A person accused of murdering former Colonel Yuri Budanov has been arrested in Moscow. He turned out to be 41-year-old Magomed Suleymanov. The investigation believes that it was he who organized the murder and was directly the killer.
Suleymanov was arrested on August 26 in the Presnensky District Court of Moscow. Even before the trial, the investigation managed to charge Suleymanov with murder and illegal arms trafficking.
At the trial, a representative of the investigation said that on April 2, Suleymanov and his accomplices developed a plan to kill the retired colonel. They bought a stolen Lancer with altered body numbers and put fake numbers on it, which they copied from a double car. The killers also bought a gas pistol with a silencer, converted to fire conventional cartridges. According to investigators, on the day of the murder, Suleymanov and his accomplices were watching Budanov when he entered the courtyard of a house on Komsomolsky Prospekt. Suleymanov got out of the Mitsubishi and shot Budanov eight times.
Little is known about Suleymanov. It is registered in the Chechen Argun, and appeared in Moscow in the late 90s. On January 1, 1999, capital police stopped Suleymanov on Durov Street, checked his documents and drew up an administrative protocol about living in the city without registration. The Argun police department told Izvestia that the name of Magomed Suleymanov did not appear in criminal cases and he is not on the federal wanted list.
Execution of Budanov
Izvestia conducted its own investigation, reconstructed the picture of the murder and found out what Budanov was doing in the last year of his life.
June 10 was one of those rare days when Budanov used a company car. The combat colonel, who threw tank battalions into the breakthrough, after liberation led the light vehicle fleet of the State Unitary Enterprise for the Operation of High-Rise Buildings (EVAZD). Having arrived at Prazhskaya at eight in the morning and having given out instructions, Budanov drove in a company car to the office on Kudrinskaya Square. There the colonel took the reports and documents and left at 10.30.
At 14.00 he was supposed to be at a meeting with the director of State Unitary Enterprise EVAZhD. Before this, I decided to apply for permission to export my daughter abroad (Budanov has an 11-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son). At noon, in the same car, he and his wife Svetlana arrived at the notary’s office, located on the first floor of building No. 38/16 on Komsomolsky Prospekt. The killers tracked him down near the notary's office - apparently, they knew his plans well.
Thanks to video camera recordings, investigators were able to reconstruct the events.
At 12.00 Yuri Budanov smokes near the entrance to the notary's office. Two steps away from him, a man in a light sweatshirt and baseball cap is squatting and, without hiding, is watching the colonel. This is the killer or his accomplice. Budanov speaks on his cell phone, he moves away from the house and heads towards the path leading to the center of the yard. The man in the baseball cap follows the colonel with his eyes; at 12.03 he rises to his feet, turns around and takes something out of the urn. Then the man in the baseball cap puts the item he took out into his back pocket and, looking around, follows Budanov. The killer approached Budanov and shot him eight times in the head and body. At 12.04, two men run out of the entrance at the sound of shots, then another.
The Mitsubishi Lancer, in which the criminals fled the scene, was found on Dovator Street. The killers tried to burn it, but vigilant security guards from a nearby enterprise quickly extinguished the foreign car. Experts found a pistol with a silencer inside.
Chechen trace
The “Chechen trace” became the main version of the murder. It was in Chechnya that Budanov's name caused particular irritation. The former commander of the 160th Tank Regiment, Colonel Yuri Budanov, was accused of kidnapping and murdering the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva on March 27, 2000 in the village of Tangi-Chu. On July 25, 2003, the court sentenced Budanov to ten years in prison. The court also stripped Budanov of the rank of colonel, all awards and the right to hold certain positions for three years.
Yuri Budanov was taken into custody in the spring of 2000. In the colony in Dimitrovgrad, Budanov was in charge of the gym; he was often visited by General Shamanov, who in those years was the governor of the Ulyanovsk region. Budanov's defense filed requests for parole four times, but all of them were rejected. The leadership of Chechnya and human rights activists opposed the early release of Budanov. However, the fifth request for parole was granted, and in mid-January 2009 Budanov was released.
In March 2009, residents of the village of Tangi-Chu and relatives of the murdered girl Elza Kungaeva showed journalists and human rights activists a mass grave with several dozen corpses, some of which were identified.
