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A soldier with gangrene was admitted to the hospital on January 4th. But only now did the generals sound the alarm - after the prosecutor’s office, as it admitted, with great difficulty, “overcoming mutual responsibility,” proved that the fighter Sychev was the victim of a completely wild orgy of demobilization
NTV
Chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluevsky personally made a special statement, expressing indignation both at the emergency itself and at the fact that the leaders of neither the school nor the Volga-Ural Military District (PUrVO) knew anything about the state of affairs in this unit.
NTV
Details of the wild incident at the Chelyabinsk Tank School, when, due to the bullying of the “grandfathers,” private Andrei Sychev had to amputate both legs and genitals, are becoming public knowledge. The drunken "grandfathers" forced the private of the support battalion, Sychev, to "make a chair" and "watch TV." The military is trying to hide the information that he was raped by all means. But Defense Minister Ivanov “knew nothing.” Being “high in the mountains,” he arrogantly declared that if nothing was reported, then nothing significant had happened.
Later, when the head of the Ministry of Defense came down from the mountains, he was informed about what had happened at the school. 25 days after the crime in the troops entrusted to him, Ivanov was able to state: “I am aware of the incident, the Chief of the General Staff, Army General Baluevsky, has been instructed to join the official investigation. We will announce the results of the investigation after its completion. We will not cover up for anyone.”
Idealists have already stated that the Minister of Defense must, in order to preserve the honor of the uniform and officer, although he is a man and a purely civilian. (Voting on the resignation of Defense Minister Ivanov). The majority of those surveyed by the Ekho Moskvy radio station supported the need for the resignation of Defense Minister Ivanov (95% of respondents). A total of 9,199 people took part in the telephone survey.
For now, the only personnel consequence of this incident is the upcoming Chelyabinsk Tank School, which will be accelerated after the incident. However, it is not yet clear whether it will still be disbanded or not. However, Colonel General Vladimir Moltenskoy, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, who announced this, later refuted himself, saying that the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Tank Command School will not be closed in the coming years.
The senators decided to demand strict punishment for those responsible for this emergency, as well as those who hid information about the crime.
The State Duma decided that it was necessary to hold parliamentary hearings on the situation in the armed forces. Nikolai Bezborodov, a member of the State Duma Committee on Defense, said that it is necessary to provide for a number of changes in legislation.
Members of the Public Chamber of Russia also decided to discuss the crime at the Chelyabinsk Tank School.
Interfax, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, reports that another officer was detained in this case - the commander of one of the units, who was responsible for the battalion on January 3. Thus, the number of military personnel detained in the case of beating Sychev has reached seven, of which three are officers.
A soldier with gangrene was admitted to the hospital on January 4th. But only now the generals sounded the alarm - after the prosecutor’s office, as it admitted, with great difficulty, “overcoming mutual responsibility,” proved that the soldier Sychev became a victim of an orgy of demobilization, with the full connivance of the commanders who celebrated the New Year holidays with a mass beating of young soldiers, emphasizes “ Time for news."
According to the newspaper, Sychev complained to his commanders for several days about pain in his legs, but he was sent to the hospital only after the private was unable to go into formation. During the examination, civilian doctors recorded gangrene in both legs and numerous fractures. After the first operation, Andrei Sychev had part of his left leg removed, but his condition remained critical, and last week both legs and genitals were amputated. He emerged from his coma only last week to write the name of his tormentor. Now the soldier’s condition remains serious.
The head of the military school, Viktor Sidorov, assures that “everything that is being said now is 90% untrue.” He told his version to Izvestia: “In fact, it was like this: on January 4, Private Sychev turned to the head of the medical service, Maksimov, with a complaint of pain in his left leg. Maksimov examined him. The initial diagnosis was erysipelas of the left leg. Sychev was given first aid. But the next day there was no improvement, and he was taken to the garrison military hospital. He did not complain about anything except his leg. On January 6, he was transferred to the city hospital. There he was immediately offered to have an operation, but on January 7 he refused the operation. “They did it. Doctors examined him. There was no mention of bruises.”
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, a group of old-timers beat not only Sychev, but eight young colleagues for several days during the holidays. And on the night of January 1, Sergeant Sevyakov, who was intoxicated, “for the purpose of mockery and mockery,” forced Sychev to remain in a semi-squat state for three hours and at the same time struck him in the legs. As a result of this violence, the victim experienced positional compression of the lower extremities and genitals, which led to the development of gangrenous inflammation.
