Personal war of the Chechen riot police. The truth about the death of riot police from Sergiev Posad in Chechnya Riot policemen not only train, mastering fighting techniques and weapon handling, but also undergo professional training, study the laws and fundamentals of psychology

Chechnya, Grozny. Staro-Promyslovsky district 15th checkpoint. Oryol riot police. 1995

May 1994, the year the Oryol riot police service was founded.What remains in the souls of people who have passed the test of war? Many say that there is pain and bitterness of loss. No matter how many years have passed, the endless, grueling business trips, risk and danger, months of separation from loved ones cannot be erased from memory. Fortunately for many, all this is behind us. But there are moments when you mentally return to such distant, but painfully familiar Chechnya, where the Oryol soldiers served. Then the best, most honest and most dedicated people were selected there. Excellent physical fitness was also taken into account.

December 1995.
The Oryol checkpoint in Grozny was subjected to heavy
mortar fire. Staro-Promyslovsky district 15th checkpoint. Sergei Fandeev was seriously wounded. The wounded man had to be evacuated urgently. The militants then listened to almost all radio communications. Heavy fire was opened on the Smolensk SOBR armored personnel carrier, in which a small group of riot police (including Eduard Filonyuk) was breaking through to the checkpoint.
The Orlovites made it on time and took out their wounded comrade at night. For this operation
Eduard Mikhailovich Filonyuk was awarded the first state award - the medal “For
courage."

Riot policemen not only train, mastering fighting techniques and weapon handling, but also undergo professional training, study the laws and basics of psychology

OMON fighter Ruslan Safronov, he was one of those with whom the Oryol OMON began. master of sports in hand-to-hand combat and kickboxing, multiple regional champion in boxing. Winner of a number of Russian competitions. It was possible to continue a sports career. But he decided to connect his life with police service. I have never regretted it. After serving for a year in the riot police, Ruslan went on his first business trip to Chechnya as part of the detachment. It came at the height of hostilities. Then fate decreed that I had to visit Chechnya 4 more times. One of the business trips will remain in my memory forever. Then a period of rehabilitation and 2 more trips to Chechnya. It wasn't easy. But even there, in the northern Caucasus, the support of relatives was felt. Mom, sister and brother were always mentally close.

Engineer-sapper of the Oryol riot police, police captain Eduard Mikhailovich Filonyuk
in the summer of 1995 there was my first business trip to the Chechen Republic - for a month and a half. In total, Filonyuk has 11 business trips to the North Caucasus region, three of which are six-month trips. The captain spent more than three years where people were shot, blown up, and killed. The first Chechen campaign, the second... And state awards: a medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, two medals “For Courage” and a medal “For Distinction in the Protection of Public Order.” And ten more ministerial awards. “Everything - for work, for business trips,” explains the captain. — In 2000-2001, there was a real mine war in Grozny - explosions thundered every day. The militants did not have real mines—special purpose engineered ammunition. They made improvised explosive devices from unexploded shells using a makeshift method. They laid them at night and in large quantities. Mostly on roadsides. Such “bookmarks” were usually discovered by service dogs. But sometimes a dangerous place could be identified visually: if, for example, fresh asphalt or a brand new curb appeared somewhere overnight, that means there was definitely a mine there. “The technology for making and neutralizing factory mines is known,” says the captain, “but a homemade explosive the device is insidious. Criminal “craftsmen” sometimes come up with such things!.. — Have you yourself been undermined by such “inventions”? - I asked a question. - Yes. In 2000 in Grozny, on Tukhachevsky Street. This street was restless - explosions thundered there regularly. In general, the militants waged a mine war very actively. There was plenty of work for the sappers. One day we were returning from a checkpoint to the detachment’s location, and a 152-mm radio-controlled projectile exploded under the fuel tank of our Ural. There were 14 people in the car. Lucky: everyone survived. They were just badly burned. Sheets of iron attached to the bottom and sides of the body saved us from fragments. But my burns did not heal for a long time... And later there were similar explosions. However, they did not cause such harm, because devices for suppressing radio signals were put into service. In this case, the mine explodes with a delay—the vehicle has time to move a considerable distance from the planting site. It will shake you with a blast wave - and that’s it.
OMON commander Vasily Makarenko.
In May 2001, taking into account Makarenko’s professional and personal qualities, he was transferred to the position of commander of a special police detachment.
Six times Vasily Petrovich, together with the detachment, was on business trips to zones of armed conflict in the North Caucasus region, where he fulfilled his official duty, showing dedication and courage. In 2001, on one of his regular business trips, and it was in the city of Gudermes, Chechen Republic, Vasily Petrovich was wounded in combat.
His skillful leadership, courage, and organization are appreciated: his ceremonial uniform is decorated with the Order of Courage, the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland - 1st and 2nd degrees, medals "For Courage", "For saving the dead", "For Distinction in protection of public order." Only by the names of these valuable state awards can one understand how difficult and dangerous the path Vasily Petrovich went through during his service. Police Colonel Makarenko was repeatedly encouraged by departmental medals, insignia, and was awarded a personalized weapon. Vasily Petrovich is an honorary employee of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As a result of the explosion of a Ural truck in Grozny, the deputy commander of the Oryol riot police, police captain Mikhail Gordeev, was killed. For Mikhail Gordeev, this was already the fourth business trip to a hot spot. It lasted from May 2006 to November 2006. The operational group, which included Oryol riot police, carried out the next task.
At 7.30 in the morning, while crossing the Sundzha River (Zavodskoy district of Grozny), an explosion occurred: a radio-controlled landmine went off. It didn’t even help that the armored Ural was equipped with a device that blocked any radio signals within a radius of one hundred meters. 37-year-old Mikhail Gordeev died on the spot. Four more Oryol policemen were shell-shocked and are now in the hospital. There was only a week left before the detachment's mission to Chechnya expired.
Regional Governor Yegor Stroyev and acting head of the regional Internal Affairs Directorate Anatoly Yakunin expressed condolences to the family of the deceased riot police officer. They assured that they would provide her with all the necessary moral and material assistance, as well as support the families of those employees who were injured.
Stroev had a telephone conversation with the President of the Chechen Republic Allu Alkhanov. Stroev demanded that the Chechen authorities take all measures to investigate this crime, and expressed serious concern about how the safety of police officers maintaining constitutional order in the republic is ensured. The Oryol governor stated that if order is not restored in this regard, the region reserves the right not to send any more consolidated detachments of its police officers to this North Caucasus region.
In turn, Allu Alkhanov said that those responsible for the death of the riot policeman will be found, and the search for criminals is underway. All measures will be taken to ensure the safety of police officers in Chechnya. Allu Alkhanov also assured that the wounded soldiers of the Oryol riot police will be provided with all necessary medical care.
In total, four Oryol police officers died in Chechnya over these years.

1998 Tukhchar

1998 Tukhchar

1998 Tukhchar

It is believed that an objective assessment of the most important events in the life of a country can be given no earlier than 15 - 20 years after their completion. However, even 20 years after the start of the first Chechen war, too many today are trying hard to forget about it. It seems that someone in the country’s leadership is deliberately trying to force people not to remember even these bloodiest and most tragic pages in modern Russian history.

Perhaps so that new fatal mistakes would not be so obvious. Or maybe because the last wars in Chechnya are a whole layer of memories, bitterness and pain. So should we all admit then that after the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Chechnya on December 11, 1994, truly large-scale military operations began there, which immediately and quite rightly began to be called the “Chechen war”, and since 1999 the “first Chechen war”, in counterbalance to its official name “establishing constitutional order.” For the first time in the last 50 years since the end of the Great Patriotic War, the united Russian armed forces had to conduct large-scale military operations on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The police also go to war

And not only army units, but also police officers, whose training was, of course, designed to solve problems exclusively in peacetime conditions, had to fight in Chechnya...

To lead the actions to eliminate illegal armed groups in Chechnya, a group was created from the heads of the ministries of defense and internal affairs, the Federal Counterintelligence Service, other security and law enforcement agencies and government agencies. One of its main tasks was the creation of a United Group of Forces...

On December 23, 1994, Police Major General Viktor Vorobyov headed the first police group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Chechnya. Under his command in the Chechen theater of operations were over a dozen police units numbering no more than 600 people. In the first wave of the advancing troops were also many fighters of the Chelyabinsk region special police detachment Valery Sennikov...

OMON detachments, SOBR patrol service from various regions of Russia, the central police special forces "Vega" of Sergei Lysyuk (the basis of which, however, was the legendary "Vympel", disbanded under the hot hand in 1993 by Boris Yeltsin for his categorical refusal to storm the White House) were assigned to consolidated grouping of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic. The job responsibilities of police officers included “ensuring the protection of public order in the territory occupied by Russian troops.” However, the relatively small combined police group somehow unnoticedly found itself drawn into serious hostilities instead.

The units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were initially entrusted with the protection of communications and routes for the advance of military groups. The search and detention of the leaders of the Dudayev regime, capable of organizing armed uprisings and sabotage in the rear of the active troops, was entrusted to the FSK and the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (combined detachment of riot police and special forces)...

A front without a front line

True, with the virtual absence of a clear front line, which turned into “a set of arcs not touching each other, covering populated areas,” the militants, when threatened with the closure of these arcs into a ring, left the encirclement and literally dissolved in the immediate vicinity. And after federal troops entered populated areas, the militants cut off parts of the troops from each other, tried to surround them and conducted massive fire to destroy them. The artillery of the federal troops could not operate in such conditions, and therefore this “guerrilla” tactic of the militants turned out to be very successful. Cleaning up the “disadvantaged” territories of Chechnya has become the main work of a small combined detachment of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which in practice has turned into a “fire brigade” of the group...