The villagers tried to blame Budanov for their deaths. It turned out that in 2000, a colonel’s tank regiment was stationed not far from this place. The military man was also accused of the disappearance of 18 residents of the Urus-Martan region, four of them last time“showed up” at the checkpoint in the company of Budanov, who allegedly took them away in an unknown direction.
But the employees Investigative Committee They found no evidence of Budanov’s involvement in the massacres. However, in the Caucasus, the results of the investigation were skeptical, and the colonel was still a potential target of blood feud among several Chechen families. It was not for nothing that immediately after the murder the detectives went to Chechnya and met with residents of the Urus-Martan region.
In addition, there is information that they found Suleymanov operationally: they deciphered all telephone connections in the area of Komsomolsky Prospekt and Dovatora Street on the day of the murder. At the same time, everyone who left Moscow for the North Caucasus region after the murder was checked. Investigators found that recent years The murdered colonel worked for years.
Apartment from the Minister of Defense
Yuri Budanov arrived in Moscow in March 2009, two months after he left the gates of the Dimitrovgrad colony strict regime. National patriots called the former colonel under their banner, but Budanov, after giving several newspaper interviews, disappeared. Some said that the former tanker fled abroad, fearing revenge from the Chechens. Others - what is hiding somewhere in the taiga. But Budanov did not leave anywhere - he lived and worked in Moscow, without hiding and without security.
Colonel Budanov's family was registered on Novosuschevskaya Street, in the center of the capital, in the elite house of the Presidential Administration. There is hardly a more prestigious place to live in Moscow. In the building opposite are the apartments of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, Chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin, bankers and State Duma deputies. Several sources told Izvestia that the family convicted colonel Budanov’s friend and colleague, General Vladimir Shamanov, helped get the apartment. Apartments in this building cost a tidy sum. For example, the agency offered one of the six-room apartments here for 111 million rubles. After the garrison Khrushchev era in Rostov-on-Don, the capital’s apartments seemed like a royal gift to Budanov. However, only the wife and two children were registered in the elite living space. The colonel himself did not appear in the BTI certificates. The official representative of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Khrekov, who was in charge of the facility, assured Izvestia that no housing was allocated through his department. “The Ministry of Defense has its own housing stock at such sites,” he said.
Vladimir Shamanov confirmed that he helped the Budanovs resolve their housing issue.
"I contacted former minister Defense Sergeev (Igor Sergeev headed the Ministry of Defense from 1997 to 2001) and asked to approach the family with understanding. He did it, thank you. In addition, Budanov’s son was assigned to the Suvorov School, I looked after him, then kept in touch with the family by phone,” Vladimir Shamanov told Izvestia.
Izvestia went to the address. The 12-story red brick house is surrounded by a fence. But one of the “elite” guards confirmed that every day at exactly seven in the morning Budanov crossed the checkpoint and, slightly hunched over, headed to the Mendeleevskaya metro station. Unlike most residents of the prestigious house, the former colonel had neither security nor a personal car. The former tanker moved around Moscow on public transport.
Head of transport department
Budanov got a job at the State Unitary Enterprise EVAZhD at the end of the summer of 2009. The head office of the organization is located on Borodinskaya Street, near the Kyiv metro station.
Budanov’s colleagues say that on his first day at work, the colonel came wearing dark glasses.
We began to wonder whether it was him or not,” recalls State Unitary Enterprise employee Nikita Sokolov (last name changed at his request). - I couldn’t stand it, I asked. His face immediately changed: “Well, I’m that same Budanov. Are there any other questions?" To be honest, my heart went into overdrive. I thought I would attack. And then he came up to me. He asked not to be offended, saying that they had already bothered him with this question. According to Sokolov, Budanov worked at the headquarters as the head of the technical and technical department: he monitored the repair schedule, the movement of equipment, and was disciplined like a military man. If I didn’t go to the site, then at exactly eight in the morning I was already sitting in my office, leaving exactly at six. He never became close friends with any of the employees and did not remember Chechnya. Colleagues recognized his arrival at work by the aroma of tobacco - the former tanker was smoking a pipe.
In January 2010, management found Budanov a new front of work. He was instructed to create a third branch from scratch, under whose jurisdiction a motor depot on Dorozhnaya Street was transferred. A room was allocated for the directorate on the second floor of a high-rise building on Kudrinskaya Square. But Budanov did not set up an office in the center of the capital, but settled in a base located a half-hour walk from the Prazhskaya metro station. The base is a two-story building behind a high fence with a shabby entrance. On the first floor there is a control room, rest rooms for drivers, on the second - for mechanics and Budanov’s office. In the territory under his jurisdiction, the colonel established strict army order. On the very first day, the workers got it from the colonel for the chaos and slowness.
