The author and presenter of the "Moment of Truth" program Andrei Karaulov demands from the leader of the Saratov Communists Valery Rashkin 2 million rubles indemnification for moral damages for the publication of the material "Profession-television bastard" in the newspaper "Communist - Century XX-XXI". The TV presenter's lawyers believe that the article was a reaction of the Communists to the air of the Moment of Truth, where it was said that Deputy Rashkin was involved in ASTEK-S, which allegedly had a criminal past. Valery Rashkin suggested that the suit was ordered by his opponent, Vice Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin. Mr. Volodin does not comment on the situation.
Yesterday, the author of the Moment of Truth program, Andrei Karaulov, filed a lawsuit with the Oktyabrsky Court of Saratov demanding that the information disseminated by the Saratov newspaper Kommunist-vek XX-XXI and its founder, secretary of the Saratov Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, deputy State Duma Valery Rashkin. At the same time, Mr. Karaulov intends to recover from the leader of the Saratov Communists 2 million rubles in compensation for moral damage. The basis for the lawsuit, according to Andrei Karaulov's lawyer Alexander Lando, was the article "Profession is a TV bastard", published on October 26 and signed by the "press service of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation." In it, Mr. Karaulov is called "a small-scale TV bastard", "a scoundrel and a scoundrel" and, according to the lawyer, "represented in an unsightly way".
Mr. Lando claims that the article is a reaction of the communists to the broadcast of Andrey Karaulov's Moment of Truth on October 20th. According to Mr. Lando, the program was based on information from Saratov police operatives about the involvement of Deputy Rashkin in the Saratov company ASTEK-S, which allegedly has a criminal past. “But instead of giving counterarguments, Valery Rashkin organized an insulting publication in a newspaper controlled by him,” Mr. Lando was indignant.
Valery Rashkin suggested yesterday that the scandalous broadcast of the Moment of Truth program was “custom-made” - organized by his longtime opponent, Vice Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, United Russia Vyacheslav Volodin, in retaliation for accusations of corruption repeatedly voiced by the communist in parliament and in the media. Mr. Rashkin believes that he had every right, in accordance with the law on mass media, to publish the official article of the press service of the Communist Party. According to him, "responsibility for the content of the publication lies entirely with the press service, and not with him as the founder of the publication." The deputy expressed bewilderment that the TV presenter filed a lawsuit specifically against the Saratov newspaper, although “the press release was published in the communist newspapers of 89 regions and in Sovetskaya Rossiya”. According to Mr. Rashkin, "this confirms the assumption about the ordered nature of the lawsuit and its United Russia roots."
Valery Rashkin's opinion was supported by ASTEK-S. The holding said that "Mr. Karaulov has raised the subject of the company's allegedly criminal business for the second time." “On June 23, on the air of Moment of Truth, the presenter, referring to some tacit information from the FSB, actually accused the company’s management and deputy Rashkin of belonging to criminals,” Andrey Sviridov, a lawyer for ASTEK-S, told Kommersant. According to him, then Valery Rashkin sent a request to the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and received an answer that there were no “certificates” and “ASTEK-S” was clean before the law.
“On October 20, Mr. Karaulov invited retired RUBOP Colonel Mikhail Lyamin to his program as a “source of operational information,” added Mr. Sviridov. “At the same time, the TV presenter, apparently, forgot to warn the audience that in 1996 Lyamin was convicted of fraud in registering illegal land transactions.” According to the lawyer, "this police officer with a criminal record" said in the program that "very often, crimes were committed with their owners on real estate objects that were transferred to ASTEC." As an example, Mr. Lyamin cited the murder of the owner of the ANTEI store, Mrs. Zhigulina, who allegedly refused to sell her business to ASTEK. True, in the opinion of Mr. Sviridov, the ex-Rubopov member was "cunning." According to him, Mrs. Zhigulina was killed in 1995, and the company acquired the ANTEI store six years later from its rightful owner, the SEPO plant. “Colonel RUBOP could not have known this,” the lawyer believes. In his opinion, the Rubopovite "deliberately disseminated deliberately false information in order to discredit the name of Valery Rashkin and the business reputation of ASTEK."