Police special forces...

Although the main fighting in the early days of 1995 took place mainly in Grozny, clashes and losses also took place outside the Chechen capital. On January 4, a combined riot police detachment and internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out operations to seize weapons and check passport regime in the settlements of Gvardeyskoye and Benoy-Yurt in the Nadterechny district, as well as in the Shelkovsky district. On January 5-6, police fought in the area of ​​the village of Assinovskaya. Riot police and internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs also carried out operations in the settlements of Chervlennaya, Assinovskaya, Ishcherskaya, Nikolaevskaya, and Novy Sharoy.

As a result of the continuous movement of militant groups, federal troops had to surround and take control of a number of cities and towns more than once. The head of the reconnaissance group of the 17th special forces detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation “Edelweiss”, Alexander Berezovsky, recalls: “One of the features of this strange war, which drove us literally crazy, was that we passed and cleared the same villages several times. In the end, I became so familiar with the area that I could fight there blindfolded.” The ease with which the militants managed to escape from encirclement from supposedly completely silent blockades has not received a clear explanation to this day.

First losses

On January 6, 1995, on the Rostov-Baku highway, near the village of Zakan-Yurt, a column of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was ambushed by Chechen militants. A fierce firefight ensued, and the surrounded fighters suffered their first losses. According to some reports, the village of Zakan-Yurt was in the area of ​​responsibility of the “Abkhaz” battalion of Shamil Basayev. And then, of course, the officers and ordinary soldiers of the internal troops did not know that the population of Zakan-Yurt belonged to the elite Nashkho teip. And according to legends and teptars, the founder of this teip was the legendary Nashkho himself - the founder of the entire Chechen tribe. That is why Nashkho’s territory of residence in Ichkeria is an area considered the birthplace of “pure teips”. And the militants, of course, were not going to surrender it without a fight...

In addition, the Achkhoy-Martan region of the Chechen Republic, in which the key village of Zakan-Yurt is located, is foothills and borders with Ingushetia, its villages are scattered on both sides of the Caucasus federal highway. And these circumstances, with the beginning of the war, turned this area into a strategically very important territory for both the militants and the federal troops...

Chelyabinsk riot policemen, who were nearby, quickly rushed to the rescue of their “veshnik” colleagues who came under fire to the outskirts of Zakan-Yurt. When landing from an infantry fighting vehicle, in the fast-paced, hectic firefight that ensued, our fellow countryman, police sergeant Andrei Petryakov, was killed with three bullets to the head at close range. Moreover, the nature of the wounds was, of course, completely untypical for the work of an enemy sniper from a distance...

Had to learn in battle

At that time, however, not everyone understood this... During the very first armed clashes on the territory of the Chechen Republic in the winter of 1994 - 1995, the almost complete unpreparedness of the Russian armed forces for sniper warfare was revealed. And real “sniperphobia”. Because during the fighting in Chechnya in the winter of 1995 - 1996, more than 26 percent of all injuries to federal troops were bullet wounds. According to some eyewitnesses, in the battles for Grozny only in the 8th Army Corps at the beginning of January 1995, almost all the officers in the platoon-company link were knocked out by sniper fire. For example, in the 81st motorized rifle regiment at the beginning of January there were ten soldiers and one officer left in the ranks.

But most importantly, when they went to clear the village of Zakan-Yurt from militants, the Chelyabinsk riot police, of course, did not know the truly dramatic history of this settlement.

The fact that the Chechen village of Zakan-Yurt in 1851 was transformed into the village of Zakan-Yurt, or more precisely Romanovskaya, of the 1st Sunzhensky Regiment of the Terek Cossack Army...

And already in 1920, by secret order No. 01721 of the command of the Caucasian Labor Army, the village of Zakan-Yurtovskaya of the Terek Cossack army was again given to the poorest landless population, and first of all to the “always loyal to the Soviet power, the mountainous Chechens.” For this reason, the entire male population from 18 to 50 years old was loaded into trains and, under escort, was sent to the North for hard forced labor. Old people, women and children of the Cossack village were also evicted from their place of residence. And the local authorities kindly “allowed” them to move to farms or villages in the North, of course, leaving all the property of the Cavalry Army...

Very little time will pass, and all the residents of the Chechen village of Zakan-Yurt will be driven under machine guns to the collective farm. Then, on the morning of February 23, 1944, it was announced in every house that all Chechens and Ingush were being deported to Central Asia. And they gave no more than 25-30 minutes for gathering and going out into the street, saying that those who did not leave on time would be shot on the spot according to the orders of Stalin and Beria. Officers of the NKVD troops, who the day before seemed to have peacefully entered the village “to rest” , now, threatening with weapons, they quickly said something to the locals about someone’s desertion and betrayal. Although, at that time, they say, there were no deserters or traitors among the Zakanyurtites... And soon it finally became clear to everyone in the village: the slightest objection or attempt at disobedience could end tragically. The soldiers were given the order to shoot to kill at the slightest resistance. And when the freight train slowly reached Semipalatinsk and the doors of the hot-houses were opened for the first time on the journey, letting in fresh frosty air, it turned out that not all of the deported residents of Zakan-Yurt had survived. And then the Achkhoy-Martan district was completely renamed to Novoselsky, and the village of Zakan-Yurt itself was renamed to the village of Prigorodnoye...

History that we didn't go through in schools

After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the rehabilitation of both individual citizens and entire nations who suffered during the years of lawlessness began. On January 9, 1957, the Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Kliment Voroshilov, signed the Decree “On the restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the RSFSR.” “In order to create the necessary conditions for the national development of the Chechen and Ingush peoples,” representatives of these peoples were allowed to return to their previous place of residence. In 1957 alone, over 200 thousand people arrived in the autonomous republic, which significantly exceeded the figures provided for in the four-year resettlement plan. The Chechens also returned to Zakan-Yurt. The massive one-time resettlement of embittered people created serious problems with employment and housing. The region flourished in the mass acquisition of weapons, mutual responsibility, murders motivated by blood feud, rape, and attacks on residents of the republic representing other nationalities.

Sheikhs, mullahs and teip authorities who returned to Chechnya, influencing young people in a nationalistic and religious spirit, sought to revive the ideas of muridism and obedience to Sharia law. This resulted in a sharp increase in criminal offenses among young people. Quarrels over houses and garden plots, scandals and group fights with the use of bladed weapons and firearms have become commonplace throughout the republic. Thus, at the end of 1957, anti-Russian leaflets were distributed in Grozny, and attacks by Chechen youth on students of vocational schools and officers of the Soviet army were also recorded.

“Things are very bad,” one of the Russian residents of Chechnya wrote to her relative in Russia, “Chechens come, do whatever they want, beat Russians, slaughter, kill, set houses on fire at night. The people are in panic. Many have left, and the rest are gathering.”

And indeed, as a result of intimidation, with the full connivance of the republican authorities, during 1957, 113 thousand Russians, Ossetians, Avars, Ukrainians and citizens of other nationalities left the borders of the Chi ASSR. The justified indignation of the population at the atrocities of hooligan elements from among the Chechens, as well as the inability of the authorities to really protect non-indigenous residents, provoked the Russian population of Grozny to mass riots that occurred in the city on August 26 and 27, 1958, which became a classic example of the “Russian revolt” more than once described in historical literature. , desperate and cruel.

But, of course, ordinary soldiers and employees, as well as many officers of the internal troops and territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, did not know any of this, without hesitation, who arrived as part of the first wave on the orders of their commanders to protect and maintain public order and the constitutional order in the Chechen Republic. Of course, no one warned the policemen in a timely manner that a long and bloody war of extermination awaited them on their territory...

The other day, the Combined Detachment of the Moscow Police Special Purpose Center returned home from the North Caucasus region. During the planned rotation, they were replaced by fighters from another battalion of the Special Purpose Detachment of the TsSN Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow.

The special forces detachment has been in the North Caucasus region since 1995. Combined detachments go on business trips. Over these years, they took part in the “restoration of the constitutional order” and in the “counter-terrorism operation”, but performed essentially the same tasks: disarmament of gangs, forceful support of investigative actions, guarding convoys with humanitarian supplies, guarding representatives of international organizations who with enviable frequency we visited Chechnya to see how the struggle for your and our freedom is going on.

The main base of the Combined Detachment is located in the suburb of Grozny - Khankala. In 1995, Khankala was a huge field filled with kungs (a car with a booth where you can live and work) and tents. On the miraculously preserved railway line there were reserved seat carriages, which served as something like a hotel. An airfield with a bunch of helipads. Warehouses. The entire command of the counter-terrorist operation came from here. There is a hospital here, classified and secure communications. Over the course of a decade and a half, a small town was built on the site of a tent camp that more closely resembled a gypsy camp. With its own infrastructure, shops, streets, dining rooms and even a gym. Although, there is still work to be done: the road leading to the base checkpoint is broken up by heavy armored vehicles. Khankala is protected and covered from everywhere by a bunch of checkpoints and all kinds of units and units of all law enforcement agencies. The base is surrounded by restricted areas and controlled minefields. This is the safest place not only in Chechnya, but also, probably, in Russia. From here, by helicopter, as the fighters themselves say, by air, or in a column, units are transferred to other areas. Helicopters are like buses here - in the morning to the mountains, in the afternoon to Mozdok. But the schedule changes very often. Part of the Combined Detachment is also stationed in Mozdok.