Budanov walked through the entrance, looked at the rubbish heaps - and shouted: “General formation,” recalls driver Alexey. “And he has a commanding voice; if he barks, it can be heard throughout the entire territory.” So the men slowly began to crawl out of places to see what kind of “smart guy” was yelling. And he saw that they were slowly gathering, he turned purple, his eyes rolled out of his head, and he kicked them all into one heap. But these are 13 drivers, five car mechanics, a storekeeper, a loader and two janitors - twenty-two men, and no one even dared to twitch.
Then, according to the driver, Budanov gave a lecture to the amazed men about who was the boss at the base, and the enterprise began to live according to army regulations. Once a week he conducted a drill inspection of drivers, cars, and even checked the dust on cabinets and window sills. If someone messed up, Budanov got angry. “This takes seven years” was his favorite saying.
Every day at eight in the morning when Budanov arrived, all subordinates had to gather on the street at the entrance. The former tanker came in and began assigning people to work. At this moment there should have been perfect silence. “Dmitrich would explode if he heard a whisper or if someone smiled when he spoke,” his subordinates say.
Budanov was quick to retaliate. I went into the warehouse and looked - the driver was loading the car alone, and two painters were standing there, smoking. The colonel kicked them. After that, not a single driver touched the cargo at the base.
However, the drivers also suffered. Once three comrades stole eight wheels, but when Budanov said that if by morning the wheels were not in the same place, he would talk to each employee separately in his office. Everyone understood: he would hit. In the morning the wheels were still in place.
At his former place of work, the colonel is still remembered with warmth. His photo in a frame is on the workers' table. Budanov’s former subordinate, department head of the 3rd branch, retired captain of the railway troops Sergei Gusakov believes that the murder was indicative.
Yura went everywhere alone. I walked from the Prazhskaya metro station through a sparsely populated industrial area. It was easier to attack him there. But for some reason the killers chose the center of Moscow, where there are a lot of video cameras and many witnesses,” he says. - And now I remember how I once asked him about Chechnya, about Kungaeva. And Yura just sadly waved his hand: “This was not a criminal matter, but a political one. What was needed was a show trial and an anti-hero. And it’s not my fault that they chose me for this role.”
The Kungaev family had been under investigation by the special services for a long time, Margolin said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, citing Budanov’s words. The colonel had information that the head of the family kept weapons, and Elsa Kungaeva herself was a sniper and more than once went to the mountains to join the militants.
Budanov came to the girl’s home more than once and persuaded her to lay down her arms, but she refused. When, during one of the raids, the military came to the Kungaevs’ house, the girl’s relatives fled. Budanov detained Kungaeva herself and took her to the unit for interrogation.
“It was very hot - I stripped to the waist, took off my armor, put the pistol on the nightstand. I asked her: “I know that you are a sniper!” Tell me where they hide the weapons, who came to you." She started her record: “I killed you and will kill everyone in a row.” I realized that it was useless to talk with her. I had already given up, thinking of handing it over to Fedorov (intelligence commander) “Let him interrogate her, then take her to Mozdok,” his cellmate reports Budanov’s story.
At some point, the girl muttered: “I know everything about you. I know where your family is. I’ll find your daughter and wrap her guts around a machine gun,” and tried to take the gun. At that moment, Budanov “didn’t even understand how he clenched his hands and broke her spine.” After that, he took the girl out of the tent and gave her to the soldiers. She was still alive. “The soldiers took her away. Apparently, they then mocked her: later, when they exhumed her body, they found traces of a sapper’s shovel on her,” Margolin quotes Budanov as saying.
At the same time, the colonel, according to his former cellmate, knew that he would be killed after his release. “The Chechens will not order me. They will be completely different people. I know a lot of things that happened in that war. But I’m not really going to hide,” the officer told Margolin.
Let us remind you that the ex-colonel was shot dead on June 10 in the center of Moscow. Previously, Budanov was convicted of the murder of the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva and spent a total of about nine years behind bars. He was released in 2009 and after that worked in the HOA.