The soldier’s sister Marina, according to her brother, told Kommersant that the “grandfathers” kept him tied to a chair for four hours and beat him: “This is a standard procedure, this is how old-timers “educate” the young.” However, Sychev was tied so tightly that he began to experience tissue necrosis.
A high-ranking source in the Chelyabinsk military garrison, on condition of anonymity, told Vremya Novostey that during the abuse, Private Sychev was also raped for several hours. The source claims that military prosecutors know about the rape, but the top Moscow leadership, fearing for the image of the armed forces, is opposed to the publicity of these facts.
The Russian Minister of Defense was not reported about the beating of soldiers in the Chelyabinsk region. Sergei Ivanov knows nothing about the terrible tragedy, which has been in the media spotlight for two weeks now.
Later on Thursday evening, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov said today that the military department will not cover up the perpetrators of the emergency in the support battalion of the Chelyabinsk Tank School. He instructed the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Yuri Baluevsky, to join the investigation of this serious incident.
“The General Staff and the Chief of the General Staff joined the official investigation in Moscow yesterday. It is underway and will be completed. We do not intend to cover up anything, cover up or protect anyone,” Ivanov emphasized in a statement to the press during his visit 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri (Armenia).
Ivanov himself did not serve in the army. He took the oath in his 4th year at the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad State University during university military training near Leningrad. In 1976, he became a student of the KGB higher courses in Minsk, after which he went to work in the KGB of the USSR. In 1981, he graduated from School 101 of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR and went to work in foreign intelligence.
The head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, Valentina Melnikova, called Minister Ivanov's behavior unworthy.
“I think that now the Chief Military Prosecutor will tell the Minister of Defense what is happening in his troops,” she said.
“The Minister of Defense has once again shown himself, unfortunately, to be an ignorant and quite cruel person,” Melnikova said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “And, of course, his subordinates are to blame - even if he is in the mountains, even if his mobile phone does not work “But it’s impossible not to report such monstrous crimes; I believe that this is simply a deliberate concealment of the crime among the troops.”
Melnikova emphasized that “bullying soldiers, torture and harsh treatment cannot be called frivolously the word ‘hazing.’” “This is truly a crime against the individual,” she noted. “And as long as the army is conscripted, as long as the guys are sent there in handcuffs, as long as conscript soldiers and officers value a person and his life, health and dignity, such things will continue.” According to Melnikova, “no decisions, no directives can change that - in relations between military personnel, while they are all slaves in military units."
In connection with what happened, let us recall the words of Minister Ivanov, spoken back on April 2, 2003 in answers to readers " Komsomolskaya Pravda": "As for hazing, its roots are deep, dating back to Soviet times. The issue can be radically resolved by transferring the army to a voluntary form of recruitment. I’ll be honest: this won’t happen anytime soon.”
To eliminate hazing in the army, a whole range of measures is needed, including strict punishment for concealing information about violations. This was stated on the air of the Ekho Moskvy radio station by Viktor Ozerov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security. In his opinion, “hazing” “was, is and, probably, will always be in the armed forces, the main thing is how to use old-timers and in what direction to work with them.”
He emphasized that “it is necessary to increase the demand from officers for the training and education of subordinates, including old-timers, as well as to more effectively and harshly punish the perpetrators, all commanders and superiors.”
Commenting on the reaction of the Minister of Defense to the emergency in Chelyabinsk, he said: “It can’t be called anything other than a disgrace if the Minister of Defense on the 20th day after the incident does not know about what happened, therefore everyone who was involved at the stage of closing the information should bear the consequences strict liability, up to and including dismissal from the armed forces."
Officials of the Ministry of Defense must leave their posts after what happened in Chelyabinsk. If they do not do this, then the Minister of Defense himself should fire them, says the head of the Presidential Council for Assistance to the Development of Institutions civil society and human rights Ella Pamfilova.
She also noted that the Minister of Defense himself must decide whether or not to resign after the incident in Chelyabinsk.
Let us recall in this regard the version according to which the exposure of crimes and abuses taking place in the Armed Forces is a strategy aimed at focusing attention on the failure of the military reform carried out by Sergei Ivanov, his inability to ensure discipline, his “weaknesses” and "vulnerabilities".
Thus, in May 2005, the difficult relationship between the Minister of Defense and military prosecutors came to light. Chief Military Prosecutor Savenkov spoke about the decline in morale in the army, the criminal behavior of officers and injuries caused during the abuse of recruits, and a few days later he published “deadly statistics”: 46 soldiers who did not take part in hostilities died in a week.
