Colonel Yuri Budanov - serviceman Russian army, participant in two Chechen wars. In 2003, he was found guilty of murdering a young Chechen girl. Colonel Budanov was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2009, he was released on parole. In 2011, he was shot dead by unknown assailants.

Career

Colonel Budanov was born in 1963 in Donetsk region. He studied at the Kharkov Tank School, after which he was sent to serve in Hungary. Colonel Budanov, whose biography is quite rich in travel, continued to serve in the Russian troops after the collapse of the USSR.

Participated in the First Chechen Campaign. In 1995, he was wounded in the head. In the second, he commanded the 160th Tank Regiment. He was shell-shocked twice in the fall of 1999. In January 2000, Budanov became a colonel, and already in March he was arrested, accused of rape and murder of a Chechen girl.

The feat of Colonel Budanov: how it happened

At the end of December 1999, in the vicinity of the village of Dubai-Yurt, 160 soldiers of the 84th reconnaissance battalion were ambushed by a Wahhabi. The scouts asked headquarters for help, but this was denied to them. A thousand Arab mercenaries of Khattab literally destroyed Russian soldiers with their fire.

Budanov's tank regiment was located nearby. He had orders to stand still and not get involved in battle. The village was considered peaceful, and the authorities forbade the introduction of tanks there. Budanov heard negotiations between the scouts and the command. He decided to break the order and help the dying guys.

Budanov assembled a regiment and called for volunteers from among the officers. Having equipped the tanks with them, he personally led their battle. The enemy was sure that help would not come to the scouts, so the sudden attack by the tankers demoralized him. Khattab retreated and the scouts were saved. The next morning, the whole of Chechnya was already talking about this feat. Colonel Budanov received a severe reprimand from headquarters for his arbitrariness.

Court

In February 2001, hearings began in the Budanov case, which had a great public outcry. The accused claimed that the girl he killed was a sniper and killed several dozen of his soldiers in the Argun Gorge.

A year later, the court ordered a medical examination. A total of four psychiatric examinations were carried out. One of them showed that the colonel was insane at the time of the murder. For this reason, the court sent him for compulsory treatment to a psychiatric clinic. But already in 2003, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned this decision and convicted Budanov.

Sentence

The serviceman was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape charge. He was also given six years for kidnapping and another five for abuse of power. In total, the court decided to imprison Budanov for 10 years. In addition, the colonel lost his officer rank and the previously earned

Liberty

In 2004, Budanov filed a petition for early release. It was satisfied by the assembled commission. However, outright threats rained down on Budanov, and he was forced to withdraw his petition. When the passions around this case subsided a little, Budanov in 2008 submitted a new request for early release. The petition was granted, and in early 2009 he was released from prison.

Murder of Colonel Budanov: details

On the afternoon of June 10, 2011, he was shot dead. Who killed Colonel Budanov? The case is still not solved. They shot him in Moscow, on Komsomolsky Prospekt. The criminals fired six shots, four of which hit the victim directly in the head. Those who did this were never found. Investigative authorities believe that this may have been carried out by immigrants from Chechnya. Some friends of Budanov claim that high-ranking officials are involved. One way or another, the killers could not be identified.

Funeral

Colonel Yuri Budanov, whose biography was extensive and varied, is buried in the Moscow region. The funeral service was held for him in the church of the unmercenary saints Cosmas and Damian. The closed coffin containing his body was taken out of the temple, carried around it, then loaded into a car. The funeral took place at the Novoluzhinskoye cemetery in Khimki. Yuri Budanov rests next to Soviet pilots who died during the war with the Nazis.

Memory

We do not undertake to say who this person was - a hero or a monster, time will judge and put everything in its place. However, his comrades in arms they honor his exploits and remember him as a hero. Rus' dedicated many poems to the memory of Colonel Budanov through the hands of contemporary poets.

External assessments, track record and characteristics

At first, his track record was not much different from others of his kind. Colonel Budanov gradually climbed the standard officer ladder. A sharp shift in his career occurred on the eve of the Second Chechen Campaign. Lieutenant Colonel Budanov then received command of a tank regiment consisting of almost a hundred combat vehicles.

Literally immediately he was sent to Chechnya. There he received the extraordinary rank of colonel. One of his main achievements is that Budanov went through half the war with virtually no losses. I only lost one driver. None of the other commanders had such indicators.