On present moment The investigation is pursuing two main versions of the officer’s murder. The first is revenge from the relatives of Kungaeva, for whose kidnapping and murder he was convicted, the second is a provocation with the aim of causing the activation of nationalists. The Investigative Committee speaks very carefully on this matter and has not yet singled out any of the versions as a priority.
Earlier this week, the terrorist organization Riyadh Salihin Battalion claimed responsibility for the murder of Budanov. According to the extremists, they are ready to prove that it was their people who shot the colonel, claiming that they have the necessary video evidence.
Murder of Yuri Budanov
On June 10, 2012, a colonel was killed in Moscow Russian army, former commander of the 160th tank regiment Yuri Budanov. His murder caused a huge resonance. A native of Chechnya, Magomed Suleymanov, aka Yusup Temirkhanov, was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Around the yard near the house where the murder took place, law enforcement agencies have increased security measures. The police also strengthened security measures in the church where the farewell to Yuri Budanov took place, in the adjacent territory, and in the central cemetery of Khimki during the funeral. Measures to ensure public safety in general in Moscow and in particular on Manezhnaya Square were also strengthened.
On August 26, the Presnensky Court of Moscow arrested a native of the Chechen Republic, Magomed Suleymanov, on charges of murdering Budanov.
According to investigators, Magomed Suleymanov (born in 1970) entered into a criminal conspiracy with unidentified persons on April 2. The accomplices developed a plan according to which they carried out covert surveillance of the ex-colonel. Suleymanov and his accomplices purchased a car with altered body numbers and fake state registration numbers, as well as weapons and ammunition. The investigation established that on June 10, 2011, Suleymanov and his accomplices were watching Budanov as he entered the courtyard of a house on Komsomolsky Prospekt in Moscow. The accused got out of the car and fired at least eight shots at the ex-colonel.
Testimony of Ruslan Fataliev
On January 10, prosecution witness Ruslan Fataliev was questioned in the Moscow City Court. He said that it was not the defendant who shot Yuri Budanov, but “a man who looked like a Chechen, but with red hair and was shorter than the defendant.” The witness said about the defendant: “it definitely wasn’t him.”
During the preliminary investigation, Fataliev stated that he saw the moment of the murder from behind the car, so it was difficult to describe the details of what happened, and also that there were many people in the yard and he would not be able to remember them. Valery Budanov, the son of the murdered man, expressed doubts about the reliability of Fataliev’s information.
As representatives of the defendant's defense reported, on February 9, Ruslan Fataliev was kidnapped and beaten by unknown persons in the Volgograd region. They put him in a car and beat him all night. According to Fataliev himself, operational officers from Moscow and the Volgograd region “worked.” The kidnappers demanded that he testify against Murad Musayev, a representative of the defendant's defense. Fataliev was released on the morning of February 10.
Testimony of Alexander Evtukhov
On January 18, Yusup Temirkhanov’s defense accused the special services of kidnapping witness Alexander Evtukhov. According to lawyer Murad Musaev, Evtukhov tried to fly to Barnaul twice - on January 14 from Domodedovo airport, where he was detained by unknown persons, and on January 18 from Sheremetyevo, but did not show up for landing there. The lawyer at Sheremetyevo was told that Evtukhov “was taken away by some FSB agents, but there is no official information.” Evtukhov himself denied the report of his disappearance.
On January 21, 2013, the interrogation of Alexander Evtukhov took place in the Moscow City Court. At the court hearing, lawyer Musaev petitioned for the statement of Evtukhov’s kidnapping to be included in the case, but the judge refused this petition. During the interrogation, the witness testified that he saw the killer at the moment when he got into the car, and the killer, Colonel Yuri Budanov, had a Slavic appearance, and he saw the accused Yusup Temirkhanov for the first time.
In response to the prosecutor’s question, Evtukhov confirmed that he asked Yu. Temirkhanov’s lawyers for 100 thousand rubles for the costs of the flight from Novosibirsk and accommodation in Moscow and that lawyer Daria Trenina transferred this money to his card. Lawyer Murad Musayev confirmed the payment of "the costs of witnesses for their appearance in court, and not for their testimony." At the end of the meeting, it became known that witness Evtukhov wrote two statements addressed to the Moscow City Court judge Andrei Korotkov: in one he stated threats against him from lawyer Murad Musaev, and in the second he said that lawyer Daria Trenina suggested that he say in court that The colonel's alleged killer, who fled the scene, had blond hair. On January 24, a representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Markin, announced that Alexander Evtukhov, a witness in the case of the murder of ex-Colonel Yuri Budanov, was granted state protection.