At that time, speculation appeared in the foreign media that this was done in order to cast a shadow on the “favorite” - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is very often mentioned as a possible successor to Vladimir Putin as President of the Russian Federation.
Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Colonel General Vladimir Moltenskoy, said that the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Command Tank School, where a group of senior soldiers abused new recruits during the New Year holidays, will be disbanded.
But we note that the disbandment is planned - the decision to close was made by Moltensky himself during a visit to the Southern Urals last fall.
Now the general is only using what happened to speed up the disbandment of the school. It “is not entirely successful in terms of the professional training of future tank officers, and last year it was included in the plan for optimizing the universities of the Ground Forces, which will begin to be implemented in 2006. After the well-known emergency and unprecedented incident, this process will apparently be accelerated,” - Moltenskoy said today.
According to him, the current head of the school, Major General Viktor Sidorov, was appointed head of the Chelyabinsk school from the post of division commander about a year ago.
“It was expected that the new chief would get down to business properly, raise the professional training of future tank crews to a new level and strengthen military discipline and order in all units of this military educational institution. As we see, this did not happen,” Moltenskoy stated.
“The school most cynically violated the requirements of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces to strengthen educational work with subordinates, increase control and the demands of responsible officers and the operational duty service during the days of the New Year's holidays, which most likely influenced the tragedy that occurred,” the general said.
However, Moltenskoy later stated that the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Tank Command School would not be closed in the coming years.
“There is a federal target program for reforming military education, as well as a reform plan approved by the Minister of Defense, within the framework of which this school operates and will exist this and next years and graduate officers for the Armed Forces,” the general said.
“A special case cannot be connected with the fate of the school,” the deputy commander-in-chief emphasized, commenting on reports that appeared today in a number of media about the disbandment of this military university.
Let us recall that last fall the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk region sent an appeal to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov about preserving the Higher Military Command Tank School in Chelyabinsk.
Initially, options for liquidating tank institutes in Kazan, Chelyabinsk or the Primorsky Territory were considered. As a result, UralPolit reports, it was decided to close the tank institute in Chelyabinsk.
The Russian Ombudsman hopes that all those responsible will be punished
The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Vladimir Lukin, expresses the hope that during the investigation of the emergency at the Chelyabinsk Tank School, not only the junior command staff, but also the generals will be punished.
“Now it is very important who and how will bear responsibility for what happened. If only the junior sergeant who directly beat the soldier, then that’s one conversation. But the entire vertical chain of command should be held responsible for such things, including officers, generals - right down to the branches of the military,” - Lukin told Interfax on Thursday.
He called the statements of the leadership of the armed forces very strange that in eighty percent of the units there is no “hazing.” “It turns out that hazing is thriving in every fifth part?! When the army begins to fight with itself, the question arises - how can it ensure the security of the country,” Lukin noted.
He also criticized the military's statements that talk in the media about "hazing" discredits the army. “This is all nonsense. The army is discredited by the presence of hazing. But such conversations are absolutely necessary, we need strict public control over what is happening in the army,” Lukin emphasized.
In his opinion, a structure that would not depend on the Ministry of Defense should deal with such incidents. “Our report spoke about the need to create a military police that would not fit into the military vertical. But so far these proposals have not found support,” Lukin said.
Even now, when military service is only one year, very few guys actually want to be in the barracks. And what can we say about 2005, when you had to serve for two more years - many considered it hard labor. According to friends, Andrei Sergeevich Sychev was not one of them. He eagerly awaited the summons, which came to him in May 2005, and went to serve in the army. And already at the beginning of 2006, the whole of Russia learned about him. No, he did not become a military hero and did not deserve medals, he became a victim of incredible hazing. Even now, more than ten years later, Andrei Sychev is considered the most serious victim of this army order.
Public response
Nowadays, quite a few people remember what happened to soldier Andrei Sychev, but in 2006 this case turned out to be incredibly resonant. Everyone has known for a long time that hazing exists in the army, but in general no one even fought against it, considering such behavior by old-timers to be in the order of things. However, in this case, the “grandfathers” at the Chelyabinsk Tank School went too far.
Alexander Sivyakov, who was considered the main offender, was given only four years in prison. He came out a long time ago and started building new life, and his victim was left forever crippled due to amputation of his legs. As you know, the media are fickle, they are greedy for sensations, but with the advent of a new one they quickly forget about the old one, and therefore it is now almost impossible to say what the guilty persons are doing in life now. Ultimately, all that was left for former private Andrei Sychev was a three-room apartment, which was allocated to him on the direct orders of President Putin, and a crippled life.