But at the same time, Colonel Budanov was a hot-tempered person. He could afford to shout at his subordinates and throw whatever he could get his hands on at them. One day he heard a contract soldier pointing his finger to a friend at Major Arzumanyan, who was passing nearby, and asked him to “shoot” the officer’s cigarette, calling him a “chock.” Budanov became furious and beat the impudent soldier. After which he went to his tent, took a carton of cigarettes and gave it to the contract soldier, explaining to him that it was impossible to call a combat officer a “chock.”

The colonel's lawyer said that he did not consider him a “scumbag.” In his opinion, Budanov was a patriot, for whom it was an honor great importance. He often went against the orders of his command if he believed that his actions could help his comrades or civilians. These antics of his made the colonel many enemies and hidden ill-wishers from the senior command.

Budanov’s nerves gave way when enemy snipers killed many of his comrades. He often sat for a long time in front of photographs of his deceased friends, vowing to them that he would find these snipers and deal with them. Such an opportunity presented itself. One of the captured militants pointed to several houses, saying that a girl sniper was hiding in one of them. The colonel mistook an 18-year-old Chechen woman for her, whom he killed through negligence during interrogation.

As we wrote above, the examination found that at the time of the murder Budanov was in a state of temporary mental disorder and declared him insane. However, this decision was later cancelled.

One way or another, Budanov was punished for his crime. Today, some citizens of our country consider him a cruel tyrant and a murderer. Others believe that he is a real hero Russia. We do not undertake to judge him and give any assessment of his actions. Time will pass, everything will fall into place.

The deceased was survived by his wife Svetlana and two children. The son is Valery, a reserve lieutenant, a lawyer, and a schoolgirl daughter named Ekaterina.

Last summer he was killed in Moscow former commander tank regiment Yuri Budanov. Previously, he was sentenced to 10 years for the murder of Chechen Elza Kungaeva. After eight and a half years in prison, he received parole. And death awaited him in freedom. Who put several bullets into the colonel's head still remains a mystery. There are only suspects who deny their guilt. The bloody massacre of Budanov caused even more heated debate about this man. There are various rumors about his service in the army and life after the colony. The truth is often impossible to distinguish from lies. That is why we invited to the editorial office a person who knows almost everything about Budanov - his son Valery. KP military observer Viktor BARANETS spoke with him.

“ONE DOESN’T TAKE AN OATH TWICE”

Valery, you are the son of an officer, you and your father traveled around the garrisons. What do you remember most from that military life?

I remember my childhood in a military town in Belarus. Soldiers, officers, tanks, alarms, shooting. At that time The Union collapsed. And my father was asked to take the oath to the Republic of Belarus. He replied that he took the oath once in his life and would not swear allegiance to anyone again. And we left for Transbaikalia. We lived there for 7 years. There, my father rose from deputy battalion commander to regiment commander. And in September 1999, my father’s regiment boarded a train and left for the second Chechen war. By the way, neither I nor my mother knew that my father participated in the first Chechen war. He didn’t tell us anything about going to a war zone. He just said that he was leaving on a business trip...

BLACK NEWS FROM CHECHNYA

- When did you find out what happened to your father in Chechnya? I mean the murder of Kungaeva, the arrest of Yuri Dmitrievich...

This happened on the night of March 27, 2000. We learned everything from the newspapers. And three days later, my father called my mother and said: “Don’t believe the rumors. I’ll explain later what really happened.” Neither I nor my mother believed in rape or that Elsa Kungaeva was a civilian.

- How did you feel then? After all, the son of a regiment commander... And such an emergency...

I was sure that it was not my father’s fault that my father remained the way I knew him.

- How did your father’s colleagues, acquaintances, friends react?

People had a misunderstanding of what happened. Even shock.

- What happened after your father’s arrest?

Dad was in a pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don. My mother and I went to see him twice a month. And at that time we lived in Ukraine, since we did not have our own housing, we lived with relatives.

- Where did you meet your father in Rostov?

In a pre-trial detention center. An ordinary date, we communicated through glass on the phone. No hug, no kiss. You just see that your own father is sitting three meters away from you. You talk to him on the phone. It was hard for him too. He understood perfectly well that his daughter and I were growing up without a father. That it is very difficult for mothers. But we went through these difficulties together.

- What profession was he trying to master?

For the construction part.

HALF A YEAR WITHOUT WORK

- Where did he work after his release?