On January 28, at a court hearing, the defense petitioned for the reading in the presence of a jury of the testimony of witness Alexander Evtukhov, given by him during the preliminary investigation, due to significant, in the opinion of the lawyers, contradictions. The court rejected the request.
On March 19, a new trial began in the Moscow City Court in the case of the murder of ex-Colonel Yuri Budanov. During the hearing, the prosecution announced a list of evidence against the defendant Yuri Temirkhanov.
On March 28, at a meeting of the Moscow City Court, a colleague of the murdered man, Vitaly Nazarov, testified that Yuri Budanov feared for his life and informed him that he was being monitored.
On April 1, during a court hearing, three witnesses admitted to falsifying license plates for a stolen car found at the scene of Yuri Budanov's murder, although, according to them, they did not know that the stolen car was intended for Yuri Budanov's killer.
On April 4, witness Anatoly Zatsarenko identified the defendant as “a man running away from the scene.”
On April 29, nine out of 12 jurors found Temirkhanov guilty of the murder of Budanov, three considered his guilt unproven.
On August 3, 2018, Yusup Temirkhanov died in the medical unit of the colony from cardiac arrest.
Memory
In 2011, a memorial stone was erected at the site of the death of Yuri Budanov in the Khamovniki district of Moscow. In September 2017, two unknown people threw a Molotov cocktail at the monument to Budanov.
Notes
- Yuri Budanov was killed // Gazeta.ru, 06/10/2011.
- The separatists' statement did not become news for the investigation into the murder of Budanov - source. // Interfax, 07/24/2011.
- Budanov’s murder has been solved // Gazeta.ru, 08/26/2011.
- There is a spelling of Temerkhanov
- The investigation into the murder of Yuri Budanov has been completed: the name of the accused has been changed and class hatred is being “sewn” // NEWSru, 07/07/2012.
- A witness in the Budanov case complains that he was beaten - lawyer // RIA Novosti, 02/12/2013.
- Budanov’s case: a bribed witness is threatened by the accused’s lawyer // Vesti, 01/25/2013.
- A case was opened for bribing a witness in the case of Budanov’s murder // RIA Novosti, 01/24/2013.
- A new jury has been formed in the case of Budanov’s murder // Vesti.ru, 03/18/2013.
- The jury returned a guilty verdict in the case of the murder of Budanov // RIA Novosti, 04/30/2013.
- Temerkhanov received 15 years // Interfax, 05/07/2013.
- The killer of ex-Colonel Budanov died in the colony // RIA Novosti, August 3, 2018
- An illegal monument to Colonel Budanov was erected in Moscow // Censor.net, 11/30/2011.
- Two unknown people threw a bottle with a flammable mixture at the monument to Budanov in Moscow // TASS, 09/27/2017.
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Image caption According to investigators, Temerkhanov took revenge on Budanov for the murder of his father
The Moscow City Court sentenced Chechen native Yusup Temerkhanov, who was found guilty of murdering the former commander of the 160th Guards Tank Regiment Yuri Budanov, to 15 years in prison.
Temerkhanov was charged under two articles of the Russian criminal code: aggravated murder and illegal possession of weapons.
The guilty verdict was handed down based on the jury's verdict, which found Temerkhanov's guilt proven, noting that he did not deserve leniency.
Temerkhanov will serve his sentence in a maximum security colony. The state prosecution asked for a 16-year sentence for the defendant.
The defendant did not admit his guilt during the trial. The defendant's defense appealed the verdict immediately after the end of the trial.
Temerkhanov's lawyer, Murad Musaev, said in an interview with the BBC Russian Service that the judge in this trial acted as a “reserve prosecutor.”
“For me, such behavior of the Russian judicial system is not news. But I have never seen such arbitrariness as I encountered in the case of Budanov’s murder. It seems that the Russian investigative and judicial system They declared a kind of war on us, in which no means are spared,” the lawyer said.
Murder of Budanov
Budanov was killed in Moscow in June 2011 with four shots to the head.
Before that, he was known in connection with accusations of the murder of Chechen Elsa Kungaeva, and became the only high-ranking Russian officer, convicted of war crimes in Chechnya.