Tragedy
A victim of hazing - that’s what Sychev was called in the newspapers; even after so many years, he prefers to say practically nothing about what happened on that January night. Usually he simply prefers to remain silent on this topic or says that he does not know. It is impossible to say why exactly he is silent, although it is likely that he simply does not want to relive such severe psychological trauma.
Based on the materials of the case of Private Sychev, in New Year's Eve the old-timers got drunk. They calmed down only at three o'clock in the morning, ordering the soldiers to clear everything from the table. After that everyone went to bed and everything was quiet. Then suddenly Sergeant Sivyakov ordered Sychev to get up from his bed and squat down in the far corner of the barracks. He himself sat down on a nearby chair to monitor the execution of the order.
Sivyakov, as is known, had previously periodically shown violence towards Andrei Sychev, but all this was of a lighter nature - insults, kicks. As the victim says, he repeatedly asked to be released, but this only angered the drunken sergeant.
The end of the story
According to information, the day after this incident, soldier Andrei Sychev began having problems with his left leg. She was so sick that the very next day he was unable to go to formation. He went to the infirmary, where he was given Aspirin and told to endure until January 10, since no one was going to bother with him during the New Year holidays. This became a fatal moment, since he subsequently had to be transported first to the hospital, and then to the city hospital of Chelyabinsk. The military remained silent until the last moment - only on the 6th the hospital doctor called the mother and told her to come, since the next day her child would undergo surgery to amputate his legs, and Sychev had practically no chance of survival.
Refusal of amputation
As you know, Andrei Sychev did not independently consent to the amputation; it was carried out because further delay would have led to death. Over the course of two months, this nineteen-year-old boy endured as many as six operations - five of them were amputations, and another was a cavity operation - due to severe stress, he developed a severe ulcer. After all this, one might say, only half of him remained - Andrei Sychev left the hospital as a completely different person, whom it was impossible to recognize as an acquaintance.
The mystery of the case
In the Sychev case, there really are a huge number of omissions, so the investigation was practically unable to obtain normal and clear answers to many of the questions posed. The military, the doctors, and even the victim himself, who is completely absorbed in himself, are silent. The two sides fought for their point of view during the trial, but a complete and unambiguous picture was never revealed.
"There was no hazing"
The most interesting question in the tragedy of Andrei Sychev remains what actually happened on that New Year's Eve.
The point of view adhered to by the Prosecutor General's Office was indicated above: Sychev spent about 3 hours squatting, while Sivyakov also kicked him.
The position of the military was also clear: there was absolutely no hazing. So stated the acting head of this military school, Anatoly Chuchvaga, none of the soldiers drank alcohol that night, everyone went to bed as scheduled. The officers who carried out the inspection did not reveal any violations, and therefore there was absolutely no fact of violence.
As you can understand, the positions of both sides - the prosecutor's office and the military - were presented very dryly and harshly. They showed no emotion at all about this case, and their testimony did not even have any compatible points. Sychev simply continued to remain silent, so that it seemed to many that he was forced to do this so that he would not reveal the real state of affairs.
Providing medical care
Another oddity in this situation was that Andrei Sychev was not provided with any medical assistance for such a long time. Yes, the first of January, the holidays, but this does not mean at all that the whole matter could be left to chance. And here again everything starts to be too mysterious. The military states that for several days after the New Year, no deterioration in the private’s health was detected. Only when they appeared, he was immediately provided with the required medical assistance. To be honest, this is hard to believe.
The prosecution adheres to a different version. According to their point of view, everything was much worse. According to the prosecutor's office, the victim could not walk normally immediately after the holiday, and then was unable to get out of bed at all. Andrei’s sister, Marina, directly states that she called her brother on January 3, and he told her that his legs hurt and he was being taken to the hospital. January 3, and this despite the fact that the military says that he went to the hospital only on the 4th. In fact, then 3 days somehow disappear, when the family knew nothing until the hospital surgeon contacted them. The military chose not to notify the mother about the operation at all.
Why did gangrene start?
Amputation of a limb is indeed a very scary operation for the patient. But in order for the doctor to decide to perform it, the presence of very serious gangrene is required. So why did it start in the first place, what caused it? At one time, there were 3 possible answers to this question.
- The military fully adhered to the version of self-mutilation. Allegedly, Sychev himself tied his legs with a tourniquet in order to damage them in order to leave the army. This version completely relieved the officers of all responsibility, and therefore was convenient for them.
- The second version appeared because of the soldier’s mother, Galina Petrovna. She admitted that her son used to have problems with his joints, but after a while they stopped. As they say, he was already sick, and therefore even a small blow could cause irreparable harm. When public outrage had already exceeded all limits, the military began to use this particular option.