Someone wrote that my father worked as the head of security at a bank. He didn't work in a bank. From the moment of his release in 2009, he could not get a job for six months. Then he worked at the State Unitary Enterprise for the operation of high-rise and administrative residential buildings. He started there as an ordinary engineer. And he reached the position of deputy director of the branch...

- Did your father’s former colleagues get a job at this company? How did he get this job?

Friends and close acquaintances helped.

- Did he try to get a job himself?

Had tried. For 6 - 8 months, nothing worked.

- What were the problems?

Probably, there was recognition after all - that's one question. Other employers were afraid to hire such an odious person. My father also talked a little about this topic, but I saw that he was nervous about it. They said: “Yes, Yuri Dmitrievich, we respect you, but...” Only in September 2009 was I able to get a job.

CREATOR IN CAPTIVITY

Your father served time in a colony in the Ulyanovsk region. Did you and your mother receive letters from him? He called, did you go to see him?

Yes, sure. I studied nearby - in Ulyanovsk. At the Suvorov Military School.

You studied at Suvorov, but there was probably a rumor that this was Budanov’s son, that Budanov was in prison... Did this somehow affect your existence at Suvorov?

It had absolutely no effect. Probably because everyone treated my father with respect. And I had to behave accordingly so as not to disgrace my family name. There was double demand on me. The teachers said: “Valery, how come you didn’t learn your lesson? You’re the son of Colonel Budanov!”... And I was ashamed...

When I arrived at the colony, all the correctional workers tried to help. Because they treated their father with respect. When entering the territory, each person is searched, whether employees or non-employees. I was not harassed or searched.

And your father also said that, as a sign of respect, he was given a criminal position in prison - like the head of a sports complex...

He raised the gym from scratch to the level of a sports complex, which not all cities have. He completely renovated it. At the expense of the administration, at the expense of friends whom he simply asked: bring building materials, paint, sports equipment. He called me: I need a net for a tennis table, bring it. I bought the net at the store at my own expense and took it to him. Because he had a soul disposed to restore order wherever he was.

How was your father’s relationship with Shamanov? And when did they fight together in Chechnya, and when Shamanov became the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, and when did he become commander of the Airborne Forces?

Vladimir Anatolyevich supported our family - both morally and financially. He never abandoned his father. If you remember, he came to Rostov-on-Don for the first court hearing without fear of anything. Shamanov did not turn his back on either his father or our family in the most difficult days and years. This is what real commanders do...

FROM THE ZONE TO GOLDEN-DOGGED

- Where did Budanov go after his release from the colony?

He came to our home. To Moscow.

- How did your family end up in Moscow?

The apartment was received in accordance with the general procedure, under a social tenancy agreement, for citizens in need of improved housing conditions. Because we didn't have an apartment at all. And today the apartment is also provided to us under a social rental agreement.

- Where did your father apply for an apartment?

He didn't apply. Mother addressed.

- So this is the apartment of Budanov’s wife?

She is a contractual tenant. Accordingly, the father was also registered there after his release...

- There was talk that Shamanov helped...

What's wrong with that he took care of his homeless regiment commander? Yes, Vladimir Anatolyevich contributed to this in every possible way. God bless him and his family.

NEW LIFE

When your father returned from the colony, how did you greet him? Was this a depressed person or someone focused on the future, believing that he was right? Did your father change after prison?

He changed in the sense that he began to trust few people in life, he questioned everything, all words, all actions. Usually, strangers. He applied for a job, they told him: we’ll hire you, come out almost tomorrow, but in the end it didn’t bring any results.

- How many times has this happened?

In my memory, two or three times.

- Did this annoy your father?

The father did not understand why this was happening. He was offended that at one time he defended his state, the Russian people, and was treated like this. He didn't show it, but I saw it in him...

Was there such a thing as caution in the family? Did your father walk around looking around? Maybe there were some signs of surveillance, wiretapping?

Yes, our family took precautions. Not because we were afraid of anything. These are simply the rules that life has dictated to us. As for whether my father noticed the surveillance, wiretapping... He didn’t tell me anything. But I saw from him that he always checked whether he was being followed. He understood perfectly well that he would be watched. Well, since he was released on parole, he went to check in twice every month.

- To the police?

Yes, to the police.

- Did it depress him?

No. He understood perfectly well that this was the order provided for by law. And he kept it.