The lawyer said that the company is already preparing statements of claim in this regard to the court. “The collected information allows us to talk about the slander spread by Mr. Karaulov on the air of his program,” Mr. Sviridov believes.
Vyacheslav Volodin declined to comment yesterday.
Tatyana Nikitina, Saratov
An ardent communist and part-time "brother" from the 90s, Rashkin turned to the President of Russia with sharp, burning questions that concern many citizens of our country, imagining himself, apparently, as a kind of cherub, a crystal-clear lamb of God:
Valery Rashkin - servant of crime
Once, a PR campaign by State Duma deputy from the Communist Party faction Valery Rashkin, who posted on the Internet a list of former United Russia members who were allegedly prosecuted at various times, had an effect. True, not quite the one that the communists were counting on. It turned out that Rashkin, who accuses the "party of power" of all serious things, in fact, he himself is not far from crime.
Street pickpockets have such a tactic: if they catch them by the hand, not only do their feet, but also shout “Stop the thief!” At the same time, thus diverting the attention of others from their own criminal person. It suddenly turned out that the methods of the bazaar punks may well be in demand in the camp of the red opposition. In any case, the biography of the deputy Rashkin leads precisely to such thoughts.
Rashkin Valery Fedorovich was born on March 14, 1955 in a family of collective farmers. Graduated from the Saratov Polytechnic Institute. In 1990 - 93 he was elected a deputy of the Saratov City Council of People's Deputies, then - a deputy of the regional Duma. In 1997 - 99 he worked as an assistant to a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the second convocation.
On December 14, 1999, a leaflet was faxed to the editorial office of several Saratov media accusing Rashkin of having links with criminal structures that allegedly transferred money to his candidate fund through the Saratov firm Astek-S.
Indeed, in the 90s, the Saratov press was full of notes about Rashkin's dubious connections with criminal authorities. The region still remembers the story of the KPSS restaurant, among the owners of which was a communist (the trial to refute this information and rumors that he was the “roof” of Yuri Aksenenko, who was in charge of the city at that time, Rashkin lost on September 4, 2002) . But the Saratov media most strongly associate the name of Rashkin with Astek-S, which arose as a result of the collapse of the local Navolokinsk organized criminal group.
It was this firm that in 1999 transferred large sums of money to Rashkin's candidate fund. From only one payment receipt dated October 16, 1999, it follows that the amount of 415 thousand rubles was transferred in three payments. The sender is OAO PKF Astek-S. The recipient is a registered candidate for the Saratov single-mandate constituency No. 158 Valery Fedorovich Rashkin.
On March 2, 2000, the Saratov Regional Electoral Committee refused to register Rashkin as a candidate for governor in connection with the forgery of voters' signatures. Rashkin was also accused of premature campaigning and bribing the electorate.
On March 7, 2000, Novye Izvestiya published a long article devoted to the shooting of 11 people in the office of the Saratov company Groza, including Igor Chikunov, well-known in criminal circles. Here is what Novye Izvestiya wrote: “It turned out that the same Chikunov once worked for a certain Eruslanov nicknamed “Professor” in JSC “Astek-S”, and the latter financed the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Valery Rashkin, when he was still running for the State Duma " .
Having entered the State Duma with the financial support of Astek-S, Valery Rashkin regularly wrote deputy requests to various authorities demanding not to touch his sponsors every time firefighters, SES or tax officials came to the named company with an inspection.
When in October 2003 there was a conflict between OJSC TD "TC-Povolzhye" (director Z. Samsonova) and LLC "Children's World" (PKF "Astek-S", Yeruslanov) regarding unauthorized work on the territory of the shopping center, Valery Rashkin personally went to the place and supported "Astek". Then, according to the reports of the Internal Affairs Directorate, there was information that the car of the representative of the Trade Center had burned down. The leadership of the Volga shopping center then turned to deputy Rashkin with an open letter: “You knew very well that in relation to the employees of the shopping center from the well-known structures in the city - PFC Astek-S, OJSC Detsky Mir - threats of physical violence are constantly heard , but not only did you not prevent this as a deputy, but you actually led these extremist actions, probably believing that the status of parliamentary immunity is equated with permissiveness and arbitrariness.”