The territory of the Combined Detachment of Moscow Police in Khankala is located near the checkpoint of the main entrance to VOGOiP - a temporary operational grouping of bodies and units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Those guys who spent the last six months in this region have already packed their things and vacated their rooms in the barracks. Only the most necessary things. Nobody from here takes electric kettles, refrigerators and televisions to Moscow. Usually, all this is left to the arriving shift. And she will leave it to her replacements. This has been the case for a long time. The rooms in the barracks are small - for four and eight people. Classroom for training sessions, first aid station, washbasin, shower, weapons room. In the courtyard next to the barracks there is a log house of a real Russian bathhouse. Next to the bathhouse there is a gazebo, around which numbers are laid out with pebbles. This is the number of days remaining until the shift. When we arrived, there was already a zero there. And the very next day, this improvised calendar began the countdown for the new Combined Detachment that had taken up duty. Not far from the entrance to the barracks there is a smoking room. The ashtrays here are very original - shell casings from heavy howitzers.

Also, the Moscow special forces base has its own canteen. We recently assembled a dining room from modules. Kitchen renovation is next. In general, life is smooth. But as the guys themselves said, they spent a total of no more than one and a half months out of six at the base in Khankala. The rest of the time was spent in the mountains. And not only Chechnya, but also Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.

The fighters of the Combined Detachment, which is preparing to return to Moscow, are tanned. This kind of tan only sticks in the mountains. It was these guys who took part in the detention of militants in the village of Bylym, Elbrus region of Kabardino-Balkaria at the end of September. Then, during a special operation, two militants were eliminated, who in February shot hunters in the Elbrus region and blew up a cable car. The operation, according to the fighters of the capital’s Central Security Service, was “tough.” Several Combined detachments from different regions worked. Unfortunately, two Perm riot police officers were killed and one was injured. It was precisely because of the great public outcry that this operation was mentioned in the media at that time. And most of the operations carried out by the Combined Detachment are still classified as “secret”. But even the data that can be found in open sources is impressive: since the beginning of the year, TsSN employees in the North Caucasus region have completed 470 tasks, detained 151 criminal suspects, neutralized 6 armed groups, seized 91 kilograms of explosives, 119 explosive devices, almost 12 kilograms of drugs.

The next day, the Reedus correspondent saw with his own eyes one of the checkpoints where Moscow special forces are serving. An armored Gazelle and an escort vehicle with security were allocated for several journalists. Although the republic is calm now, such precautions will not be superfluous. Moreover, our path lay in the mountains - in the Argun Gorge. We left the Base in Khankala in the morning. Having passed several checkpoints reinforced with armored personnel carriers, we turn towards the capital of Chechnya.

City Grozniy. Almost two hundred years ago, the Cossacks built the Grozny fortress to protect the population from raids by abreks from the mountains. The fortress grew into a large modern city. After the collapse of the USSR, two military campaigns and protracted street battles, it lay in ruins. But over the past few years, the city has been actively recovering. Administrative and residential buildings, roads, and infrastructure were restored. The builders breathed new life into these bloody ruins, which had seen everything that the most terrible and cruel predator on the planet - man - was capable of. And now the five-story buildings on which multiple rocket launchers operated ten years ago are sparkling with facing tiles. A convoy of trucks, accompanied by armored personnel carriers, drives towards us. For Grozny, this is as common as for Moscow a column of cars watering the road. At the exit from the city there is a globe on which it is written: “Grozny is the center of the world.” The center of peace means the center of harmony and the territory in which there is no longer war. But it sounds a little ambiguous.

We leave on the highway in the direction of Starye Atagi. The fact that active construction is underway in Chechnya is clear from the number of trucks on the road. The roads, by the way, are in pretty good condition. Not a European autobahn, of course, but it allows you to maintain a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. So it took us a little over an hour to enter the Argun Gorge.

The air is clean and transparent. Sunny bunnies happily jump along the rapids of the winding Argun River, which gurgles in the gorge next to the checkpoint. It’s already quite cool in Moscow and summer is losing ground. And autumn has not yet reached here, so the slopes of the forest-covered mountains are still green. This is the so-called “greenery” - a very dense forest with bushes, in which nothing can be seen from twenty meters away. After a polluted metropolis, you want to breathe deeply with this delicate aroma of mountain herbs and listen to the ringing silence. The landscape is spectacular. One of the checkpoints manned by Moscow police officers is located in this picturesque place. In addition to Muscovites, there are police officers from the Komi Republic and employees of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the operational data of the group's command, along the country road, which was saddled by this checkpoint, rear supplies were carried out to the gangs that were running through the mountains. They carried food and ammunition, medicines and ammunition. That's why they put this barrier here. The road is blocked by a barrier. There are spikes underneath it to stop the car. A little further along the road there are stationary firing positions and a Tiger armored car. The bushes are equipped with firing points - “secrets”. We get out of the car. The Komi-Yurt sign indicates the location of the TDP (temporary deployment point). There is a small field canteen, rest tents and firing points. From this place there is a good view of the Argun River. It’s not that far away – about 500 meters. Down. From a steep cliff. Muscovites are on duty at the firing points. It was them that the fighters of the new Combined Detachment came to replace.

The week-long business trip to the Agrun Gorge and the six-month business trip to the North Caucasus region are over for these guys. Simple military life is already packed into backpacks. And their shift workers unload their belongings and food for the week from the back of the Ural. “Predator” is the name of this car. Armored hard worker "Ural" with bullet marks on the triplex windows. His twin brother is already taking on board the things of those leaving for Khankala. In the kitchen, meanwhile, they are already thinking about dinner - the flames of the open hearth are licking the black, smoky cauldron. In fact, all employees received army dry rations, each of which lasted a day. But whenever possible, food is cooked in a common cauldron. The menu is without any special frills: chicken soup, pasta with stewed meat and dried fruit compote. War is war, but lunch is according to schedule. One of the fighters is always next to us. And not to show what to shoot and what not to film - it’s just that the terrain is such that taking just one step into the bushes you can tumble into the abyss of the gorge. The most beautiful view opens from the bottom point of the checkpoint. We are going there with the commander of the Combined Detachment and members of the Chechen police.

By the way, Muscovites have very good relations with local employees. Full mutual understanding. During those four months, while there was a barrier here, and fighters from the Moscow TsSN were on duty, there was not a single conflict. But local police officers know all the residents of nearby settlements very well, and this, in turn, means that the likelihood of conflicts with the local population is minimized. At the bottom point of the checkpoint there is already a Predator. There is another group of fighters on duty here. The view from this point is truly breathtaking. In addition, the river smells of hydrogen sulfide springs. There are two of them here. One with warm, almost hot water. The second one is cold. It’s practically a resort, but the “resort people” here are very specific. They are not dressed in shorts and flip-flops, but in special “slide” suits and high boots. By the way, I would like to dwell separately on the issue of uniforms. Almost all fighters buy their own shoes. Why? And it’s simple: the shoes they give out in warehouses don’t stand up to criticism. That's why they mostly buy. As one of the fighters noted: “You need to not only relax in comfort, but also work. If all the conditions for this are created in the office, then in the mountains it is better to take care of this in advance and yourself.”

The commander of the Combined Detachment is informed by radio that everyone is ready to leave. We climb the road to the checkpoint. There, the departing guys say goodbye to those who remain. A combined detachment from Komi, which will be on combat duty here for a few more months, with Chechen police officers, who will serve here until retirement. The “Predator”, accompanied by the “Tiger,” quickly climbs up the steep ascent of a country road onto an asphalt highway. We go after them. Already on the road, information is transmitted over the radio: we are returning to Khankala by a different route. Changing the route at the very last moment is a common occurrence here. The driver silently nods and our column, picking up speed, rushes towards Grozny through Argun along the federal highway. In an hour we drive through almost a third of the republic. Ten years ago, it took many months to cover such a distance. And now, before you even had time to blink an eye, the arches of the entrance to Grozny appeared.

When entering the territory of Khankala, all cars are inspected using a special mirror so that no “surprises” are brought under the bottom. Immediately at the checkpoint we are met by a small black puppy. By the way, I noticed that there are a lot of dogs here. At every military airfield, at the group's base, even at many checkpoints, dogs live. It’s impossible to count how many lives they saved by sensing uninvited guests in the night. That is why there is such a reverent attitude towards them. Here the dog is man's friend. Precisely with a capital F Friend. Police officers who arrived from the Argun Gorge are transferring their already packed belongings to a KAMAZ truck, which will go to Mozdok.

Formation before lunch. Not only the head of the Special Purpose Center, General Vyacheslav Khaustov, flew in for the rotation, but also the head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow, General Vladimir Kolokoltsev. He presents awards to the fighters. The chief Moscow policeman flew to Chechnya to see with his own eyes how the capital’s police officers serve here. While we were in the Argun Gorge, he talked with the commander of the group. After this, Vladimir Kolokoltsev decided to transfer two Tiger armored vehicles to the TsSN Combined Detachment. After the ceremonial formation, the head of the Moscow police goes to the gazebo to talk with the soldiers. The fighters are not at a loss and bombard him with questions. Basically, the questions concern social issues, salaries and the issue that, according to the classic, has ruined Muscovites - apartments. Kolokoltsev answers them. The social package for employees will remain, salaries will be raised three times from 2012, the Moscow Ministry of Internal Affairs has already calculated the so-called tariff schedules for all categories of employees. Increasing salaries, and not introducing new bonuses, affects the increase in pensions of Ministry of Internal Affairs employees. Pensions are calculated based on salary. And the housing issue is being resolved. Already this year, 400 Moscow police officers will move into new apartments. And the construction of several more houses is next. So the mood of the Combined Detachment after informal communication with General Kolokoltsev rose even more.

