslike and completely calm manner. The militants were calm: in Budanov’s regiment there were old T-62 tanks, the ammunition of which did not contain guided shells, and four kilometers was almost the maximum shot for a tank gun; hitting a point target - the Niva - from such a distance was considered simply impossible. The very first shot from a guided anti-tank missile set one of the T-62s on fire. Fortunately, there were no crew in it. And then this happened. Yuri Budanov rushed to the duty vehicle, pushed the commander out of it, clung to the sight himself, and aimed the gun at the distant Niva. And with the very first shot of a high-explosive fragmentation shell, the SUV, the missile launcher and everyone who was fussing around it were blown to smithereens. Colonel Budanov personally destroyed the one who killed Hero of Russia pilot Yuri Naumov, navigator Alik Gayazov and intelligence officer Sergei Yagodin. He eliminated the potential killer of the Chief of the General Staff - only a coincidence of circumstances saved Anatoly Kvashnin.

They could not forgive Budanov for the destruction of one of the best snipers in the world, who worked on an ATGM. Interesting:who hasn't forgiven?

We don’t know, but the process of destroying the colonel’s guard has been launched. On January 6, 2000, an NTV film crew appeared at the location of Budanov’s regiment. The TV people are very polite, they are their own guys, they provoke the colonel to take a beautiful shot. Guns are hitting militant bases in the mountains, and the “dirty and cheerful Colonel Budanov,” as one newspaper recalled the day after the officer’s death, shouted “on the air: Merry Christmas to you.” True, for some reason the newspaper journalist decided that Budanov’s regiment was firing at the peaceful village of Tangi-Chu. He shot at the mountains, at the mountains! Worth bringing quotefrom a journalist's article,which sheds light on the idea:“Everyone saw this report, including the Moscow generals, and no one lifted a finger, no one was distracted from Christmas barbecues, bathhouses and whores in order to pull the crazy colonel out of this war, because he (Budanov) went crazy.”

Thus, Budanov was given a “social diagnosis”. He is a crazy Russian officer from whom you can expect all sorts of abominations . Indeed, simply killing Budanov in revenge for the missile master he destroyed is too trivial. It was necessary to smear the guardsman through the mud and, in his person, the entire officers of the Russian army.

Colonel Budanov was one of the best commanders of the regiment; he was in the thick of it, but suffered the least losses during the Second Chechen Campaign. And at the moment when his regiment was withdrawn from the combat zone, they suddenly found themselves under fire from a sniper. The sniper acted like a fanatic - he first shot in the groin, and then in the heart or head. As a result, they were looking for a female sniper, and suspicion fell directly on the deceased Elsa Kungaeva. Budanov’s only mistake is that, having captured the suspected sniper, he did not wait for the arrival of the prosecutor’s office investigator from Grozny, but began the interrogation himself. One can understand him: the commander, who valued the lives of each of his soldiers, suddenly faced maximum losses outside the combat zone. Let me remind you that at that time conscripts were still called up to Chechnya - 18-year-old boys...

“ As people who know the circumstances of the case told me, during the interrogation Budanov received a phone call, and at that moment Kungaeva rushed at him, trying to take possession of his service weapon. While defending himself, Budanov dealt her a blow incompatible with life - he broke her cervical vertebra. Later it was invented that he allegedly raped her, although all examinations showed that this did not happen. And all these human rights activists, especially Sergei Adamovich Kovalev and the liberal media, simply relished what scoundrels Russian officers are, eagerly competing to see who would pour out the most lies and dirt on Colonel Budanov.”- General Shamanov.

Neither the General Staff nor the Ministry of Defense stood up for one of their best officers; on the contrary, they made statements that predetermined his conviction. - Fear of responsibility. Fear of Western opinion. High-ranking officials considered it profitable to find the last one on whom they could hang all the dogs... Imagine, neither a curfew nor a state of emergency was even introduced in the area of ​​hostilities, although it is obvious that this had to be done and this would have put the legal status in order actions of Russian military personnel. Who is to blame for this? Who didn't? Political leadership of the country. There was no ban on the movement of residents of Chechnya throughout Russia - of course, they are citizens of Russia! They were not seized from the so-called. “civilian population” trucks, dump trucks and other heavy vehicles, although it is obvious that they were used to transport weapons and ammunition for the militants.

Even while in prison, even being defamed, Budanov retains the honor of a Russian officer and loyalty to the oath. They told him: Colonel, keep in mind that your early release from prison will cause a bad resonance in the leadership of the Chechen Republic, and if we deny you a pardon or amnesty, this will cause a bad resonance among the Russian officers and the public, so you better not make any requests at all serve. And Budanov withdraws his request for pardon, covering up the country’s political leadership to his detriment.