On the same days, the commercial firm Astek-S officially transferred a million rubles to the candidate fund of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Valery Rashkin, and another 800 thousand to the fund of the secretary of the Saratov regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Olga Alimova.
In March 2006, in the elections to the Saratov City Duma, the lists of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation included several candidates from Astek, two of which (Alexander Grishantsov and Lev Beilin, director of the Home Goods direction of OAO Torgovy House "Central" received a deputy mandate.
In addition, almost half of the assistants to State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin are representatives of Astek or related “security” structures.
Rashkin lost one of his assistants on August 3 last year. On that day, at the crossroads of Chapaev and Michurin, Asif Aslanov, the owner of a casino, better known in criminal circles as "Alik", was assassinated.
After the explosion of a BMW-X5 in the center of Saratov, investigators found an IZH-71 pistol and ... a certificate of an assistant to a State Duma deputy, Valery Rashkin, issued in the name of Asif Nusleddin oglu Aslanov (born 1972) in the cabin of a foreign car. It turned out that Valery Rashkin had 5 full-time assistants and 39 freelance ones. In this list, at number 8, as an assistant to a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on a voluntary basis, the authority of Aslanov was listed.
As it turned out, the assistant to the deputy Valery Rashkin was in the area of operational attention of the police since the mid-90s. According to the former operative of the Frunzensky District Department of Internal Affairs of Saratov, and now the assistant to the rector of the SGU Sergey Lyubimov, at that time "Alik" was attached to the so-called "Novikov brigade" and specialized in fraud in currency exchange. According to Lyubimov, he personally happened to detain Aslanov, but "Alik" already had a serious "roof" at that time and he got away with everything. Meanwhile, according to the prosecutor's office, Aslanov has not officially worked anywhere in the past few years, since the gambling business was the main source of his income.
In 2003, the Sovetskaya Rossiya newspaper published an article in which Vyacheslav Volodin, a State Duma deputy from United Russia, who exposed Rashkin's corruption ties, was accused of appropriating the Cheremshany-1 cardiological sanatorium. Volodin was forced to file a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity in court, which ordered the editorial office of the newspaper to publish a refutation and pay compensation to United Russia in the amount of half a million rubles.
The communist turned out to be vindictive and restless. On February 16, 2006, in the Saratov newspaper Kommunist XX-XXI, a similar article “Stop the cannibalistic policy” appeared, in which Valery Rashkin again accused Volodin of corruption from scratch. Allegedly, Vyacheslav Volodin and Chairman of the Federation Affairs Committee Viktor Grishin once received "kickbacks" for illegal transactions from the ex-Minister of Transport for the Saratov Region, Gevorg Dzhlavyan.
It should be reminded that Gevorg Dzhlavyan, the former minister of the regional government of the Saratov region, the head of the Committee for road transport construction and operation, became a defendant in the criminal case in the spring of 2005. The case was initiated under Part 3 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “abuse of official powers”. The investigation found that as a result of Dzhlavyan's fraud, the damage to the state amounted to 114 million rubles. However, Rashkin wrote a petition asking him to release the former minister pending trial on his deputy's word of honor. At the same time, Rashkin categorically refused to appear for interrogation to the investigator as a witness, referring to his immunity.
On April 14, a rally organized by workers of the road industry took place at the reception of Rashkin. “Rashkin must defend the interests of the people, but instead he actually bails a notorious person,” the rally participants said and signed open letters addressed to Gennady Zyuganov, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and chairman of the State Duma, Boris Gryzlov, with a hint that the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has personal interest in the defense of Dzhlavyan (in Saratov, there have long been rumors that Dzhlavyan's relatives promised up to 10 million dollars for help in his release).
On May 12, 2006, the district court of the city of Saratov, at the suit of vice speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on the protection of honor and dignity, recognized that the information published in Kommunist was not true, ordered the secretary of the Saratov Communist Party to print a refutation and recovered from Valery Rashkin 20 thousand rubles in favor of Volodin as compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The statement of Rashkin-Dzhlavyan served as the basis for the criminal case initiated under the article “Slander”.