After lunch, the guys quickly jumped into the Predators and, accompanied by armored personnel carriers and Tigers, flew off to Mozdok. The column was supposed to arrive at the airfield before dark. And the head of the Moscow police and I went to the helipad. Rotorcraft engines are already warming up there. We're going on both sides.

Security is loaded on each side. The head of the Moscow police will fly in the first helicopter, and we will fly with him. A fire support helicopter accompanies us.
Takeoff, and now the propeller is threshing, cutting into slices the blue sky above and raising the famous Khankala dust. In the fall, when the rains come, this dust will turn into sticky mud. And the only salvation from it will be rubber boots. It was precisely because of this kind of dirt, which covered the fighters from head to toe, that the fighting in Chechnya in the autumn-spring period was called “a war in a plasticine country.” Helicopters rise above the ground and rush towards Mozdok. The hum inside the helicopter is such that the person sitting next to you can only be heard and understood if he yells and helps himself with gestures. We go low... almost touching the treetops with our wheels. The helicopter floats over the edge of the green patch, rising and falling, practically repeating the terrain. Through the porthole you can see detached houses, sheds and a small river. But you can’t admire them for a long time - there is a turn, and clinging to the bench you can only see the sky and the block with NURS on the pylon.
From Mozdok to Khankala it takes forty minutes by helicopter. It takes a little over three hours by car. So we arrive much earlier than the column. Pilots, young guys, are famously testing the strength of the runway concrete. The hum of the rotors fades, but no one gets out of the helicopter. Now the most important person here is not the lieutenant general of police, but the senior lieutenant of aviation. Until he opens the door and puts out the ramp, we are looking at the Mozdok military airfield through the window.
But then the ramp is lowered and we, thanking the pilots, get out of the helicopter. The Combined Detachment will spend the night in a tent camp on the edge of the airfield. In several large army tents. They stand about a kilometer from the landing site of our sky worker. We go there on foot, past the “crocodiles” and “cows” frozen in readiness, past the “corn farmers” hiding in the caponiers, accompanied by the ubiquitous mongrel beggars who ran to the helicopter immediately after landing. In the tent city we meet a column.
The day was very busy, so immediately after dinner we went to bed. It was during active hostilities that helicopters and planes landed at the Mozdok airfield day and night. And now, with the onset of dusk, the life of the runway comes to a standstill. You can only hear the footsteps of the camp's military guards and the contented whining of the dogs near the field kitchen - they are having a feast today. Sleep covers you almost instantly and until the morning.
In the morning you can already feel the breath of autumn. Chilly. The fighters of the Combined Detachment and I are walking along the edge of the airfield towards the plane. There are no landing tubes and there are no buses. Military transport IL-76 lowers the ramp. The loading of things begins. Meanwhile, the personnel are being built. Soldiers from the special forces unit, a former special forces unit, joined the special forces detachment. There are not many of them, a little more than a dozen. Their business trip was also over. But not only what they did, but even the place where they were on a business trip is kept secret.
The Chief of the Moscow Police, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, once again thanks the employees of the Special Purpose Center for their service. Presents certificates and awards to employees from the Mozdok Base and soldiers of the Special Forces Unit. The command “disperse” sounds. While the pilots are warming up the engines on the plane, there is time to smoke. But now they are waving their hand, saying, come on quickly, get on the plane. The cabin is a little cool, but the heating will be turned on during the flight. The police sit on folding chairs along the sides. The flight is two and a half hours. A little longer than on a civilian plane. The Metropolitan Police Combined Special Forces Squad is returning home. Relatives and friends are waiting for them in Moscow, as well as opposition rallies. Today is the day of remembrance of the Sverdlovsk riot police officers who died 21 years ago in the Chechen Republic. On a spring day in 1996, riot police were ambushed in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny. As a result of an armed clash with Chechen militants, ten police officers were killed. Senior police lieutenant and deputy company commander Oleg Varlakov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, and the other nine were awarded the Order of Courage.

Soldiers of the Sverdlovsk riot police in Chechnya in 1996.

Ural riot police arrived on their next business trip to the territory of Chechnya on February 5, 1996. The number of policemen on that business trip was 100 people. One half of the Sverdlovsk residents guarded the commandant’s office of the Zavodsky district in Grozny, and the other served at three checkpoints.

Checkpoint No. 13 was located next to the existing bridge over the Sunzha River, and checkpoints No. 18 and No. 19 were located at the entrance to Grozny from the western side.

List of soldiers of the Sverdlovsk special police detachment who died on March 7, 1996:

Oleg Varlakov

Alexey Burdin

Alexey Vyatkin

Aleksandr Kuznetsov

Andrey Makarkin

Vadim Panov

Albert Podkorytov

Sergey Savchenkov

Vyacheslav Chernetsky

Sergey Chesnokov

As the soldiers of our riot police recall, at first the situation in Grozny was quite calm - markets and shops were open, people gradually got used to peaceful life. Fighting at that time took place more often in mountainous and wooded areas. But since March 3, the fighters noticed that many more people were leaving Grozny than entering the city. In addition, many Chechens looked at the riot police as if they were saying goodbye to them forever. On March 4, people left the capital of Chechnya in whole lines. The market is empty. An alarming silence hung in Grozny.

On the morning of March 5, it froze a little and fog descended. Suddenly, the lights went out throughout Grozny, and then shooting began in all areas of the city - militants attacked checkpoints and commandant's offices of the federal forces. Of the positions of the Sverdlovsk riot police, checkpoint No. 13 was the first to be attacked - its strategic importance was more important, and the position of this strong point turned out to be the most vulnerable. Two units of armored vehicles (infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers), assigned to the riot police for reinforcement, took part in the defense of the checkpoint.

First of all, Chechen militants fired at the kitchen of the checkpoint. According to them, at this time the riot police were supposed to have breakfast. But, by luck, the meal ended a little earlier, and the militants’ strike did not harm the police. The militants attempted to storm the checkpoint, but were repulsed.

On March 6, the number of dead Russian security forces in Grozny was already in the dozens. All commandant's offices were blocked. In total, about 2 thousand militants entered Grozny. As it later turned out, they arrived in the city on regular trains, gradually accumulated their forces and attacked the federal forces from inside Grozny.

By the evening of March 6, checkpoint No. 13 began to run out of food and water. Although there were no casualties, many riot police were wounded and felt increasingly unwell. The checkpoint garrison risked losing radio communications - the batteries were running low, and, naturally, there were no new ones.

On March 7, Colonel Vladimir Golubykh (commander of the Sverdlovsk OMON) set the task of evacuating people from the 13th checkpoint. 15 Russian security forces boarded two combat vehicles. Four more fighters were supposed to open heavy fire on the militants, creating the appearance of an active defense, and then also join the retreating ones.

The covering fighters began shooting, and a smoke screen was set up. The infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers broke through the checkpoint fence and rushed towards the commandant's office. The militants fired after them from machine guns and grenade launchers. They also fired at the building of the commandant's office itself, but the defenders of the facility were saved by the fact that on the side of the industrial zone of Grozny the commandant's office was planted with local acacia. Strong tree trunks took a significant portion of the militants' bullets and grenades. The thick walls of the commandant's office also helped the riot police.

The equipment and people reached the commandant's office without losses. But on the spot it turned out that the four fighters left to distract the militants were not on the armor. At first, the command decided that the riot police were thrown off the armored vehicles when the armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles were passing the tram tracks. Ten riot police, led by senior lieutenant Oleg Varlakov, went on the search in the same infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers with crews of soldiers of the Internal Troops. Varlakov himself served at checkpoint No. 13 and knew all the approaches to it. He was given the task of getting to those same tram tracks and conducting reconnaissance.

Varlakov’s group reached the tracks without incident. The riot police made sure that there was no one in the area - no missing comrades, no militants. The search group continued towards the checkpoint. A couple of minutes later, the defenders of the commandant’s office heard a sharp explosion and heavy shooting. Oleg Varlakov reported that the armored vehicles had been hit and the group had accepted the battle.

The garrison of the commandant's office, left without armored vehicles, could do nothing to help their colleagues - the militants did not allow them to leave the fence of the commandant's office. And the intensity of the battle increased. The group commander said that there were militants all around, and he already had wounded. Then Oleg Varlakov said that he was seriously wounded and had nowhere to go. “Looks like that’s it...” he said.

As it later turned out, riot policemen disembarked from the damaged armored vehicles, ran out towards the militants and found themselves literally face to face with them. At first, the bandits were even confused by such an unexpected contact. But then their advantage in manpower took its toll. Almost one of the headquarters of the Chechen gangs was located in this area.

Soldiers of the Sverdlovsk riot police, occupying positions in high-rise buildings near the Factory Commandant's Office, saw through optics how the militants loaded the corpses of their comrades into a truck. In total, more than two dozen killed militants were loaded. The police opened fire with sniper rifles and engaged the militants in battle. The enemy responded with massive fire, pinning the riot police to the ground. It was on the evening of March 7th. By that time, the commandant’s office was already running out of water and food supplies. Fighting continued throughout the city.

The militants used passenger cars (“Volgas”, “heels” IZH) to transport people and ammunition in the area of ​​the industrial zone of Grozny. It so happened that the only road passed right next to the commandant’s office of the Zavodsky district. Therefore, the soldiers of the Sverdlovsk riot police had to constantly destroy vehicles going for a breakthrough.

On March 8, fighting was still taking place, and on the 9th the situation began to calm down. A scout was sent from the commandant's office, dressed in civilian clothes and looking like a Chechen. The scout successfully reached the site of the last battle of the riot police and returned with Oleg Varlakov’s service ID.