In 2006-2007 An arbitrary court decision repeatedly denied the parole of Colonel Yu.D. Budanov, who was wrongfully convicted for actions he took in conditions of danger to life and in a combat situation. The court determined that the pretext for refusing release was the fact that “ The statement of the convicted person admitting guilt in the crimes committed and repenting of his deeds is of a formal nature and is not confirmed by anything. Despite the fact that the court did not make a decision to compensate the victims for the harm caused, the absence on the part of the convicted person of attempts in any form to compensate for the harm caused to the victims, to smooth out the consequences of the suffering suffered by the victims, indicates that the restoration of social justice in the case has not been achieved, and the fact that the correction of the convicted person has not been achieved“. This decision was made by the judge of the Dimitrovgrad City Court of the Ulyanovsk Region Gerasimov N.V.

In court decisions against Russian officers, a hidden political motive is visible, connected with the relationship between the federal government and the authorities of the Chechen Republic, with attempts to pacify ethnobandits.

At the beginning of 2009, Colonel Yu.D. Budanov was released on parole. As a provocation to the media, false information was spread that the colonel would have to go back to jail in the case of the kidnapping of three people. Information was disseminated by representatives of the investigative departmentSKP RF on Chechnya. The case was initiated back in 2000, and Budanov’s involvement in it arose just at the time of his release. The previously closed case was reopened for provocative purposes at the end of 2008 - after an appeal from the Chechen OmbudsmanNurdi Nukhazhieva, as well as statements from relatives of the victims. Nukhazhiev and relatives of the victims of the kidnappers suddenly began to claim that Yuri Budanov was involved in the crime. Witnesses confirmed the investigators' guesses during the identification procedure, carried out using a photograph of Budanov, who was immediately “remembered.”

The media used the release of Colonel Budanov to once again repeat their dirty lies about the officer who fought for the Motherland and was sent to prison for it. Fabrications were again raised that Budanov was drunk when Kungaeva was detained, that he raped her and then killed her. Budanov never denied the fact of the murder, he always regretted it, and the investigation has already responded negatively to the slanderers’ fabrications. None of the colonel's subordinates, despite the pressure and threats, testified against their commander.

As one of the leaders of gangs operating in Chechnya, Kadyrov could not calmly bear the fact of the release from prison of Colonel Yuri Budanov, who, on trumped-up grounds, spent 8.5 years behind barbed wire. Kadyrov slandered a Russian officer: "Budanov is a schizophrenic and a murderer." “Budanov is a recognized enemy of the Chechen people. He insulted our people. Every man, woman and child believes that as long as Budanov exists, the shame has not been removed from us. He insulted the honor of Russian officers. How can you protect it? What judge could release him? Behind him are dozens of human lives. I think the federal center will make the right decision - he will be put in prison for life. And this is not enough for him. But a life sentence will at least ease our suffering a little. We do not tolerate insults. If a decision is not made, the consequences will be bad. I will strive, write, knock on doors so that he gets what he deserves. And our army, our strong army of a strong state, must also throw off this shame.”

Such statements are a direct insult to all Russian people. The fact that the federal government does not make personnel decisions and does not remove the bandit from power indicates the collusion of the highest leadership levels of this government with terrorist groups. In the “Budanov case” we have the fact of systematic Russophobia on the part of the authorities, the investigation, the agents of Chechen gangs in the government system, the courts, journalism, and the “human rights” environment. The systematic nature is explained by the personal position of Budanov, who in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda stated that before committing the crime he considered himself an officer of the Russian army. Not Russian, just Russian.

Today we understand that the authorities betrayed everyone! But we have “Heroes of Russia”! About a year later, after the trial of Colonel Budanov, the Chairman of the Government of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, was awarded the title “Hero of Russia” in 2004! Having gone over to the side of the federal government together with his father, a prominent supporter of Chechen independence, R. Kadyrov fought with Russian troops from 1996 to the end of 1999! And Colonel Budanov fought, as befits a military officer, on the orders of the military command of the Russian Federation, which in turn carried out the will of the politicians!

In an address to his loved ones on the eve of the new year 2000, Colonel Yu.D. Budanov said:« Please take my word for it, we live normally. We ourselves already have this war, but we need to fight it, that’s our job» Simple words from a combat officer about his work that needs to be done and he did this war until the very last breath, until the very last minute. He fought, even after returning from the war, it did not leave him and the executioner’s bullet stopped the heart of the Russian hero, but did not stop our hearts, ignited by the shed blood of Russian soldiers and officers, abandoned to destruction by the traitors and enslavers of the Russian people and our Motherland - Russia.