LAST CIGARETTE

- Everyone knows that on the day of his death, Colonel Budanov went to the notary’s office. What was he doing there?

He went there to give permission for his minor daughter, my sister, to leave Russia. He was there with my mother. They submitted the documents for registration, and the father went outside to smoke. And what happened happened.

- Do you have personal versions, assumptions about who committed the murder, who is behind it?

It would probably be wrong to voice your version. This is the work of the investigation. It is already known that a suspect in the murder of my father has been detained. And it’s no secret that this is a resident of Chechnya, a Chechen by nationality. Therefore, I think there is no point in commenting on anything else. Let's see what work will be done by the investigation and what we will come to.

-Have you talked to the investigator?

Yes, sure.

- By the nature of the investigator’s questions, could you understand in which direction he was digging?

Immediately after the murder there were many versions. But I still can’t say definitively “in which direction they are digging.” And there were versions - from everyday life to blood feud.

- There were no signs of phone tapping or surveillance?

There was probably a wiretap after all. Although I can only assume, but not confirm. Yes, the phone crackled periodically, an echo was added, and something else. Well, it was and was. Neither my late father nor my family did anything illegal, so there was nothing to be afraid of. Well, they listen - and for God's sake.

HOW HE BECAME A ZHIRINOVICE MEMBER

Were there any attempts by some political forces to drag Colonel Budanov into their games, to invite him to join some party?

I know that since 2010 he has been a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. As for the questions of whether there were proposals to participate in political activities, I cannot say this, because I simply do not know.

- Who brought him to the LDPR?

He came himself. He had many friends there. Mainly reserve officers.

- Was Yuri Dmitrievich personally acquainted with Zhirinovsky?

As far as I know, yes.

- Let me touch your person. Are you now a candidate for deputy from the LDPR?

I have been a member of the party since the beginning of this year. When this happened to my father, Zhirinovsky also came to the cemetery and was not afraid of anything. As for my candidacy as a candidate for State Duma deputies, then this proposal came from Vladimir Volfovich, I accepted it.

"WRONG" HONORS

The funeral of Colonel Budanov turned out to be some kind of “detective”. That funeral place was kept secret for a long time, then the cemetery...

It is impossible to say that the funeral was anything out of the ordinary. Is your father buried at the Novodevichy cemetery? Did he not deserve, as a participant in combat operations, as an officer with more than 20 years of service, a guard of honor and a military band?

A soldier who has served for more than 20 years, as well as persons who were participants in hostilities, are entitled to a guard of honor and a military band. And I have a purely human question for people who allow themselves to exaggerate this topic. How can you discuss whether there is an honor guard, where the burial is, where the funeral service is held, when people are grieving? This speaks of human cynicism. Nothing is sacred. I'll tell you more. An application was even submitted to the military investigation department to conduct an investigation to determine how legally the funeral was held.

- Who submitted the application?

I have no idea. But those people who did this, I believe, will sooner or later receive what they deserve. I don’t wish them anything bad, but in my understanding this is, to put it mildly, not Christian.

- So they wanted to check the legal purity of the funeral?

It is the highlighting of the escort and orchestra. As for the funeral. I took care of the funeral. Of course, my mother helped, a lot of my father’s friends, my friends, and colleagues helped organize it. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in this. Representatives of law enforcement agencies - they did everything possible to organize the safety of the funeral. Each of them gave a military salute as the funeral procession passed. Thanks a lot. It is clear that people did it from the heart. Everyone from the average police sergeant. They came to the funeral of a retired grandmother from the Tver region, from the village, approached the mother, gave 500 rubles, and said: please take it, we will help in any way we can. This shows how well people feel about the father, how much they disagree with what happened. Many strangers responded and helped financially. A funeral, I tell you, is not the cheapest event. And God forbid someone encounters this.

- Are you sure that the killer will be found?

Sure.

Valery, who, in the opinion of Colonel Budanov’s son, was Budanov Sr. - an officer who made a tragic mistake, a victim of war, a criminal, a scapegoat, who was given an exemplary flogging?

It would probably be more correct to say that, first of all, he was a military officer, a real Russian warrior who defended his Fatherland and the Russian people to the last. And what happened, as you said, was a public flogging, yes, this is probably true to one degree or another. But this is absolutely not his fault. It’s just that all this was transferred from an ordinary criminal case to a political one. Yes, of course, he was guilty of murder. But he served his sentence for this. Yes, to some extent, maybe he made a mistake. A tragic mistake.