A column of Airborne troops approached the commandant's office. Together with the paratroopers, riot police moved to checkpoint No. 13. The bodies of ten dead policemen and four soldiers of the Internal Troops were soon discovered. Another soldier was captured, but was later released. Many of the dead showed signs of torture. The militants who remained at the checkpoint did not get involved in the battle and quickly retreated. But the missing soldiers could not be found on the territory of the 13th checkpoint.

The lost riot police were found on their own, coming out of the industrial zone directly towards the paratroopers. As it turned out, four police officers covering the retreat then left the checkpoint and disappeared into the industrial zone. In two days they only once ran into militants, managed to throw grenades at them and broke away.

On March 10, Ural police officers reported to Yekaterinburg about the tragedy that had occurred. The bodies of the dead riot police were taken to Yekaterinburg, only Oleg Varlakov was buried in Pyatigorsk, where his family lived. The soldiers who died posthumously were awarded. Senior Lieutenant Varlakov was awarded the title of Hero of Russia, and the remaining nine riot policemen were awarded Orders of Courage.

Farewell to the dead fellow countrymen took place in the Yekaterinburg Youth Palace, with a huge crowd of people. In total, during those March battles in Grozny, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs alone (these are riot police, SOBR and Internal Troops) lost over 200 people killed. And the militant attack itself turned out to be just a rehearsal for a more organized attack in August 1996.

Since then, March 7 has become the Day of Remembrance in the Sverdlovsk riot police. The heroic death of brothers in arms became an example and a lesson for the soldiers of the detachment. And 21 years after the death of their comrades, the special forces remember and honor their friends.

In the history of the Chechen wars there are a large number of episodes in which the personnel of the units died very, very stupidly, both from the point of view of the average person and from the point of view of a military person. But be that as it may, these deaths are the deaths of people who came to fulfill their duty and performed it as best they could. Many no longer remember that at that time combat-ready units were assembled throughout the country, and everyone was hired for a contract.

Yes, it’s a paradox that it was difficult to find 80-90 thousand combat-ready bayonets, but in our country of 146 million it was... In such a situation, people often came who did not have enough training, or those who had training in another area. After all, on the one hand, let’s take, for example, SOBR or OMON units, and on the other, the tactics of combined arms combat, or the conduct of columns.

If the police units did not know how to do this at first, does this mean that they were not professionals? No, it just means that there was such a terrible shortage of personnel that it was necessary to use units not according to their profile: sending reconnaissance to assault operations, arguing that they were more prepared, and police units to carry out tasks that should be assigned to the army or to explosive units. Anything happened, and for a lot of things we had to pay with the lives of the guys. Well, then, as usual, we begin to search for the culprit, the culprit is usually not found, and the immediate commander becomes the culprit.

The death of the column of the Perm riot police is a difficult episode of the second Chechen war, but if “no one is forgotten,” then we must also remember about those who were unable to leave the battle.

Sequence of events

On March 28, 2000, a number of high-ranking officials arrived at the Vedeno location: the commandant of Chechnya, the deputy minister of internal affairs of the republic, the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Territory Vladimir Sikerin, and the mayor of Perm Yuri Trutnev. A delegation of Perm residents visited a local school, hospital, and district administration, then moved to the territory where the riot police were located. The children were brought gifts and letters from their relatives.

Marina Maltseva, who was in Vedeno at that time, recalls:

“Usually, when letters arrived, I announced on the radio that they could be taken from me. That day I made an announcement, and suddenly a “spirit” got in touch, and the whole base heard: “You will have coffins instead of letters!” It’s clear that they listened to us all the time, but to intrude so brazenly like that didn’t happen often...” (well, the fact that they constantly listened to open communication channels and entered the network - this happened constantly both in the first and second)

On the night of March 28-29, 2000, the temporary Vedensky District Department of Internal Affairs, staffed by police officers from the Perm region, with the Perm combined riot police detachment assigned to it, received an order from the commander of the Eastern Group of Federal Forces, Major General S.A. Makarov for the nomination of a riot police detachment with the support of the Vedeno commandant’s office for a special operation in the village of Tsentaroy in the neighboring Nozhai-Yurtovsky district.

On the morning of March 29, a convoy of 49 people (41 riot police officers from Perm and Berezniki, 8 soldiers of the commandant company of military unit 83590) moved to their destination to conduct an operation to check the passport regime and carry out other activities. The column consisted of three vehicles: an armored personnel carrier-80, a Ural-4320 vehicle and a ZIL-131 vehicle. Judging by the description of the battle, the Ural was in front, followed by the Zil, followed by the BTR-80. Having passed near Zhani-Vedeno, at height 813, the ZIL engine overheated and the convoy stopped. Judging by the timer on the video recording of one of the riot police officers, the column stood for a long period of time.

Shortly before this, a detachment of militants under the command of Abu-Kuteib Jamal, one of Khattab’s close associates, entered the same village. Abu Kuteib had quite a lot of experience in combat operations. Born in 1960 in Saudi Arabia, he made his mark in Bosnia in 1995, where he lost his leg. He took part in the first Chechen war, in the second he was responsible for propaganda, organized several operations, including an attack on a Perm riot police column, and also organized the invasion of Ingushetia. in 2004 he was blocked in Malgobek and died. So, in Abu Kuteib’s gang at that time, in addition to Chechens, there were also people from the North Caucasus republics and foreign mercenaries. The illegal armed groups are located in holiday homes.

A video recording was preserved, which was filmed by one of the riot policemen, Sergei Udachin. There is a recording of 18 minutes.

The shooting timer was set from 3/29/2000 6:42

6-42 The first minutes are shooting the landscape after the column stops. As we can see, no reconnaissance was carried out, people just stand and look around, filming the mosque.

7-42. Filming of a separate house to which ONE (!!!) column commander, Major Valentin Dmitrievich Simonov, approaches. The filming shows that he is armed only with a pistol, apparently a service pistol. He motions for the cameraman to go behind him and continue filming.

So, the column commander, Major Simonov, decided to single-handedly check a house located tens of meters from where the column stopped. (according to the militants, the major came to ask for water at the radiator, but when he saw the armed people he quickly got his bearings)

Major Simonov: Vanya!

Operator: What? Dmitrich! (patronymic Major Simonov)

Major Simonov inside the house: the beginning of the phrase is illegible... The machine gun lies on the ground... he won’t fight... agreed?

Operator: Yura, come in and run.

Major Simonov: illegible... put it down.... Deal…

Single shot

Shout: Aaah, Bitch! Bitches b...b

Shots.

7-44 camera falls and does not move

Shots from grenade launchers, automatic and machine gun fire... the recording goes on for another 15 minutes.

Apparently, Major Simonov went into the shed to ask for water for the ZiL, at that moment there were 2-3 militants there (perhaps they came in to warm up). He tried to take them one with a pistol. Walid twitched, Simonov shot, and then they killed him. In response, one of the militants opened fire. Major Simonov was killed. Thus, from the very beginning of the battle the column was deprived of leadership. At the same time, shelling from small arms and grenade launchers began.

Since the fighters did not dismount when the column stopped, continued to sit in their cars and did not disperse throughout the area, they became an easy target. In the very first minutes of the battle, fire was opened on the policemen parachuting out of the truck, which led to numerous injuries and casualties. From the very beginning the battle followed standard tactics. An armored personnel carrier was hit by shots from an RPG (a cumulative projectile hit the engine compartment) and a Ural. The first and last cars. Then the ZiL was hit. The gunner of the burning armored personnel carrier turned the turret and opened fire on the hill, allowing the fighters to take up defensive positions. After the second hit on the armored personnel carrier, support from the armor stopped again.

According to Larisa Shilova, a psychologist who worked with survivors of this battle, Vasily Konshin took command of the entire detachment. He asked Private Dmitry Egorov to support the retreating soldiers with fire, notified everyone by radio about the shelling that had begun in the area of ​​Height 813. Today it is difficult to say what happened next, but most likely Private Egorov climbed onto the burning armored personnel carrier and opened fire again as much as he could.

Riot police officers and military personnel of the commandant's company took up the fight. As the bandits approached from different parts of the village, the fire on the column intensified. The last interception is at 16.45: “To all the guys who can shoot, hit singles!”

9-30. A detachment of military personnel from the commandant's company, Perm police officers and the Perm riot police was sent to help those who were ambushed from Vedeno. The second column was headed by the commandant of Vedeno, Colonel V. Tonkoshkurov, the head of the Vedeno VOVD, Colonel Yu. Ganzhin, his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel K. Strogiy, the commander of the Perm riot police. Lieutenant Colonel S. Gaba, tried to break through to the surrounded policemen, but before reaching them a few hundred meters, she herself was ambushed. Almost immediately the lead armored personnel carrier of the commandant's company was hit. After approximately 6 hours, the convoy returned to Vedeno. The losses of the second column were: the commandant's company - 15 wounded, the combined detachment of the Perm riot police - one wounded. During the battle between the militants and the second column, six people from the first column were able to escape from the encirclement. On March 30, a group of six people - five riot police officers and a soldier from the commandant's company - went out to their own.

On March 31, federal troops were able to reach height 813. The bodies of 31 dead and one riot policeman Alexander Prokopov, seriously wounded in both legs, were discovered (Alexander’s leg was subsequently amputated, but he remained to serve in the riot police). The fate of the remaining fighters by that time remained unknown. It later turned out that some of the fighters were captured and executed the next day in response to the refusal to exchange them for Colonel Yu.D. Budanova. The burial of 10 fighters was discovered on April 30 - May 1 near the village of Dargo. Almost all the bodies bore marks of torture.