Colonel Yu.D. Budanov will forever remain in the hearts of the Russian people and his feat of resisting the forces of evil, his confession of the Orthodox faith before a pack of corrupt politicians, lawyers, military leaders, and judges will find its place in the glorious history of the Russian people and Russia.

And today Colonel Budanov reminds (he said on the day of his release from prison): “Yes, it’s a shame, but I swore an oath to serve the people. I did and am doing this work. And if you understand that the people of Russia are in danger, that we are all surrounded - don't wait for an order, perhaps no one will give it. You know what to do..."

Recently, the killer of Colonel Yuri Budanov, Magomed Suleymanov, died in one of the Russian zones. He died in a significant way and somehow at the wrong time - exactly on the eve of the date of his murder and his own wedding (while in prison, he was going to get married, and in Chechnya a bride had already been found for him, whose parents agreed to give their daughter in marriage to a prisoner). The killer even recovered sharply from the mere thought of his future marriage. But for some reason something went wrong. Some providence intervened. The groom suddenly felt unwell and died. The wedding did not take place. A lavish funeral had to be held instead. Suleymanov was buried as a national hero of Chechnya. The last death in a long series of deaths put an end to the tragic confrontation between officer Budanov, once betrayed by the authorities, and his many ill-wishers. Who was actually the greatest enemy for the colonel - the Chechen militants or the authorities of that era that betrayed him? This question remains open to this day...

The mysterious sniper from Tangi-Chu

Briefly about the background of the conflict. During the second Chechen campaign, the colonel commanded the 160th Guards Tank Regiment. The regiment did not get out of combat. And at the moment when he was finally taken out of the active action zone, in the area of ​​​​the village of Tangi-Chu, he suddenly found himself in the sector of sniper fire. The sniper acted savagely - first he shot in the groin, and then in the heart or head. Budanov was heavy-handed and quick to kill. “One execution will save hundreds of Russians from death and thousands of Muslims from treason.” He repeated these words of Ermolov to his subordinates hundreds of times. And the task of any commander in war is quite simple and comes down to two short and clear points: fulfill the combat mission and preserve personnel. By any means.

Budanov promptly took up the implementation of the second of them. He saved his personnel, the soldiers entrusted to him. As a result of operational search activities, we found Kungaeva. The village authorities unanimously pointed out to her, to whom Budanov made an offer that they could not refuse. True, they later unanimously renounced their testimony. Kungaeva was immediately captured and brought to the regiment “for clarification.” Budanov burned with a thirst for revenge and quick reprisals. The colonel's tragic mistake was his decision not to wait for representatives of the military prosecutor's office (they had already been notified of what had happened). He began the interrogation himself. And then events began to develop rapidly and increasingly. Eyewitnesses to the incident say that someone called Budanov. He got distracted. At that moment, Kungaeva rushed at him, trying to take possession of the service card. At that time it was not the best decision. Pushing her away, the enraged Budanov (the officer had a large build) slapped Kungaeva with a powerful slap in the face. It turned out to be incompatible with life - the blow broke the attacker's cervical vertebra. Then a version of rape arose, which, however, was not subsequently confirmed by any of the examinations carried out.

The Chechen media and human rights activists who joined them during both Chechen campaigns (Sergei Kovalev and others) boiled with indignation. According to the paratrooper general, Hero of Russia Vladimir Shamanov, who knew the tanker well, “they excitedly competed to see who would pour the most lies and dirt on the colonel.”

Neither the General Staff nor the Ministry of Defense stood up for one of their best officers. Moreover. Many of the officials and officers involved in the conflict publicly disowned their former colleague and made statements that predetermined his conviction. The commander of the joint group of federal troops in Chechnya, Anatoly Kvashnin, generally stated that the colonel is a bandit, and there is no place for such people in the Russian army. This was the same Kvashnin, whose potential killer Budanov had personally shot in battle before.

“I’ll wrap your guts around a machine…”

The investigation was gruelingly long and tedious. According to one version, Budanov suffered a serious mental disorder after two brain concussions received during the war. Several forensic psychiatric examinations were carried out to establish his mental state. The examinations gave different conclusions: “insane”, “limitedly sane”, “sane”. According to forensic psychiatrist Kondratyev, who conducted many hours of conversations with Budanov, “there is no doubt that at the time of the crime the officer was in a state of temporary mental disorder. This state was provoked by Kungaeva, who told him that she would wrap his intestines around a machine gun, after which she grabbed the weapon. But the court ordered a second examination, and when she repeated my conclusion, a third. The third examination confirmed the findings of the previous two. Then an examination was ordered in Chechnya. Chechen psychiatrists decided that he could be responsible for his actions, after which he was convicted. I'm still confident that we made the right decision."