In addition, on May 1, 2006, Valery Rashkin was seen in a brawl with activists of the Saratov branch of the Young Guard youth movement. According to eyewitnesses, a communist attacked a girl who was sweeping the city streets with abuse and hit a young man who stood up for her. "Young Guard" was forced to apply to law enforcement agencies "to suppress the hooligan actions of State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin."
And with such a vivid biography, Rashkin continues to persistently apply to law enforcement agencies with a demand to check for criminal and corruption cleanliness of the members of United Russia and fight against the regime he hates. The Prosecutor General's Office repeatedly responded to Rashkin's deputy requests, pointing out that no violations of the law, for example, were found by Vyacheslav Volodin.
The stubborn perseverance of the deputy is striking. With the judicial stigma of a “slanderer”, with a reputation as a “friend” of the Saratov groups, Rashkin, as before, continues to insist that the corrupt party is not the Communist Party, to which he belongs, but United Russia, which has declared war on corruption. Doesn't this sound like the tactic of petty pickpockets?
Currently, Valery Rashkin continues to work closely with the bandits who give him a lot of money, and he, in turn, through his political channels of the Communist Party covers up all the illegal activities that criminal friends are doing both in Saratov and in other cities of Russia.
It all started a long time ago, because well-known criminal authorities of Saratov went to Rashkin's assistants, such as: Asif Aslanov, who was the owner of the casino, but by coincidence was killed in one of the criminal showdowns in 2006, as well as Alexei Yeruslanov, according to RUBOP , received at the request of the Volzhsky District Court of Saratov, in the early 90s he was a member of the Chikunovskiye organized criminal group, now he manages the Astek-S holding. But all the inhabitants of the town know about it, but they are afraid to speak, because they are afraid for their lives and for the lives of their families. Also, at a certain time, all regional TV programs, the media talked about what was really happening in the city and about who was at the helm in this entire criminal system.
But the worst thing is that everything continues, there is crime, but it’s just that they don’t talk about it so often. After all, if in fact, then during the elections, there are very few new personnel, mostly there is an old mass that has been sitting in the faction for decades, and almost all of them have a very muddy and dirty past. And the Saratov branch of the Communist Party has essentially become a political appendage of business structures. By the way, all the last years it has been sitting in the premises of one of the financial and industrial groups, known for its ambiguous reputation. And in return, at the slightest occurrence of problems for businessmen, Valery Rashkin covered them up with deputy requests to all possible structures. Saratov residents remember how once in the center of the city the car of a crime boss was blown up, in whose pocket they found the crusts of an assistant to deputy Rashkin. Voting for the Communist Party in the Saratov region has become synonymous with the promotion of ambiguous capital to power.
The Communists do not worry that they are not voted for, because people know that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a bandit power. And those new cadres who entered the Communist Party are shocked by everything that is happening in the party. But by and large, they cannot resist it in any way. Not so long ago, the communists of Saratov decided to turn to Gennady Zyuganov:
Dear Gennady Andreevich!
Veterans-communists of the Saratov region are turning to you. We are outraged by the lawlessness that our communist leaders and especially Comrade Rashkin are doing today. We went through the war, survived the difficult post-war years, remained faithful to our ideals during the period of predatory perestroika and always stood up for working people, for justice, against bureaucratic swindle and lawlessness.
A huge shock for us, the elderly, is the information that our leader, comrade Rashkin, has warmed around him the oligarchs and bandits who have plundered the country and our people. One of his assistants, a certain Asif Aslanov, nicknamed "Alik", was blown up in 2006 - this is without a doubt a criminal element: a currency schemer, co-owner of two casinos, an active member of a criminal group since the early 90s. Valery Fedorovich could not but know Aslanov from this side. He knew, and yet he took him as an assistant to his State Duma. Why is the leadership of the Communist Party silent and does not take action on such egregious facts?
And here is a new case. We learn from the newspapers that on April 17, another assistant to Rashkin got into trouble - the local oligarch Alexei Yeruslanov was taken into custody on suspicion of participating in a criminal showdown near Marx. In peacetime, the lawlessness of the 90s returns again, again the bandits shoot each other. What is it??? And Rashkin, having lost his conscience, rushes to save such a person from the court. We do not know how to answer the fair questions of our comrades - how can we accept the help of bandits who have robbed the people, for whom the prison is crying. They say that Rashkin holds rallies and publishes our communist press for Yeruslanov's blood money. To accept financial support from a person, a member of an organized criminal group, to carry out propaganda at the expense of money, which is based on the grief and misfortune of many people - is immoral!!! This is a shame for real communists!!!