As it turned out later, the police were not captured immediately. A small group of them tried to get out of the encirclement, constantly firing back, but they were only able to reach a small river, which they no longer had time to cross. Here they apparently ran out of ammunition. A large number of shell casings and an unexploded grenade were found around. One fighter was hit by machine gun fire near the bridge over the river and finished off with blows from a rifle butt. The rest were executed not far from this place.

The corpses of policemen, whom the Ministry of Internal Affairs considered missing, were found in two graves. The search team included military personnel who personally knew some of the missing. They immediately identified four fighters from the Berezniki detachment of the Perm riot police - police warrant officers Yuri Avetisov, Sergei Malyutin, Evgeniy Prosvirnev and private Evgeniy Rzhanov. After this, the bodies were sent for examination to Rostov-on-Don, to the 124th laboratory.

Perm riot police officers also went there with medical records and photographs of their fallen comrades. According to the head of the press service of the Perm Department of Internal Affairs, Igor Kiselev, identification was very difficult. “Our guys who returned from Rostov said that within 15 minutes after the bodies were lifted from the ground, the skin on their faces began to turn black, and after another half hour, it began to decompose. Identification was also made difficult by the fact that the militants mocked some of the riot police and their faces were disfigured. Therefore, they were identified immediately by many signs. Some fighters were recognized by their tattoos; two of them still had their personal numbers. The peculiarities of the clothing of individual riot policemen also helped,” Kiselyov said.

Dead soldiers of the commandant's company

Dead Perm policemen

An examination of the bodies made it possible to establish the circumstances of the death of the policemen. According to the head of the 124th laboratory, Vladimir Shcherbakov, the death of the soldiers was “as a result of cut wounds to the neck.” In other words, the militants cut their throats.

In the end, all the dead were identified. In addition to the above, these are police lieutenant Alexander Zazdravnykh, sergeants Dmitry Makarov and Eduard Tarasov, junior sergeants Evgeny Kireev and Grigory Uzhegov.

ORT report on the evacuation of the bodies of the dead. The report is good in terms of pictures and unique footage, but the version with a prepared ambush remained a version and at the trial the version was accepted that there was no ambush, but in fact it was carelessness

TVC TV channel report on the death of riot police of the Perm region in the Vedeno district of Chechnya on March 29, 2000

Column losses

36 Perm policemen and 7 servicemen of the commandant company were killed in battle, captured and executed. The number of wounded is 2 and 15, respectively.

Police Major Valentin Dmitrievich Simonov (06/12/1965 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Berezniki Internal Affairs Directorate),
Senior police lieutenant Vasily Anatolyevich Konshin (01/14/1967 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region),
Senior police lieutenant Evgeniy Stanislavovich Turovsky (9.09.1963 - 29.03.2000, riot police at the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region),
Senior police lieutenant Metguliev Albert Gurbandurdyevich (07/18/1965 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region),
Police Lieutenant Zazdravnykh Alexander Viktorovich (01/24/1966 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police Lieutenant Albert Vladimirovich Kananovich (11/24/1972 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police Lieutenant Kuznetsov Yuri Anatolyevich (09/05/1966 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Senior police warrant officer Sergei Borisovich Sobyanin (04/19/1971 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Senior police warrant officer Yuri Igorevich Avetisov (08/2/1970 - 03/29/2000, OMON at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police ensign Annenkov Andrey Vyacheslavovich (02/06/1969 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Okhansky district of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm region),
Police ensign Andrey Vyacheslavovich Zyryanov (12/20/1970 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police warrant officer Mikhail Valerievich Lomakin (10/26/1974 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Police warrant officer Muntyan Valery Vladimirovich (10/31/1975 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police ensign Sergei Viktorovich Malyutin (01/24/1975 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Police ensign Prosvirnev Evgeniy Vladimirovich (05/14/1975 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Gornozavodsky district of the Perm region),
Police ensign Shaikhraziev Marat Farsovich (01/08/1965 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police sergeant Alexander Viktorovich Kistanov (03/24/1970 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Perm district of the Perm region),
Police sergeant Yuri Egorovich Permyakov (03/21/1973 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police sergeant Alexey Nikolaevich Ryzhikov (07/08/1978 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Police sergeant Vitaly Yurievich Sergeev (08/12/1967 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Police sergeant Sergei Igorevich Udachin (05/24/1962 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Senior police sergeant Zyuzyukin Alexander Borisovich (10/1/1977 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Senior police sergeant Morozov Vyacheslav Valerievich (12/17/1972 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk district of Perm),
Senior police sergeant Vladimir Ivanovich Okulov (07/2/1974 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of Tchaikovsky, Perm Region),
Senior police sergeant Alexander Yurievich Pervushin (01/5/1976 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Cherdynsky district of the Perm region),
Senior police sergeant Vadim Vyacheslavovich Pushkarev (12/7/1971 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berezniki, Perm Region),
Police sergeant Vitaly Anatolyevich Efanov (08/31/1977 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Krasnovishersky District of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region),
Police sergeant Dmitry Viktorovich Makarov (01/3/1973 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Police sergeant Eduard Ivanovich Tarasov (08/26/1974 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Junior police sergeant Vladimir Yuryevich Emshanov (10/6/1978 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Junior police sergeant Evgeniy Ivanovich Kireev (02/28/1977 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Junior police sergeant Evgeniy Vladimirovich Tostyakov (10/6/1978 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Junior police sergeant Grigory Mikhailovich Uzhegov (09/12/1977 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department),
Junior police sergeant Oleg Anatolyevich Davydov (09/25/1965 - 03/29/2000, riot police at the Berezniki police department of the Perm region police department),
Junior police sergeant Sergei Vitalievich Igitov (06/29/1977 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the Motovilikha district of Perm),
Private police officer Evgeniy Vyacheslavovich Rzhanov (06/10/1977 - 03/29/2000, Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Kungur, Perm region).

Soldiers of the commandant's company killed in battle, captured and executed:

Corporal Obraztsov Gennady,
Private Nikolenko Sergey Anatolyevich,
Private Karpukhin Andrey Petrovich,
Private Sasin Sergei Viktorovich,
Private Nizamov Zenur Adlyamovich,
Private Efimov Dmitry Yurievich

Investigation and trial

On March 31, 2000, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Rushailo, and the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel General Yuri Baluevsky, went to the scene of the incident. An internal investigation was conducted. In February 2001, the materials were transferred to the main department of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus.

After the discovery of a burial place containing the bodies of the dead on May 1, they were transported to Rostov-on-Don for identification and examination. It was almost impossible to identify several riot police without an examination. Four were identified on the spot - police warrant officers Yuri Avetisov, Sergei Malyutin, Evgeniy Prosvirnev and private Evgeniy Rzhanov.

During the investigation, the version was accepted that there was no special ambush on the convoy. This statement was based on the testimony of the militants who participated in that battle (their trial took place in Makhachkala in the spring and summer of 2001) and a map of the battle site. The militants had to shoot up the slope, which most likely would have been excluded if the position had been chosen in advance. Also in favor of the absence of an ambush is the fact that the shelling of the column intensified over time, as groups of militants approached from other houses in the village. But a fatal set of circumstances - a car breakdown, the discovery of a group of militants in a house on the outskirts of the village - led to tragic consequences. Perhaps, after resting, the militants would have gone into the mountains unnoticed.

On the other hand, there is an opinion that the breakdown of the car led to the fact that the convoy did not reach the ambush site. In the opinion of a number of employees, the following spoke in favor of a prepared ambush: pre-equipped and camouflaged positions, observation posts placed along the direction of the column's movement.

Residents of the Buynaksky district of Dagestan - Imanshamil Ataev (who was on the federal wanted list) (brother of the leader of the Karamakh Wahhabis Mukhtar Ataev), Ata Mirzaev, Khairulla Kuzaaliev, Mahdi Magomedov and Gadzhi Batirov. Despite the fact that the detainees denied their participation in gangs, the investigation was able to find evidence of their involvement in the attack on Perm riot police. Later they managed to detain two more - Circassian Shamil Kitov and Tatar Eduard Valiakhmetov. None of them pleaded guilty.

This is such an amazing story, as a result of which not a single Chechen was harmed, yes.

Article about Eduard Valiakhmetov

The shooting case revealed murderous facts

Defendant Valiakhmetov said that he came to Chechnya in early February 2000 at the insistence of his parents: “My mother and father wanted me to study the Koran and the basics of Islam.” This was confirmed to a Kommersant correspondent by Edward’s mother, Saniyat, who arrived in Makhachkala, dressed in accordance with all the rules prescribed by the Koran for a Muslim woman. “We really thought that only in Chechnya could our boy learn the purity of Islam,” she complained. In one of the camps, Valiakhmetov was given the name Abdulla, since the name Eduard, as they explained to him, was of non-Muslim origin. Even in a letter to his parents, he called himself Abdullah. After three weeks of training, Valiakhmetov, together with another accused Shamil Kitov, ended up in the detachment of the Arab Abu Kuteib. But just a couple of days later, the militants suspected that the recruits were FSB agents...

The detachment of militants constantly moved and took prisoners with them everywhere. Valiakhmetov described the route in detail, clearly named the settlements and even the regions of Chechnya that they crossed. At the end of March, the detachment in which he was located found itself near the village of Zhani-Vedeno.