Order of Courage for “service inconsistency”

In Chechnya, Budanov was well known on both sides of the barricades. He was not afraid of the devil, or the bullet, or the militants, or the wrath of his superiors. In the first Chechen war, putting his career on the line, a tanker saved special forces who were ambushed. Once again someone betrayed the scouts, and they flew into a trap. The battle went on for several hours. The specialists were already running out of ammunition, but the militants were still arriving. The weather was unflyable, and the helicopters could not help. Fortunately, Budanov’s unit was not very far from the site of the clash. He requested permission to rush into battle. Smart staff officers categorically forbade the colonel to get into the “bag of fire”: it’s none of your business. They will get out on their own. But the tanker decided differently. Having verbally sent staff officers to an address widely known among the people, he personally led a column of tanks that rushed to the rescue of the specialists. In that battle, the fuel oil was saved by the special forces.

Revenge for Kvashnin

The second Chechen campaign began with Shamil Basayev’s attack on peaceful villages in Botlikh. In August 1999, Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin decided to make an inspection voyage to the Botlikh region. He took with him several generals and colonels. This air voyage took place in compliance with all secrecy measures. But, as often happened in that war, something leaked somewhere, and the generals were already waiting on the ground for the “bad guys.” An ATGM firing point was pre-equipped four kilometers from the landing site of the group of helicopters. As soon as the helicopters began to land, the militants opened fire. As experts later found out, the shooter was a professional. From the maximum flight range, only a professional sniper could hit a helicopter with a guided missile. You can count them on one hand all over the world. Captured Chechen fighters later said that he was a Kabardian mercenary from Jordan.

Helicopters carrying generals crashed to the ground. Kvashnin and his entourage jumped from the side to the ground from a height of several meters while the pilots tried to keep the car from stalling. But the crew died. Saving the generals, Hero of Russia pilot Yuri Naumov, navigator Alik Gayazov and special forces reconnaissance officer Sergei Yagodin passed away into another world.

A few months later, Budanov's regiment was subjected to the same attack. Four kilometers (standard distance) from the group of tanks on duty, a Niva appeared, from which a group of people in camouflage emerged. They busily and calmly began installing the ATGM launcher. The militants were not worried. They knew very well that the Budanov regiment was armed only with old T-62 tanks, the ammunition of which did not contain guided missiles. And four kilometers is the maximum shot for a tank gun. It is unrealistic to hit a point target - a Niva - from such a distance. The very first shot from a guided missile set fire to one of the T-62s. Fortunately, there were no crew there. And then the unthinkable happened. Budanov rushed to the duty vehicle, “carried” the commander out of it, and clung to the gun sight. The very first shot of a high-explosive fragmentation shell smashed the SUV, the rocket launcher, and everyone who was fussing next to it to pieces. It was the same Circassian and his retinue. Colonel Budanov personally destroyed the one who killed the Hero of Russia pilot Yuri Naumov and his friends. With his shot, he signed the death warrant for the potential killer of the Chief of the General Staff. That did not stop Kvashnin from calling his savior a bandit in a difficult hour for Budanov.

Well, the technology is old: push the falling one. Career comes first. You can do it on the bones of your colleagues...

"People's Avenger" or tool of intimidation?

Budanov's case was dealt with by the North Caucasus District Military Court. The colonel was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The investigation and trial of the colonel had a huge public resonance in Russia and Chechnya at that time. The colonel’s case became a kind of social test for determining “friend or foe.” “Are you for us or for them?”

Budanov was released on parole in January 2009. And on June 10, 2011, he was shot in Moscow by a native of Chechnya, Yusup-Khadzhi Temerkhanov (previously involved in the case as Magomed Suleymanov). The colonel was shot by the unwavering hand of a cold-blooded killer - all six bullets hit the target. Yusup-Magomed subsequently never admitted his guilt. Yusup-Magomed never had a direct relationship with Elsa Kungaeva. Neither brother nor uncle. According to one version, the killer, by shooting Budanov, was taking revenge on the feds for the fact that at one time, 11 years ago, Russian soldiers killed his father in Chechnya. Allegedly, he associated Budanov (who had nothing to do with the murder of his father) with all the evil that the federals inflicted on his fellow countrymen during the Chechen wars.

The story with the killer’s father is also murky. The investigation had information that he was an active member of gangs. But the court did not dig that deep.