- The third version belonged to the prosecutor's office and was based on data from military doctors, who stated that squatting for a long time can lead to blockage of the veins, and therefore the development of gangrene. From this it followed that the illness and subsequent amputation was entirely a consequence of bullying.
Authorities' reaction
The matter was indeed quite sensational in terms of funds mass media, and therefore the reaction of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quite surprising. He was generally unaware of such information and learned about the criminal case itself only later for a long time precisely from journalists. It is impossible to understand whether he really was so uninformed, but when he was asked at a press conference what his opinion was about the events in Chelyabinsk, he directly stated that since nothing was reported to him about it, then, apparently, nothing serious and it didn't happen. With his words, he really amazed the public, who did not know exactly how to react to such actions by a senior military official. A few days later, an unauthorized rally was held in support of the private right in front of the ministry building.
People's reaction
Not surprisingly, the people turned out to be more compassionate towards the soldier than the officials. As Andrei’s mother states, it was the support of ordinary people that helped her son survive these terrible days. Several events were held and money was also collected for a charity fund.
Hearing on the case
Officially the first hearings on this case began only on June 13, 2006. They were held in a closed format, so the media were not allowed. It is known that the military tried to transfer the case to Moscow for consideration, but such a request was denied. The hearing itself was already held on June 27. In total, there were three officially accused - Sergeant Sivyakov and two privates - Bilimovich and Kuzmenko.
And then strange things began to happen again. First of all, all six witnesses who were involved in the case completely recanted their testimony. Their argument was that during the investigation the prosecutor's office put pressure on them and even beat them. But at the same time, there was some information that the generals who arrived from Moscow were forced to take the testimony of all the witnesses. However, the real state of affairs was never clarified, and therefore only speculation remains.
Punishment of the culprit
Sergeant Sivyakov was recognized as the main culprit in the case of Andrei Sychev. He was charged under Article 286, namely “Exceeding official authority with the use of violence, resulting in grave consequences.” He independently admitted that he really beat the private, since traces of beatings were found on Andrei’s body, but denied that any of his actions could have led to such a tragic outcome.
Although the rank and file were found guilty, they also received a very mild punishment - suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 1 year. It is clear that the punishment was indeed very lenient, and then for some time the lawyers of both sides tried to appeal it, of course, each in his own direction.
Completion of the story
It is unknown whether the data on the case of Andrei Sychev will ever be fully made public, since they very much affected the conflict that existed at that time between the General Military Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Defense, but it is clear that for Andrei Sychev the army became a real nightmare. The boy who wanted to serve came out of it as a crippled disabled person who could not move independently or even have a family. All his dreams were dashed on that first day of a brand new year by the cruel act of his colleagues. By that time, it was already recognized that hazing in the army sometimes reached unacceptable proportions, but no one, perhaps, expected that it would actually result in such a scandal. After this, they began to pay noticeably more attention to the hazing that exists in the troops in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, although cases of hazing still appear from time to time.
, Sverdlovsk region, RSFSR, USSR) - a Russian citizen, gained fame in connection with a judicial investigation into the bullying of his colleagues during his military service, as a result of which he became disabled.
Facts of the case
“The investigation established that on the night of January 1, 2006, Sivyakov, who was intoxicated, for the purpose of mockery and bullying, forced Private Andrei Sychev to be in a semi-squat state for three hours, striking him in the legs. “As a result of this violence, the victim experienced positional compression of the lower extremities and genitals, which led to the development of gangrenous inflammation,” the prosecutor’s office reported. As a result, in January, Sychev had both legs amputated.”
This incident received wide publicity after one of the doctors at the Chelyabinsk hospital contacted the chairman of the Chelyabinsk Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers Lyudmila Zinchenko, and she already informed Andrei Sychev’s mother, Galina Pavlovna, about it.
Andrei's mother, Galina Pavlovna, called him on January 3 to wish him a Happy New Year. At the unit he was quickly called to the telephone. When his mother asked how he was doing, he said that things were bad and that he was being taken to the hospital. In the military hospital where Andrei was first sent, his mother was told that no one would see him until the 10th - it was holidays. And on January 7, a surgeon from Chelyabinsk called my mother and told her to come quickly, since Andrei might not live to see tomorrow.
As a result of poor circulation in the lower part of the body and untimely medical care, Sychev developed gangrene, and doctors from the intensive care unit of Chelyabinsk City Hospital No. 3 had to amputate both legs, genitals and a finger on his hand.