The accusations fell apart. We proved in court that all the evidence incriminating our client was falsified... But the judge did not allow us to present even a tenth of the evidence that we were going to present to the jury Murad Musaev,
lawyer of Yusup Temerkhanov
According to the investigation, which was carried out in the early 2000s, on the night of March 27, 2000, the colonel kidnapped and then killed an 18-year-old Chechen woman. He was charged under articles of “exceeding official authority,” “kidnapping,” and “murder.”
In 2003, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The court also stripped him of the rank of colonel and all awards.
In December 2008, a court in the Ulyanovsk region, where Budanov was serving his sentence, authorized his parole, which sparked a wave of protests in Chechnya.
The lawyer of the Kungaev family, Stanislav Markelov, promised to appeal the court decision, but could not bring the matter to an end - on January 19, 2009, he was killed in the center of Moscow.
In January 2009, Budanov was released.
The investigation into the murder of the ex-colonel was widely covered in the Russian media. Temerkhanov, who was arrested in this case, according to investigators, was taking revenge for his father, who was killed by Russian soldiers in Chechnya in 2000.
Temerkhanov allegedly decided to kill some serviceman involved in special operations in Chechnya, and his choice fell on Budanov.
“Temerkhanov felt a feeling of hatred and enmity towards all military personnel who fulfilled their duty and took part in the counter-terrorist operation, and decided to commit murder. His choice fell on Budanov, whose name received a wide public response, and who was the most prominent representative of that social group, which he hated,” the prosecutor said during the trial.
Temerkhanov’s lawyer believes that the investigation simply chose his client as an object of persecution, and all the evidence was not collected, but created.
“The accusations fell apart. We proved in court that all the evidence incriminating our client was falsified... But the judge did not allow us to present even a tenth of the evidence that we were going to present to the jury,” lawyer Musaev said in an interview.
Key Witness
In February 2013, a criminal case was opened against Temerkhanov’s lawyer Daria Trenina. According to investigators, she invited witness Alexander Evtukhov to give false testimony in favor of the accused - allegedly he saw that the person who shot Budanov had blond hair, not dark, like the accused.
“For such testimony, Trenina promised to pay for Evtukhov’s flight [from Novosibirsk] to Moscow and back, and also to pay him 100 thousand rubles,” said Vladimir Markin, a representative of the Investigative Committee.
Evtukhov was a key witness in the case. It was he who saw the killer and called ambulance and the police, and also provided the license plate number of the car in which the shooter fled.
Temerkhanov’s lawyers do not hide the fact that they transferred money to Yevtukhov’s account, but explain that they were intended for a flight from Siberia to Moscow and for his accommodation in the capital.
At the same time, Temerkhanov’s defense claims that during the interrogation of Evtukhov, when they tried to find out whether there was really an attempt to bribe him, the judge did not allow them to do this.
“We were really waiting for Yevtukhov in court. In particular, in order to ask him to say in court under a receipt whether there was really a bribe or that I threatened him. But we were not allowed to ask any of the questions. He was interrogated via video link - he broadcast from the Novosibirsk court - he was asked only a few questions, and the judge, despite our protests, announced that the interrogation was over,” Musaev emphasized.
At the same time, he is sure that the case against Trenina was a way of putting pressure on Temerkhanov’s lawyers.
“This case was not brought in order to investigate crimes - our opponents know very well that Trenina’s lawyer did not bribe any witnesses. This was a means of putting pressure on Trenina and on other defense lawyers involved in the case. And on our client - they demanded that he give up from the lawyers, supposedly so that everything would be all right with Trenina, as he was told,” the lawyer said in an interview with the BBC Russian Service.
Budanov Yuri Dmitrievich is a Russian military serviceman. He took part in many military operations. During the Second Chechen Campaign he led a tank regiment and held the rank of colonel. His life was short-lived. At first he was convicted of committing a brutal crime, and after his release he was shot on one of the streets of Moscow.
Yuri Budanov: biography
Place and date of birth of Budanov Yuri: Ukrainian Republic, Donetsk region, city of Khartsyzsk, November 24, 1963. He grew up as an active child, was fond of martial arts, and mastered sambo techniques. Born into a military family, Yuri followed in his father's footsteps. He dreamed of a military career.
In 1981, he was called up for military service. After completing his service, Budanov decided to continue his studies in military affairs, not imagining himself in another profession. He made a decision for himself that he was not created for peaceful life. The young man entered the Kharkov Guards Higher Tank command school, from which he graduated in 1987. After receiving his education, he served in Buryatia, Hungary and Belarus. Yuri returned to the Russian Federation after the breakup Soviet Union, not wanting to stay in a foreign country.