As long as people like Rashkin, who betrayed our ideas and disgraced the memory of our leaders, remain in our ranks, the Communist Party will have no future. Gennady Andreevich, we know you as a firm, principled and decent person. We ask you to take the most stringent measures regarding what is happening in Saratov and stop Comrade Rashkin's lawlessness!! You are our last hope!
By the way, on June 1 of this year, REN TV reported that a large businessman, the founder of an entire business empire, was arrested in Saratov, a man is suspected of beating his wife and attacking policemen. Everything happened in front of dozens of eyewitnesses, the businessman began to beat his wife, patrol officers intervened in the conflict, and in the end they got it too. Even after the arrest of the handcuffed businessman, the guards came to rescue him.
He used to sit in the office, on a leather chair, but had to sit on the pavement in handcuffs. A man in fashionable white shoes frantically swears at everyone around. It is difficult to recognize one of the most influential businessmen of Saratov, Alexei Yeruslanov, in the brawler.
The businessman ended up in an uncomfortable position after a conflict on the highway. Eyewitnesses say that an elite foreign car slowed down next to the traffic police post. The driver left the passenger compartment and attacked the passenger, his wife, with his fists. The inspectors tried to help the unfortunate, but the hooligan attacked them too.
The businessman communicates as if he is sure that now the police will hear a well-known surname and will let him go with an apology. Instead, people in uniform offer to take an alcohol test.
Soon, a whole support group of Yeruslanov, more like personal guards, is in place. The men demand to let the businessman go and almost break the camera.
Alexey Yeruslanov, Rashkin's business partner, is the founder of an entire business empire, from commercial real estate to cargo transportation. According to rumors, people from the criminal world invested their money in the startup of the 90s. From them, the entrepreneur in authority received the nickname Professor. Apparently, remembering his youth, already a respectable businessman got into a fight with people in uniform.
A criminal case was opened against the rowdy for attacking police officers and ordered to report to the police department, but the man disappeared. They found him only in the office, where he was hiding with a security guard. This time, Yeruslanov was taken into custody, otherwise it is possible that he will have to look for a businessman in Spain. According to some reports, he also has a house there.
So far, all appeals to the main communist of the country, Zyuganov, are useless, since Gennady himself is spinning in all these circles. But suddenly Zyuganov will light up and he will think about the fact that the party needs to be saved. Although there is information in the media that Zyuganov's son-in-law, who allegedly appears in the scandal with theft at Oboronservis, may be associated with Valery Rashkin. In view of the fact that nothing was resolved as before, it becomes clear who else Rashkin is cooperating with in laundering money through crime.
“We did everything to make Zyuganov president”
Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Valery Rashkin on why we still live in the 90s
Lenta.ru continues its series of interviews about the recent past of our country. Following perestroika, we recall the key events and phenomena of the 1990s - the era of Boris Yeltsin's rule. Valery Rashkin, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a deputy of the Saratov City Council of People's Deputies and a confidant of Gennady Zyuganov in the presidential elections of 1996, told why the leader of the Communist Party failed to win the elections from Yeltsin and how many people died during the execution of parliament in October 93rd.
Lenta.ru: What do you remember about the 90s? Can they really be called “dashing” or was it rather an “island of freedom”? Maybe you have some other definition?
Rashkin: The 90s were a period of lawlessness, when the constitution did not work, and the laws were replaced by an iron. He was placed on his stomach and, if you did not agree, the plug was inserted into the socket. All state bodies looked sad and confused. In the police, the prosecutor's office, among the officials there were ordinary Soviet people, they understood what decency and law are, but suddenly state property became private and they began to plunder it. Dissenters could be tortured or simply killed.
I myself then worked at a defense enterprise, everything was strict and disciplined there, with good traditions, we all knew how every ruble was earned. But even the directors of such enterprises, who were under special control and protection of the KGB, were dragged to the "shooters" and forced to pay kickbacks and bribes, they imposed their "roof".