On February 7, Sychev was transported to Moscow, to the Burdenko military hospital. According to doctors, Sychev’s condition was still serious, but stable.
On April 17, Sychev was transferred from intensive care to a regular ward.
On April 23, reports appeared in the press that the preliminary investigation in the criminal case had been completed. During the investigation, junior sergeant Alexander Sivyakov, who directly abused Sychev, was taken into custody. He was charged under the article “exceeding official authority, resulting in grave consequences.”
In May, Sychev’s condition worsened again. At the end of the month, due to kidney failure, Andrei was again transferred to intensive care.
On June 13, 2006, preliminary hearings on this case took place in the Chelyabinsk Garrison Court, which were held behind closed doors. Sivyakov’s defense filed a motion to transfer the consideration of the case to Moscow, including to obtain the opportunity to use the direct testimony of the victim. The petition was rejected. A hearing on the merits of the case at an open court hearing in Chelyabinsk is scheduled for June 27.
On June 27, consideration of the case began. IN this process Three people have been charged. Junior Sergeant Alexander Sivyakov was charged under Part 3 of Article 286 (“Exceeding official powers with the use of violence or the threat of its use”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of three to ten years. Privates Kuzmenko and Bilimovich were accused under Part 2 of Article 335 (“violation of the statutory rules of relations between military personnel in the absence of a relationship of subordination between them”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of up to five years. The state prosecution demanded a sentence of 6 years in prison for Sivyakov, and 1.5 years and 1 year in prison for Bilimovich and Kuzmenko, respectively.
During the consideration of the case, six prosecution witnesses renounced their initial testimony and stated that during the investigation, employees of the military prosecutor's office exerted psychological pressure on them and even beat them, seeking testimony against Sivyakov. According to statements by some other witnesses, certain “generals from Moscow” came to them and convinced them to refuse to testify against the accused.
On September 26, 2006, the Chelyabinsk military garrison court rendered a verdict in the case. Alexander Sivyakov was sentenced to 4 years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold command positions during three years and deprivation of military rank. He was found guilty of 5 counts under Art. 286 part 3 (exceeding official powers, resulting in grave consequences) paragraph “a” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as one episode of beating A. Sychev under Art. 286 part 3 points “a, c”. Pavel Kuzmenko and Gennady Bilimovich were found guilty under Art. 335 part 2 points “b, c” and were sentenced to suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 1 year. The victim's representatives appealed the sentence as too lenient. Sivyakov’s lawyers also appealed the verdict because, in their opinion, the guilt of the accused has not been proven.
The Sychev case and Russian politics
In May 2005, a conflict broke out between the Main Military Prosecutor's Office (GVP), which was headed by Alexander Savenkov, and the Ministry of Defense (Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov) - Alexander Savenkov announced an increase in “hazing” in the troops and an “unfavorable personnel situation” in the army. Sergei Ivanov responded by saying that the military does not receive help from the GVP in solving crimes, and also accused the GVP of having an excessive number of generals (ten times higher than the average for law enforcement agencies).
The wave of mutual claims culminated during the investigation of the Sychev case. Sergei Ivanov made it clear that the case was largely inspired by the GVP: “There are forces that set themselves the goal of making dubious political capital out of existing army problems.” Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces
Andrey Sergeevich Sychev(born November 24, 1986, Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Region) - Russian citizen, gained fame in connection with a judicial investigation into the bullying of his colleagues during his military service, as a result of which he became disabled.
Facts of the case
Andrei Sychev served in the support battalion of the Chelyabinsk Tank School in 2005-2006. Served with the rank of private.
On New Year's Eve 2006, Sychev was subjected to bullying by Sergeant Sivyakov, who, while intoxicated, forced the victim to sit in a “deep half-squat” position for several hours on the night of January 1st. Due to the thrombophlebitis, gangrene and sepsis that began in Private Sychev after this, doctors at the Chelyabinsk emergency hospital amputated his lower limbs and genitals.
“The investigation established that on the night of January 1, 2006, Sivyakov, who was intoxicated, for the purpose of mockery and bullying, forced Private Andrei Sychev to be in a semi-squat state for three hours, striking him in the legs. “As a result of this violence, the victim experienced positional compression of the lower extremities and genitals, which led to the development of gangrenous inflammation,” the prosecutor’s office reported. As a result, in January, Sychev had both legs amputated.”
This incident received wide publicity after one of the doctors at the Chelyabinsk hospital contacted the chairman of the Chelyabinsk Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers Lyudmila Zinchenko, and she already informed Andrei Sychev’s mother, Galina Pavlovna, about it.