“We were settled near the village in two abandoned houses. One morning I woke up to the noise of machine gun fire. Sleepy militants, dressing and loading weapons as they went, ran towards a small height (near it a column of Perm riot police was attacked). Among them, I saw Shamil Kitov, who had a grenade launcher in his hands and three shots fired at him,” Valiakhmetov said during the interrogation, which was recorded on video and shown at the trial. All the riot police captured, he said, were taken to a small gorge, where they were guarded by Arabs. Meanwhile, the battle continued half a kilometer away. The Karamakhites who had previously guarded Valiakhmetov were not there - they took part in that battle. Already in the evening, when the detachment united, Valiakhmetov witnessed the execution of one of the riot police. “On the ground, leaning on a shovel, stood an ensign. When the militants began loudly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’, the policeman fell to his knees and began to ask not to kill him. He said that he would fight on their side. But the enraged Wahhabis no longer heard anything. They took off the warrant officer’s shirt, then one Chechen came up and hit him on the head with the butt of a machine gun and cut his throat as he was already lying on the ground”...

However, in his other testimony, Valiakhmetov excluded the episode with Kitov. Based on this, the investigator did not charge the latter with direct participation in the attack on the Perm riot police. During the video interrogation, Valiakhmetov, and then Kitov, listed in detail the names of the Karamakh residents who participated in the raid and their signs. Later, according to investigators, they identified them from photographs. However, at the trial, both unexpectedly stated that they were mistaken, since completely different people were sitting in the dock. One of the participants in that battle, a Perm riot policeman, could not stand it and told the judge: “There they were all dirty, overgrown, with beards, and today they are trimmed and shaved. Naturally, in this situation, these are different people.”

When asked by the judge and the state prosecutor what caused the changes in their testimony, both defendants replied that they were subjected to physical pressure and acted according to the investigator’s script even before they were interrogated during video filming. According to them, the names of the defendants were suggested to them by police officers. Immediately, one by one, the lawyers began to raise their defendants and arrange impromptu confrontations, asking the same question: “Have you seen this man among the militants before?” The answer was a sluggish denial: “I only saw these people during the trial.”

These are the things, and there are no Chechens, and I’m not my cow, I was in captivity, that’s how it is.

Sentences

Mahdi Magomedov received the most. True, the court considered his participation in the attack on the riot police unproven, but found him guilty of creating illegal armed groups in the village of Karamakhi in 1997-1999 and of participating in battles against federal forces. For this, he received 21 years of strict regime with confiscation of property and another 12 thousand rubles fine for using a fake passport.

Ata Mirzoev was found guilty of participating in illegal armed groups, shooting a convoy of riot police, as well as hijacking and destroying an armored personnel carrier. He was given 19 years of strict regime with confiscation of property.

Khairulla Kuzaaliev is guilty of the fact that during the shooting of the column, together with a group of Karamakh residents, he covered a possible bypass of the defended heights by riot police. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he did not enter into battle. Sentenced to 16 years of strict regime with confiscation.

Another participant in the attack, Gadzhi Batirov, received 14 years of strict regime.

The court was lenient towards Eduard Valiakhmetov and Shamil Kitov, whose testimony formed the basis for the charges against the other defendants. The first was sentenced to two and a half years, the second to three years of strict regime. Both were immediately amnestied and released from custody.

Based on the results of the internal audit, it was established that the cause of the tragedy was considered to be the ill-considered actions of the leadership of the Perm riot police, who ordered their soldiers to advance without army cover.

Reasons for losses

1. Inconsistency of actions and lack of necessary skills in leading columns and conducting combat in mountainous terrain.

2. Lack of reconnaissance of the convoy's route.

3. There was no interaction with the units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The route of movement was not agreed upon with the senior military commander in whose area of ​​responsibility he was located.

4. There was no cover for the column; the column moved without military guards and did not maintain the required distance.

5. There was no interaction with artillery and aviation (there was none).

6. The command staff of the group did not know the radio frequencies of the units covering this area or their call signs.

In general, it is not clear what such a weak detachment was doing in that part of the Chechen Republic, because quite large forces of illegal armed formations were deployed there, and again there is inconsistency.
From the memories of survivors

Police Lieutenant Vladimir Kurakin:

They were preparing a serious ambush for us. We dug full profile trenches. Well camouflaged. You can’t take such cover either from an RPG or with a fly. But... we did not reach the main forces of the ambush. The car broke down. After a while we learned that we had passed through 8-9 Chechen posts. They passed us from hand to hand and “led” the column. The bag slammed shut.

That's where it started. Machine guns and machine guns hit from all sides. The armored personnel carrier went to the head of the column to support the guys with fire. The “spirits” set fire to the first Ural. Then they set fire to the armored personnel carrier. The crew fell out of the burning car and took up defensive positions. One boy returned to the burning car. And he watered the “spirits” from the turret machine gun. He shot until the grenade launcher went off a second time. I saw pieces of metal flying from the tower. The soldier burned...

Several of us climbed under the ZIL. They took up a perimeter defense and fired back. “Spirits” riddled the entire car. Fuel was leaking from the gas tank onto the ground. We were lying in a puddle of gasoline. They could flare up at any moment. We decided to crawl out onto a small hill. There, on a high-rise building, were several of our guys. Someone had already been killed, someone was wounded. Behind a thin tree lay Sergei Malyutin. He had a sniper rifle. The trunk of the tree is cut by bullets. It is not visible where they are shooting from. Sergei shouts to us: “You can’t see anything!..”

We see that they are surrounding us from all sides. They shout: “Give up! We will kill you lightly..."

Vitaly Epifanov stood up to his full height. He hit the Czechs with a machine gun. He was lucky for a few minutes. But one line got to him. Fell dead.

Here the “spirits” switched their attention to the second column, which was coming to our rescue. We took advantage of this and rolled into the gorge. We decided to leave the encirclement by water. The water is noisy, the rubble of stones and bushes hide.

We came to a small bridge. Further along the road. The "spirits" noticed us. We lay down in a hollow and prepared to take on the last battle. There were 15 - 20 meters left. Mines whistled. It thundered six times - a mine for each of us. But the mortars didn’t hit us. The “spirits” were scattered and they helped us. I ordered to retreat to ours. We heard and even saw the second column fighting. And then I heard on the radio: “We are surrounded, we are retreating!” The battle began to subside.

We slid into a cliff. They hung on the branches and roots of trees. Like Christmas tree decorations. They hung like that for several hours.

Then the helicopters arrived and began working on the militants’ location. The first salvo hit... our positions. I gave a green rocket - “our people are here.” And red - towards the Chechen positions. They were well beaten by helicopter pilots, attack aircraft and mortars. But night fell on the mountains.
I walked first, the rest followed me in a line. Each one kept a hand on his friend's shoulder. I'll stop - everyone got up. I sat down and everyone sat down.

My nerves were already on edge. Suddenly we hear Russian speaking. Our? Not ours? I ask: “Password?” They answered me: “Ryazan! Review?" But we don't know him. They didn't shoot each other by accident. It turned out that this was airborne reconnaissance. The guys came to our aid.

Five riot policemen and one contract soldier came out of that meat grinder. Two days later, when our people arrived at the battlefield, they found the wounded, half-dead Alexander Prokopov. He was wounded in the leg. I lost a lot of blood, but I put a tourniquet on myself. The doctor, in the heat of battle, managed to throw him an ampoule of promedol. So he held out until ours arrived.

These jackals walked around the battlefield and finished off our people. All the guys were given control shots either in the head or neck. And ten Wakhi guys were captured. Most likely, the guys were severely shell-shocked and could not offer resistance. The scouts then found bandages, bloody socks and boots... They took the guys away barefoot. Looks like they were tortured. It is unknown when they were executed. Their bodies were later found far from the battle site.
When we took the bodies of the dead, we saw everything. One had his skull crushed with a rifle butt. Another had a cross on his nose. They even mocked the dead. And how did the living get it...

From the diary of Vladimir Port

March 28, 2000

General Sikerin arrived (at that time the head of the Perm City Internal Affairs Directorate, currently retired. - Ed.). With him is the mayor of Perm and his entire retinue. We waited and prepared better than for the minister’s arrival. In the end, it's a total bummer. The general looked into the police department from the helipad for about 20 minutes and immediately drove off to the commandant’s office for lunch. Because of this, our lunch was delayed by 3 hours.

The humanitarian cargo is as follows: a loaf of bread for 23 people, a birch broom for 3 people, a bottle of mineral water for 1.5 people and 4 packs of cigarettes per soldier. All. And we waited and hoped.

The general drove around Vedeno, handed books and toys to schoolchildren and stopped at the department again for 30 minutes. I went into two cockpits while the crew was being built and preparing for the presentation of awards. He approached the line and briefly told them that the replacement would be stage-by-stage and that in general everything was fine with us here. He presented the shoulder straps of the lieutenant colonel to the beginning. SKM (criminal police service. - Ed.) and at the first shots of the mortars, the fire of which we called to hit the spotted mortar point on the mountain, hurried to the helicopter.

March 29, 2000

A dark day, a terrible day. Just the day before, via radio interception, the Wakhs promised us coffins instead of letters. And so it happened. By order of Major General Makarov (deputy commander), in the morning a detachment of the Perm riot police, accompanied by an armored personnel carrier of the commandant company in two Urals, went out to clear the village. Tsentoroi village. A total of 45 people. At 9:02 a.m. on the radio station, detachment commander Art. Lieutenant V.P. Konshin reported that the detachment was ambushed in square 58-96 at a height of 813°. There are two hundredth and three hundredth (killed and wounded - Ed.). Armored personnel carriers and cars are on fire. The Czechs lured the guys into a trap and beat them at will. We will find out the details later (if we find out), but even now it is clear that the operation was carefully planned on their part. There is an assumption that Gelayev’s gang worked.