In the 90s, the current oligarchs, people who have lost their honor and conscience, began to gain strength. The main thing for them was to grab a fatter piece. Everything, from factories and hospitals to kindergartens and nurseries, went under the hammer and for next to nothing. This was a consequence of the collapse of the USSR and its core - the CPSU. In addition to the troubles already listed, a civil war began in Chechnya. Tatarstan, Bashkiria and the Urals, using Yeltsin's permission (he then said, they say, take as much sovereignty as you want), began to think about secession from Russia. It was then that the regional legislation became higher than the federal one. This is nonsense! The courts didn't work. Everything was at the mercy of armed bandits.
You named the minuses, but could you name the pluses of this time?
Yes, there were no pluses, there were only minuses. When laws and courts do not work, when the traditions of family and friendship are violated, there can be nothing positive. In the 90s there was a colossal rollback from the achievements of the Soviet era. Production collapsed, the entire pension system collapsed, banks were catching up with inflation, moreover, savings, children's insurance savings were taken away from all citizens - they still have not been returned.
Often, in connection with the 90s, they recall the wise Chinese proverb “God forbid you live in an era of change,” but then there were no changes, but the demolition of the socialist system and the introduction of wild, criminal capitalism. It was a leap towards feudalism, and then something similar to the period of primitive accumulation of capital - illegal privatization, Chubais vouchers. Everywhere people were deceived, it was then that lies poured from the TV screens, propaganda of witchcraft, all these Kashpirovsky, cancer treatment with spells. This was used by the state, which shows the degree of its decomposition.
How did you meet the events of October 1993?
In 1993, I was a deputy of the Saratov City Council of People's Deputies and opposed the taking away of the city's property. Then beautiful buildings were privatized for a penny, and the city budget was taken away without any control. This process was supervised by the former first secretary of the Saratov city committee of the CPSU Vladimir Golovachev. He, like most leaders like him, quickly changed his color, going over to Yeltsin's side.
I was an active defender of the Soviets, held rallies, kept in direct contact with the Supreme Soviet in Moscow, received materials and documents from there, and found out how the situation was developing. I took people to Revolution Square in Saratov to defend their right to have their own legislative body in the form of the Council of People's Deputies. Communists, patriots did not have a majority in the City Council, it was for the so-called democrats. But, despite this, we insisted that there should be councils and no one had the right to dissolve them. I stood up for Soviet power and for the constitution, and did everything I could.
What was your attitude towards Rutskoi, Khasbulatov and Yeltsin before and after the execution of the parliament?
To Rutskoi and Khasbulatov at that time, of course, positive: he supported them in every possible way, because they defended the Supreme Council, and their appeals to the people were accepted in accordance with the country's constitution and on legal grounds. I printed out and handed out to the citizens of Saratov their appeals, including those about the anti-constitutional actions of Yeltsin, whom I treated badly from the time when he was chairman of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU.
I negatively assessed his line on the dispersal of party cadres, the distribution of property and drunkenness, which I was told about in Sverdlovsk. Yeltsin was a dishonorable person, intellectually narrow-minded. This could be easily seen from his public speeches. I treated him categorically negatively and did not believe a single word of his.
Photo: Valery Kiselev / Kommersant
Yeltsin needed unlimited power, this can be seen from the dispersal of the Moscow party intellectuals - he simply walked over the corpses. I warned then that if he gets to her, he will surrender the country and stop at nothing. And so it happened - a trinity of traitors drunk signed an agreement on secession from the USSR. Why didn't they stop? After all, there were the KGB and the army. For what Yeltsin did in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, he should have been arrested, tried and shot as a traitor. This could have happened if the power structures were fulfilling their direct duties.
Data on the dead at the walls of parliament is still controversial, maybe the Communist Party has managed to learn something new in recent years?
Of course, the first data given on the execution of the Supreme Council were distorted. Yeltsin's clique underestimated the losses of the parliament's defenders. Today, the exact figure is not known, but the fact is that more than 1,200 people died. There are lists and testimonies of direct participants - those who saw how people died. There are memories of comrades about the execution of parliament. They saw in the basement of the Supreme Soviet stacked corpses of those killed in underground passages, corpses in sewer communications leading to the Moscow River, they saw how the bodies were thrown into the river.