Information about the rape and mass beating of Private Sychev, which appeared as a result of the incompetence of a Chelyabinsk doctor, was not confirmed and was later officially refuted by doctors of the Chelyabinsk hospital.
Andrei’s mother, Galina Pavlovna, called him on January 3 to wish him a Happy New Year. At the unit he was quickly called to the telephone. When his mother asked how he was doing, he said that things were bad and that he was being taken to the hospital. In the military hospital where Andrei was first sent, his mother was told that no one would see him until the 10th - it was holidays. And on January 7, a surgeon from Chelyabinsk called my mother and told her to come quickly, since Andrei might not live to see tomorrow.
As a result of circulatory disorders in the lower part of the body and untimely medical care, Sychev developed gangrene, and doctors from the intensive care unit (error: in the intensive care units there are only anesthesiologists-resuscitators, amputations are performed by surgeons) of Chelyabinsk City Hospital No. 3 had to amputate both of his legs, genitals and finger.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov learned about what happened from journalists only after a long time. When he was asked a question at a press conference about what happened in Chelyabinsk, he confidently stated that, apparently, “nothing serious happened,” since “otherwise they would have reported to him.” This statement was received by the public with bewilderment.
On January 28, 2006, an unauthorized event called “Meeting of Concerned People” was held near the Ministry of Defense building in Moscow in support of Andrei Sychev.
Meanwhile, during a similar action in Yekaterinburg, three activists of the National Bolshevik Party were detained in front of the military prosecutor's office of the Volga-Ural Military District.
On February 7, Sychev was transported to Moscow, to the Burdenko military hospital. According to doctors, Sychev’s condition was still serious, but stable.
On April 23, reports appeared in the press that the preliminary investigation in the criminal case had been completed. During the investigation, junior sergeant Alexander Sivyakov, who directly abused Sychev, was taken into custody. He was charged under the article “exceeding official authority, resulting in grave consequences.”
In May, Sychev’s condition worsened again. At the end of the month, due to kidney failure, Andrei was again transferred to intensive care.
In 1989, during the Czech Velvet Revolution, demonstrators carried around Prague the corpse of a student killed by police. The corpse was wrapped national flag, everything was beautiful and solemn. After two days of unrest, President Gustav Husak resigned.
The Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia elected dissident Vaclav Havel as its new president, Alexander Dubcek, the leader of the Prague Spring of 1968, as its speaker, and also changed the name of the republic, replacing the word “socialist” with the more neutral “federal”. That “murdered student” is still alive today - and happily tells random interlocutors about how at night, crawling out of the coffin, he went to drink beer. This, however, doesn’t matter anymore - anyway, Gusak left then, and Havel came. And the country was renamed.
“Every lie pursues a very specific goal, and when this goal is achieved, you can bat your eyes and admit: “Well, yes, we lied. I'm sorry"
A few months later, in the Romanian town of Timisoara, someone accidentally discovered mass graves of local residents of Hungarian origin, killed on the orders of President Nicolae Ceausescu. Unrest, demonstrations, and clashes between demonstrators and the police began in the country; a few days later, part of the country's leadership and the army went over to the side of the demonstrators. President Ceausescu and his wife Elena were shot by a verdict of a specially created tribunal. The fact that there were no mass executions in Timisoara, but that there were corpses brought from the surrounding morgues and television cameras that helpfully recorded a fresh mass grave, was first said a few months after the execution of Ceausescu. The new authorities did not even really deny the fact of falsification. However, no one cared about this. Romania already had a new president, Ion Iliescu, and the slandered Ceausescu had long been rotting in the grave. “What’s interesting is, together with my wife,” as the poet said.
In the spring of 2003, US officials announced that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to their information, was secretly producing weapons of mass destruction and if Hussein was not stopped now, tomorrow he would destroy the entire world with these weapons. To prevent this from happening, the United States, together with its allies, launched a military operation against Iraq. A month later, President Hussein fled and Iraqi territory was completely occupied. A few months later, US authorities admitted that they had no information about weapons of mass destruction. But who could care? By that time, Saddam was already in prison, the occupiers were establishing oil production and building a new state system.