The biography of Yuri Budanov is quite interesting, because he devoted almost his entire life to military service. Returning to Russia, this man continued military career in Transbaikalia. He had an ideal reputation and had no complaints. Here he stayed for ten years. During this time, Yuri Dmitrievich graduated military academy and received the rank of lieutenant colonel. Later Yuri Budanov served in Chechnya.
Military service in the Chechen Republic
There have been numerous disputes about whether Yuri participated in the First Chechen Campaign. The fact is that the documents with which this fact can be confirmed have disappeared. According to some reports, it became known that the serviceman destroyed them himself. And he really had a reason for this. Knowing about the shell shock, the medical commission simply would not have allowed him to take part in the Second Chechen war. Journalists carefully studied the biography of Yuri Budanov and found out that he took an active part in the First Chechen War and was even seriously injured. The second Chechen campaign also did not spare the military. He was shell-shocked three times due to wounds.
Budanov's feat
Many people who knew Yuri Budanov consider him a real hero. To some extent this is true. At the end of 1999, a reconnaissance group led by Shtykov fell into a trap. The militants were able to deceive the Russian military, sending them down the wrong path. As a result, help came to a completely different place. The tank battalion located in Yuri Dmitrievich’s regiment was able to help the reconnaissance group. In this case, about fifty people died, and the military equipment. Other troops were unable to quickly find their bearings and come to the rescue due to bad weather conditions.
The serviceman accepted independent decision to save the reconnaissance group, he did not receive orders from above. For this, the colonel was reprimanded, but a little later he was awarded the medal “For Courage.”
End of career
On March 26, 2000, the irreparable happened. This date became fatal in the life of the hero of our article. To find out why Yuri Budanov was convicted, you need to consider the events that preceded this. It was on this day that the colonel’s daughter was born. He decided to celebrate this significant event with your colleagues. Alcoholic drinks made their presence felt.
Drunk servicemen came up with the idea of shelling a village where civilians lived. But not all participants in the drinking party agreed with this decision. And then Colonel Budanov decided to get even with the girl who was suspected of being a sniper. This girl's name was Elsa Kungaeva. She was Chechen and barely 18 years old. It was on this day that the colonel put an end to his impeccable career with his own hands.
Details of the crime
Colonel Budanov, being intoxicated, gave an order to his subordinates to bring the girl to him. The soldiers, arriving in the village, forcibly pulled Elsa out of the house and brought her to headquarters. Budanov personally interrogated Kungaeva. The interrogation lasted several hours. The colonel used physical force on the girl. As a result of such interrogation using violent actions, the girl was strangled. Moreover, her neck was broken. After Elsa's death, her body was handed over to the soldiers, who in turn abused it. Later, a forensic medical examination, examining the girl’s body, confirmed the fact of rape.
Detention of Colonel Budanov
After the crime became known to the public, the colonel was taken into custody. The arrest took place on March 27, the day after the murder was committed. At one point, the hero Budanov turned into a brutal killer. Initially, he was charged not only with murder, but also with rape. The rape article was later dropped. It turned out that the violent actions against the deceased were carried out by soldier Egorov.
It started out noisy and long trial. The prosecution spoke about three crimes committed by the colonel: kidnapping, murder and abuse of power.
Consequence
During the investigation, Budanov was interrogated several times. Each time he repeated the same version of what happened. The story of Yuri Budanov was known not only to the investigator, but also to his cellmates. According to the colonel, during interrogation Elsa Kungaeva confessed to the charges against her. She said that she hated Russian military personnel.
Knowing what the girl's father keeps in his house firearms, all family members were taken under military surveillance. As a result, it turned out that Elsa Kungaeva periodically goes to the mountains. As a result of the established surveillance, it was possible to find out that the young girl is a professional sniper and is fighting on the side of the militants.
Having received a confession from Elsa, Colonel Budanov decided to hand the girl over to the soldiers for custody. According to Yuri Dmitrievich, there was high temperature and he, having removed the top part military uniform, put his service weapon on the table. The girl, grabbing the colonel's pistol, tried to shoot it. A struggle began, and in a state of passion, Budanov strangled the suspect. Yuri claimed that the murder he committed was unintentional. He explained his deranged state by saying that Kungaeva threatened to find his newborn daughter and kill her. He repeated her cruel words that she would wrap the child's intestines around a machine gun.