There is an opinion that they wanted to put gas into the House of Soviets or even bring it down. The story with the gas did not stick together, but it did not work out to bring down - the building turned out to be strong. Do you know anything about it?
There were many options for reprisals against the Supreme Council. They could easily bring down the building, because they fired from tanks and could damage the load-bearing walls. They were waiting for it to collapse, and the fact that the House of Soviets survived is a real miracle. I heard the version about gas, but it seems doubtful to me. If they were preparing for such an operation, they would carry it out and no one would disobey. After all, this is a war, and under the drunken Yeltsin, his gangster entourage could do anything. If they received a more serious rebuff, they would use other types of weapons.
You live in two cities (Moscow and Saratov) and know the life of the Volga region. Tell us how the events of the 1990s in Moscow influenced life in the Saratov region.
All decisions came from Moscow, and cadres were appointed from Moscow. So, for example, one of the most incompetent heads of administrations of that time, Yuri Belykh, was appointed. The literate and intelligent chairman of the Saratov city executive committee, Nikolai Pavlovich Grishin, who worked all his life for the benefit of the people and made decisions that benefited the region, was replaced by "poultry houses". Belykh was the director of the poultry farm, Ayatskov was the deputy director of the poultry farm, the mayor of Saratov, Yuri Kitov, headed the local Poultry Industry.
The "poultry" lacked the necessary horizons to manage the city and region. Any director of a defense enterprise was head and shoulders above them, but then Moscow did not need such personnel. We needed people who could look into Yeltsin's eyes and drink three glasses of vodka, after which they were appointed, and they did what they were told. Indeed, in Russia the law is Yeltsin, the court is Yeltsin, the army, the police are also Yeltsin. He said that he was responsible for everything, but he never answered for anything.
The regions were confused, they could not influence Moscow's policy in any way. People were fooled by the media, they believed in friendship with the United States, in promises that soon we would start rolling like cheese in butter. Remember what they said then: you will sit on the bank, fish, and for the shares you bought with a voucher, money will be deposited into your bank account. No need to work, everything will work itself out! They happily believed it.
After the shock reforms, the country's population began to rethink their attitude to the present and the past, and citizens' interest in socialism grew. Against such a background, the Communist Party looked like a stronghold of these sentiments. There is a "red belt" of governors, almost a "red" Duma, but it does not work out to take the presidency or to achieve the formation of a government. What are the reasons, in your opinion?
What happened, happened. History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. The “red belt” was not enough, it was not enough to understand that socialism is a higher stage of development than capitalism. Although many were in favor of Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov, and his authority was much higher than that of the Communist Party, there was no critical mass of citizens who could take to the streets in 1996 and defend their choice, force them to obey the will of the population.
On the other hand, the siloviki and the obese, crazed state structures, which were not controlled in any way, understood that Yeltsin was the guarantor of their position. They did everything for his victory. This played a major role in the fact that the prerequisites for a change of course through parliamentary means and a return to a welfare state were not realized. Zyuganov was a real alternative to Yeltsin and his team, but the story turned out so that in the second round Yeltsin won a little more votes and retained the presidency.
Some politicians say that the leader of the Communist Party won the 1996 presidential election in the first round. You then were a confidant of Zyuganov, tell me, are these statements an attempt to hurt Gennady Andreevich, or is there some grain of truth in them?
No. We saw how people vote, were at all polling stations and all the data on the voting results passed through us. For the sake of objectivity: if there were falsifications and if, as some analysts say, Zyuganov won in the first round, then there was no opportunity to defend this result by the forces of the Communist Party and its supporters.
We can assume, talk about a possible victory for Zyuganov, but historical objectivity is such that neither he, nor the party and its supporters, nor observers and members of election commissions could prove and defend this. Everything else is from the evil one.
You can talk about it as much as you like, blame and give advice. There is no truth in the words that we did not fight and surrendered, no. This is a lie. I repeat, if we had won the elections and a critical mass had accumulated ready to defend the result, Zyuganov would have become president, but, unfortunately, history decreed otherwise.
Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin told Lente.Ru that election fraud in 1996 was in favor of Zyuganov.