It is quite obvious that Yusup in this story was an ordinary performer. The version of revenge for the father is a legend for those uninitiated in Chechen realities. Chechens never take revenge on representatives of any “social group.” In their opinion, this is idiocy. Highlanders always take targeted revenge. And in this case, Budanov was chosen as the addressee. But he's not the only one. This was a message to everyone who fought with militants in both Chechen periods. We supposedly remember everything. And we'll get everyone. And Budanov will not be the last on our personal officer hit list. It is not for nothing that the Union of Officers of Russia reacted so sharply to the murder of the tanker. Its representatives made it clear that they would not tolerate this state of affairs and would take retaliatory measures. They did not specify which ones.

In addition, Chechens pathologically do not know how to lose. And their loss in the second Chechen war was more than obvious. Tens of thousands of bearded fighters for pure Islam were sent to the next world as a result of the second campaign. The federals beat them in every gorges, in every village, around every turn and bend of the river. The Russian military machine, like a concrete mixer or a moloch of war, methodically ground them in its millstones.

Seeing the prospects this holds for the entire population of mountain Chechens, Ramzan Kadyrov performed a miracle. He found words in the Russian language and arguments in his head to convince the commander-in-chief to stop this merciless massacre.

He succeeded. “We survived! – Ramzan shouted into the microphone, not hiding his emotions. “You see, we survived!”

After “survival” came the second action of Chechen self-identification - it was necessary to take victory away from the federals. Or gloss over their triumph as much as possible (which in fact did not happen - that victory cost Russia too much). And for this it was necessary to get yesterday’s heroes of the Chechen war in Russia, to kill the most prominent winners. Well, or send them to jail - as an edification to others. The Chechens considered the Russian authorities of that time and Russian justice as their faithful allies in this matter.

Nothing worked out with special forces captain Eduard Ulman. He and his comrades disappeared on the day of sentencing. But Budanov, through joint efforts, was able to be put behind bars. Following him, they managed to send two officers of the Dzerzhinsky division to jail - Sergei Arakcheev and Evgeniy Khudyakov. After this, the activity of the “people's avengers” from Chechnya came to naught. It looks like they were made an offer they couldn't refuse. And the power in Russia was already different. Throwing officers into the crucible of war and then handing them over to be torn apart by their former enemy has become completely unpromising. Therefore, the search for the “culprits” and their surrender to yesterday’s enemy stopped.

Freedom and death

“It’s bad that he was released, he shouldn’t have been released,” said Moskovsky Komsomolets columnist and experienced journalist Vadim Rechkalov, who has visited Chechnya many times, in his interview on Ekho Moskvy. “We should have given him 25 years, released him in 10 years - with different documents, a different person, saved him, taken him away, hidden him. The authorities knew perfectly well that the Chechens would get him, but nevertheless released him. And thus condemned to death. He may have committed a crime, but he did not start this war. First, our soldiers and officers are left to the mercy of fate in Chechnya and are forbidden to shoot first, and then, when the most ingenuous ones are blown away and they become socially dangerous, they say: why did you do this? What is this if not betrayal? The Chechens found the moment, found the time, found the weapon, found the Mitsubishi to take revenge, to regain their dignity. But ours - no, we are not interested in Budanov - you are waste material, no one needs you. Chechens put their own people above any laws. And we sit and argue whether he is such a criminal or an even worse criminal. This is the law of war: friend - foe. And when this is mixed with politics and criminal law, the result is complete nonsense..."

Two truths

In war, each participant has their own truth. The interexistence of two truths, which do not intersect with each other in any way, and do not want to hear and understand each other, is the reason for the war. The truth of the Kungaev family: Budanov kidnapped and killed an innocent girl. The truth of commander Budanov: the girl was an enemy, an enemy sniper and killed his soldiers.

Yuri Budanov has been dead for a long time. May he rest in peace. The symbol and curse of the second Chechen war, a Russian officer of the Russian army, a tough and honest man, brave and short-sighted, a brilliant commander, who in an instant deliberately and irrevocably ruined his own and others’ lives, fell at the hands of a hired killer. The drama of an abandoned warrior, who was first sent into the heat of war, was actually made a criminal, and after that he was also convicted, officially called a criminal, ended in a bloody tragedy - six targeted shots from a bloodline.

Although no, it was not a bloodline. Krovniks don’t shoot from around the corner. Enemy snipers and female snipers are shooting from around the corner. This murder was committed on the eve of Russia Day. Significant. And death overtook the killer on the eve of his own wedding. Also iconic. And symbolic.