The soldiers claimed that they buried the girl's body immediately after she was killed. But forensic medical examination said otherwise. During the exhumation process, it turned out that the girl was subjected to severe beatings and rape during her lifetime. Moreover, it turned out that at the time of her burial, she was still alive.
The case of Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov received a wide public response. There were defenders and opponents of the colonel. The investigation into the case of Yuri Budanov lasted three years. In 2002, he was declared insane. The court took into account the shell shock that preceded the crime. The examination indicated that such injuries easily explain the condition of the combat officer. They could provoke a loss of control over consciousness. Compulsory treatment in the clinic was expected. But a little later the court decision was annulled.
Supreme Court Russian Federation in July 2003 a verdict was rendered. The court's decision was disappointing. Budanov Yuri Dmitrievich was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 10 years. He was sent to serve his sentence in a maximum security colony in the city of Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region. Moreover, Yuri was stripped of all military ranks and awards. A decision was also made to ban him from holding leadership positions for three years.
Why was Yuri Budanov convicted? The verdict was imposed on all three counts brought by the prosecutor.
Prison term
While serving his sentence, the former colonel repeatedly submitted petitions to mitigate his fate. The first petition was sent to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Due to the fact that the case of Yuri Budanov gained international resonance, he withdrew the petition.
President Chechen Republic Kadyrov declared the officer an enemy of the Chechen people. He accused him of cruelty and inhumanity.
A little later, Budanov applied for pardon again. After which the commission agreed to return to Yuri his awards, deserved with blood. But the matter turned into public discontent, after which the petition was rejected.
The next petition was submitted in 2007. The result was negative. A year later, the court made a positive decision, and the former military man’s sentence was reduced. At the beginning of 2009, Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov was released from custody. He served almost the entire sentence.
New life for a former military man
Having received the long-awaited freedom, Yuri returned to his family. His father had a serious illness. He died shortly after his son returned from prison. Budanov was allocated housing, provided good job. He started life again. But everything turned out to be not so simple. Yuri was charged with a new one. Civilians The Chechen Republic began to claim that the former military man was involved in the kidnapping and murders of eighteen more people. A criminal case was opened and the investigation began again. However, Budanov’s involvement in the crimes was not confirmed. All charges were dropped.
Murder of Yuri Budanov
The family of Yuri Budanov consisted of four people: Yuri, his wife, son Valery and daughter Ekaterina. At the time of the death of the former military man, his son was already an adult and lived an independent life. Daughter Catherine was 11 years old. Her parents wanted to send her abroad. To do this, it was necessary to prepare certain documents. Budanov and his wife went to the notary, near whose office the father of the family was killed.
On June 11, 2011, at 12 o’clock, shots were fired on Komsomolsky Prospekt, which were aimed at ex-Colonel Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov. Three bullets hit the head, two hit the torso. The man died instantly. He had no chance of survival.
The murder of Yuri Budanov was discussed on the country's central television channels. Video materials recorded by street cameras were presented to the public. Based on them, the identity of the killer Yuri Budanov was determined. The internal affairs bodies were able to quickly find the man. The killer of Yuri Budanov claimed that his motive was revenge.
Where is the former soldier buried?
Many believe that the murder of Yuri Budanov was inevitable, while blaming the leader of the Chechen Republic. After all, the deceased himself repeatedly told his loved ones about a possible attack, which could be revenge for the murdered Elsa Kungaeva. There have been many articles in the press about where Yuri Budanov is buried. His final resting place was the Novoluzhinskoe cemetery in Khimki.
A large number of his colleagues attended the funeral. They escorted their friend on his final journey with honor. On that day, several thousand people visited the place where Yuri Budanov was buried. The former soldier was buried as befits a hero.
After the tragedy, Yuri Budanov's family was in danger. Colleagues and acquaintances helped his wife Svetlana in every possible way. Yuri Budanov's family was taken under protection. The state did not leave the former officer’s relatives in danger.
The biography of Yuri Budanov interests many residents of Russia. After all, he was a valiant officer, served his Motherland, not imagining life without military service. Having made a mistake, losing control of his behavior, he broke the law. He not only suffered legal punishment for the crime he committed, but also paid for it with his life. Despite the irreparable act he committed, in the eyes of many people he remained a respected person.