The killer of Colonel Budanov died in prison

On August 3, lawyer Roza Magomedova said that Yusup Temirkhanov, sentenced to 15 years for the murder of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, died in the Omsk colony. “He died in the medical unit of the colony from cardiac arrest. He always had health problems, the defense tried to get him released due to illness, but was unsuccessful,” Magomedova said.

According to a representative of the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Temirkhanov died in the Omsk city hospital. “He died in the city hospital, where he was transferred from the FSIN hospital. The decision to transfer was made on August 1 as his health deteriorated. He had chronic health problems, which is why he died,” said a department official.

Initially, Temirkhanov served his sentence in a colony strict regime, due to health reasons, the conditions of his detention were softened. When the prisoner's condition worsened, he was transferred to the medical unit of the colony, and from there to city ​​hospital.

Temirkhanov's death caused a huge resonance in Chechnya

Relatives decided to bury the deceased in his homeland, in the Chechen Geldagan - the ancestral village of Temirkhanov. “He will be buried in his homeland, his body will be sent there in the coming days,” lawyer Roza Magomedova said on August 3, adding that her client was ill, but was recovering. “Everything happened unexpectedly,” Magomedova added.

The death of Temirkhanov caused a wide response among the residents of Chechnya. According to media reports, residents of the Republic began to gather in Geldagan on August 3, despite the fact that the funeral was planned for August 4. The funeral service for Temirkhanov was attended by thousands of people, and the flow of cars into Geldagan was practically uninterrupted. From the entrance to Geldagan to the mosque where the ceremony took place, security forces were on duty, who sometimes asked not to film what was happening. The staff of the Chechen state television and radio company Grozny also expressed condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

IN in social networks appeared video, which captured a column of dozens of cars moving near Geldagan, among which was a black police Mercedes. Hundreds of citizens greet the cars with shouts of “Allahu Akbar.”

chp_groznyy / Instagram

Ramzan Kadyrov arrived to say goodbye to Budanov’s killer

On August 4, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, held a funeral ceremony and expressed condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

“Today I came here to say my word to my relatives and my people: he was illegally convicted, imprisoned, and he died a natural death, by the will of the Almighty,” said the head of the republic. He assured that the Chechen authorities will strive for a fair attitude of law enforcement agencies towards the residents of the region.

“We call for them to comply with the law and the Constitution and treat us as citizens of Russia,” Kadyrov emphasized.

The head of Chechnya called the deceased a people's hero

In his Telegram channel, Ramzan Kadyrov said that the late Yusup Temirkhanov will forever remain a hero in the memory of his fellow citizens.

“The court, with its guilty verdict (...) made him a hero who avenged the violated honor and deprivation of freedom of the Chechen girl, Russian citizen Elza Kungaeva. This is how he will forever remain in the people’s memory, even if over time the verdict is found to be erroneous!” - the politician expressed confidence.

Kadyrov reiterated that he considers Temirkhanov a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Temirkhanov shot Budanov in 2011

On June 10, 2011, Temirkhanov, as established by the investigation and the court, fired eight bullets at former Colonel of the Russian Armed Forces Yuri Budanov, a veteran of the second Chechen war. The shots rang out as Budanov was leaving a notary office in the center of Moscow. Killed with military honors.

If you witnessed important event, you have news or an idea for material, write to this address: [email protected]

24.11.1963 - 10.06.2011

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

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

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

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

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

In January 2000 there was awarded the order Courage and received (early) the rank of colonel.

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

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

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

In July 2001, the North Caucasus District Military Court announced a break in court hearings in connection with the conduct of a psychiatric examination of Budanov in the State scientific center social and forensic psychiatry named after. V.P. Serbsky (Moscow). In October of the same year, after passing the examination, Budanov was transferred back to Rostov-on-Don.

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

On December 31, 2002, the North Caucasus District Military Court decided to release Budanov from criminal liability and sending him for compulsory treatment, but on February 28, 2003, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized such a decision as unfounded and made in violation of the norms of substantive and procedural law and sent the case for a new trial (while the preventive measure against Budanov remained the same - detention in custody pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don).

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

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

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

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

In Chechnya, this court decision caused numerous protests.

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

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

RIA NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

This caused a wave of indignation in the Chechen Republic.

Anna Politkovskaya

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

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

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

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

Who is Budanov?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Payback our way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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