Beginning VOVD Ganzhin decided to send a second column to help and led it himself. A detachment of 61 people (31 - VOVD, 20 - OMON, 10 - VV) on two armored personnel carriers, a KamAZ and two UAZ vehicles moved to the battle area. When approaching square 58-94, the column was ambushed. Three three-hundredths appeared within the first minute. The fire was very dense, and forward movement became impossible. People lay down. The commander requested assistance with boxes (infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) - Ed.) and aviation. The guys lay under fire and waited for help. Ganzhin asked his brothers on the radio to be patient, to hold on, and said that help was already nearby. But the riot police made contact less and less often.

The helicopters arrived, the commandant went to the battle area and took charge of the battle. Mortars were brought up, but it was very difficult to adjust their fire. It is even more difficult to adjust aviation fire. There was no contact with the “turntables”; there was nothing to give target designation. There weren't enough green flares to mark their place.

4 infantry fighting vehicles of paratroopers arrived. Under their cover, the detachment tried to break through to the encircled. Only 500 - 600 m did not reach them. The fire from the “Czechs” was so dense that the commander decided to retreat. The “Czechs” fired not only from small arms, but also from grenade launchers and mortars. Several boxes caught fire, and many three hundredths appeared. “Czech” on the radio was drowning out the conversations of our groups, and we had to constantly change channels. But he has a scanner, and again his dog voice filled the airwaves with threats.

At 14.40 the riot police made contact for the last time. The command was as follows: “Everyone who can still shoot, fire individually on the slopes of the mountain.” All. The guys ran out of cartridges, the snipers did not let them raise their heads. The second column came out from under fire with 16 three-hundredths. They were evacuated by helicopter to Khankala. Two heavy ones. Looks like they won't deliver. From our department, Warrant Officer Valery Alekseevich Lisitsyn from Dobryanka received a concussion. Still not understanding anything and staggering like a drunk, he stood his ground at the helicopter and refused to fly to the rear. They made me sit down by force. They carried the guys out of the armored personnel carriers in their arms, with broken legs, bloodied, and burnt.

Our driver Art. was with the riot police in the first column. Sergeant Morozov Vyacheslav Valerievich. His fate is unknown. Artillery, aircraft and mortars struck with cutting fire, covering more and more squares, but the Chechen continued to mock us on the radio.

It was decided to send a third column of paratroopers to help, and it went to the battle area. But then General Makarov ordered her to return to Vedeno. We are shocked. How can you leave the guys? After all, there are still 2 - 3 hours of daylight and hope that not everyone died. But we don’t make decisions, we only carry out orders. We all understand that we betrayed the guys, but we can’t do anything.

Night is approaching, and the hope that the guys will be saved is fading by the minute. The "turntables" are already in the dark delivering the final blows in the battle area. The mortars are firing endlessly. Heavy self-propelled shells rumble past us towards the mountains. It's painful and embarrassing. The guys were betrayed, we were all betrayed. Everyone understands this, from major to private.

According to the Department of Internal Affairs, readiness No. 1 in the morning. The guards have been strengthened. The fighters are all in the trenches and on blocks. It's going to be a sleepless night. Group headquarters constantly demand more accurate data, as if we can see the battlefield from the fortress and count losses. So far 16 three hundredths. It is still impossible to comprehend this, much less come to terms with the idea that young guys are lying in a gorge and bandits are mocking them. Maybe someone is still alive, but how can I help? I, a healthy and strong man, am sitting in the duty room hung with grenades, loaded with magazines, missiles and God knows what else, and I can’t do anything to help my fellow countrymen. Wild, insulting and embarrassing.

March 30, 2000

At 2 a.m. the commandant’s office reported that five riot police and one contract soldier had come out to them. The joy is great, but how to drown out the pain of loss?!
All night and all day, a military operation is being carried out to destroy the group. The radio interception is contradictory. The FSB proves that they intercepted a message about the death of 07th. According to their call sign, this is Maskhadov. And yesterday it was Basayev himself who supposedly contacted us, they identified his voice. Maybe it's true. And I sent him on the radio...

Reconnaissance near Dzhana-Vedeno discovered a whole viper nest, Maskhadov’s headquarters. The village no longer exists, it was razed to the ground. And we are on the defensive. It's a shame. We have weapons, ammunition, and most importantly, just a frantic desire for revenge. Four days ago we found a BMP-2 (infantry fighting vehicle. - Ed.) and a BMD-1 (airborne combat vehicle. - Ed.) buried near a hospital in Vedeno. They dug it up, dragged it to the department, and washed it. The infantry fighting vehicle is faulty, but the infantry fighting vehicle can be put into motion. And all this stands idle, just like our MLTBeshki (small light armored tractor - Ed.). Moreover, no one needs “Gorchak” - an armored cap worth 3 million without machine guns and a grenade launcher. Sikerin promised to send another one. Who needs him here?
The guys sit without cigarettes, eat only soup and porridge, crackers instead of bread, and they bring us birch brooms. Thank you, at least not the crosses.
Now a message has been received that the troops have retreated from Dzhanoi-Vedeno, because they met very stubborn resistance. According to preliminary data, there are more than a thousand militants. We will “make” them anyway. Necessarily!

March 31, 2000

It's been a tedious wait since the morning. Thoughts only about the fate of the riot police. The federals advanced after intensively clearing the area with air and artillery fire. No news yet.

Colonel Aronin arrived, chief. The Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Chechen Republic, some other generals. We are waiting for Rushailo's arrival. All the efforts of the VOVD leadership come down to one thing - to shift the blame for what happened onto someone else. Again the command is for everyone to clean up and shave their beards. Should I think about this now? Freaks! Ganzhin (head of the Vedensky VOVD, removed from his post after the execution of the Perm riot police, now works in the police in Perm. - Ed.) did not appear in front of the police officer, he drove off to the commandant’s office. Everyone was shaved after all.

The investigative team went to the scene of the battle, along with our correspondent Marina Maltseva with a video camera. They waited for the minister all day, but he remained in Khankala. I called Ganzhin and the military commandant there. According to reconnaissance data, we are blocked on both sides of the gorge. A large group of up to 1,200 people blocked the road near Serzhen-Yurt. On the Dagestan side, near Dargo, the gorge is occupied by a group of up to 800 militants. We're in the bag. In Vedeno, there were 396 of us left together with the riot police. Another commandant company and a battalion of the 66th Parachute Regiment near Dzhanoi-Vedeno. There are still Sobrov members in Avtury, but we don’t know how many there are. All.

The feds, of course, will crush the “spirits” on both sides and push them all the way to Vedeno. Therefore, the entire army is again digging trenches and communication passages. The “trophy” infantry fighting vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles were buried in the ground, the entire ammo load (ammunition - Ed.) was distributed from the weapons store. According to calculations, it will be enough for a maximum of half a day of intense battle. What's next? There is little hope for “turntables” and artillery; they still need to correctly indicate the target.

Already in the dark, the SOG (investigative and operational group) returned from the battlefield. The worst was confirmed. On one slope of the mountain they found 27 corpses of our guys, on the opposite 7 more. Our driver Morozov burned out in the cabin of the Ural when he tried to turn it around. They identified everyone, but so far only 19 guys have been taken out. One corpse was mined. The sappers first tugged at all the corpses with cats. Marina immediately felt ill and was unable to finish filming.

Almost all Berezniki residents died. The “Czechs” finished off the wounded at point-blank range with shots to the forehead or neck. One wounded boy (a tourniquet was tied around his leg) had his ear cut off and thrown nearby, his skull was broken with a rifle butt, and an icon was sticking out of his mouth. Nonhumans, scoundrels! The guys were beaten by choice. Moreover, the snipers first aimed at the legs, and then finished them off. They are lying in whole groups, apparently they were beaten when they bandaged each other. One had his entire body torn apart by a direct hit from a grenade launcher. Another was pierced through the back, and the bullet got stuck in a broken magazine lying in the unloading area. Everyone's pockets were turned out, everything was taken. Many are undressed and shoeless. The “spirits” took the weapons with them. It seems that several wounded guys who were still able to walk were taken with them. The footprints show that the guys were taken away barefoot: their boots and bloody bandages and socks were found. Those who could not go were finished off. It's terrible and unbearably painful. There is such a burden on our souls that it seems that it will weigh on us for all the remaining years. They also found an artillery spotter; he was covered with mines. Like this.
There is also good news. They found a riot police officer wounded in the leg and shell-shocked. He lay on the rocks in the rain for almost three days, hungry and barely alive. What did this guy go through?

But, according to operational information, it has long been known about the presence of gangs in this area. Our criminal intelligence transmitted this information in secret encryption on the eve of the battle to the group’s headquarters. But from there they demanded active action from us - and now we got it...

Now everyone is blaming our commanders. They did not organize cover, reconnaissance, or work out the route. All this is true. They threw the guys into a meat grinder. But at the same time, no one ever gave us any cover, especially air cover. Even during the elections, the guys drove around the wild mountain villages in UAZs and armored personnel carriers, guarding the commandant’s office and a couple of polling stations in Vedeno. Why was it necessary to withdraw troops? What, the war is already over? Just to report.

The media churns out such nonsense that it’s sickening to listen to. We ourselves here on the spot do not have all the information in full, but there they know everything on TV. Marasmus.

They also dug up the corpse of an Arab, the “Czechs” buried the mercenaries, and carried away their own. There's a hole right in his forehead. There's no road there. Yesterday two more were buried in Vedeno. Probably from there too.