In the fall of 2004, Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko appeared in public with a disfigured face. According to Yushchenko himself, he was poisoned by the special services who were trying to prevent his participation in the presidential elections. This story excited Ukrainian society, and when Yushchenko lost in the first round of elections, thousands of Ukrainians came to the main square of Kyiv, demanding a recount of votes - according to their logic, if the government managed to poison Yushchenko, then it would have cost them nothing to falsify the election results. To the accompaniment of rally shouts, Yushchenko, however, lost the second round. And again people said: this is falsification. They poisoned our candidate, and now they are not allowing him to win. Contrary to all laws and common sense, a third round was arranged, which Yushchenko still won. Now he is the president of Ukraine. The fact of poisoning, especially poisoning by the special services, has not yet been proven, and who cares now? Only for the most inquisitive researchers.
All these cases have one thing in common. In each of these episodes of recent history, the lies were intended to last a very short period. For a day, two, a week, a month at most. Until the power changes, until the war starts, the president will not be executed. After that, the lie may be revealed - it doesn’t matter anymore. Everything has already happened. It is impossible to deceive an entire people endlessly, but no one needs to deceive anyone endlessly. Each lie pursues a very specific goal, and when this goal is achieved, you can bat your eyes and admit: “Well, yes, we lied. Sorry."
Russia in this sense Lately, pah-pah-pah, lucky. We have a large country with long historical cycles, and what works in Iraq, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine, for us, gets bogged down in our endless expanses and our endless time. Lies also sink in.
For example, there was this lie: they once said that houses in Moscow in 1999 were blown up not by terrorists, but by special services. Someone even began to believe this lie, especially after Alexander Prokhanov’s talented book “Mister Hexogen” was published in 2002. If Russia had, for example, a presidential election that year, the lie about the bombings of houses could somehow influence its outcome. But the elections took place only in 2004, by which time those who spoke about the involvement of the special services in the terrorist attacks had not been able to prove that they were right. The lie dissolved and went to the periphery of public consciousness. Focus failed.
Last January, newspapers published heartbreaking articles about the horrors that took place on New Year's Eve in the Bashkir town of Blagoveshchensk. The newspapers wrote that riot police from Ufa came to the city to “warm up”; the police broke into houses, took everyone away, beat men, and raped women. It was not difficult to believe this - the whole country knows that “cops are assholes” even without newspapers. If the fate of the country had been decided in those days - again, some kind of election, a political crisis - then, most likely, the story of the beating of Blagoveshchensk residents by the police could have very much influenced something. But there were no elections, no crisis. There was a quiet year, which was enough to conduct an investigation and trial and find out: there was a big criminal showdown between two clans existing in the city, militants from one of these clans attacked the police and, calling on the blessed human rights activists for help, they tried to portray everything as if the police had arranged there is a “cleansing” in the city. A provocation, which in any small country - from Ukraine to Serbia - would have been enough to at least change the government, failed in Russia.
However, this does not protect against new provocations. Over the past week, even more, the whole country has been cursing Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. The essence of the claims boils down to the fact that the question “What can you say about the beating of a group of soldiers in Chelyabinsk?” Ivanov replied that he had not heard anything about this beating, but believed that nothing serious had happened, because otherwise he would have been informed.
By this time, the whole country already knew that at the Chelyabinsk Tank School, a group of old-timers (several dozen) brutally beat a dozen young soldiers, and the most brutally beaten Andrei Sychev was also raped (he was raped, tied with tape to a bed), and then taken to hospital, where his legs and genitals were amputated. Against this background, the minister’s statement looked like a complete mockery. It is not difficult to assume that if, say, any elections were scheduled for January 31 in Russia, their results would be much less predictable than one might expect.
But there were no elections. And there was nothing at all. And now, when the hysteria has passed, we already know that the very background against which Ivanov’s words sounded mocking, this background was the most ordinary lie.
Because there were not ten beaten soldiers, Andrei Sychev was neither tied to a bed nor raped - gangrene arose as a result, most likely, of a long-standing vein disease. The only proven episode after three weeks of work by a team of 41 investigators from the Main Military Prosecutor's Office (it has been at war with the Ministry of Defense for a long time and is interested in as much dirt on the army as possible) is that Sychev squatted for some time in front of the now arrested junior sergeant Sivyakov, whom he You can’t call him a “grandfather” - he served for exactly a year and just became a “scoop” according to the army classification.
Everything else was invented by the chairman of the Chelyabinsk Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, Lyudmila Zinchenko, who, having given a dozen interviews to liberal media, is now cowardly hiding from investigators.
The lie is revealed. As always in such cases, things get especially nasty. Because people who use the tragedy of a nineteen-year-old boy, the tragedy of his family, and the compassion of the average person in political speculation are not people at all.
The lie is revealed. The lie did not achieve its goal. And this means that it is worth waiting for new lies. Even more vile and cynical.
I would like to hope that she will not achieve her goals either.