This is nonsense. They usually falsify in favor of the ruling candidate, in favor of the one in whose hands the printing houses are, who can appoint the heads of election commissions who sign the final protocols. Those who have access to the heads of administrations and leverage over them are falsifying. Those who falsify are those who know that no one will seize them by the hand and that, even if the deceit is revealed, no one will punish them.
Therefore, Mr. Oreshkin (albeit a political scientist) for some reason does not know that the opposition has never, in any country, rigged elections. Such things are available only to the ruling party, only to those who have all the levers of control and management, and Yeltsin had them. Plus, huge amounts of money from the oligarchs were thrown into Yeltsin's favor, and cases of bribery of all members of the commissions are known.
A key role in campaigning for Yeltsin was played by Sergei Lisovsky and the "Vote or Lose" campaign with aggressive advertising, a musical tour of popular artists throughout the country. Wasn't that a violation of the electoral law? Have you tried to counter it in any way?
The party was not just trying to resist this, there was a real battle. We held numerous meetings with voters, traveled to enterprises, published leaflets, newspapers, worked in law enforcement agencies, the army. It cannot be said that we saw the actions of the Yeltsin team and did nothing. The Communists appealed to the courts, there were appeals to the prosecutor's office, they even appealed to their conscience. Everyone fought: State Duma deputies, regional, municipal, our heads of subjects. We did everything for Zyuganov to become president.
An attempt to impeach Yeltsin was made at the end of the 1990s, in 1998, when a decision was not enough to make a decision. Do you think Yeltsin would repeat the story of October 1993?
I am convinced that I would repeat. By 1998, he drank even more and degraded. At the same time, Yeltsin fully believed that he was right and felt like a deity. He completely built power structures for himself (the army, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs). I have no doubt that the president would have pulled the trigger. Another question, what would be the resistance of the communists and patriots, would they go all the way to storm the Yeltsin clique? It's hard to predict here.
Do you think it was possible to avoid the conflict in Chechnya?
Under Yeltsin, that is, with rampant crime, the rapid development of the market for prostitution and drug trafficking, uncontrolled oil production and the colossal enrichment of the oligarchs from the sale of natural resources, it was impossible to avoid conflict. There was a need to change personnel both in Chechnya and in Russia, to carry out huge and complex work with them and with law enforcement agencies. This was possible if the Communist Party of the Russian Federation came to power then. We could keep the peace, but under Yeltsin's cadres, war was inevitable.
The 90s - the heyday of organized crime groups and showdowns - probably hit your activists hard too. Were you threatened?
Certainly. Everyone who stayed in the country in the 90s, and did not go abroad, faced banditry. There were also murders of activists of our party. For example, in 1995, a member of the Communist Party faction in the State Duma, Valentin Martemyanov, an excellent lawyer, was killed. He defended the Communist Party in the Constitutional Court, its right to be registered and conduct legitimate activities. This is my friend, I knew him well. Relatives and friends of the Communists were fired, they were not taken anywhere.
I myself managed to work as a taxi driver and loader. There was a time, in the early 90s, when they simply did not shake hands with me, because I was a member of the party committee, a communist. Even relatives did not understand why I continue to defend the interests of the Soviet state. They were convinced that what had happened was leading us to a wonderful future. They didn't believe in me. After two or three years, the mood changed, people felt cheated. There were no more guaranteed jobs, decent pensions, wages, free healthcare, and recreation for the children. My attitude has also changed.
Photo: Valery Melnikov / Kommersant
Do you think it is possible in Russia to repeat the situation of the 1990s?
Everything is possible. Nobody is immune from this. But we must draw conclusions from our historical experience. We must be reminded of what happened to all of us recently. Lawlessness and theft, in my opinion, have become veiled today, but the volumes have remained the same as then. At least half of the budget funds are stolen, and the management system is based on kickbacks and bribes. It's bitter and insulting, but you can't get away from the facts. In milder forms, bribery of the security forces is carried out, the prices of the courts for making the necessary decisions are known. The whole society is riddled with corruption.
Yes, unlike in the 1990s, the security forces now have limits: reaction to murders, beatings, violence, responsibility for failure to fulfill their duties. Somehow they were accustomed to the current constitution. The veiled 90s, in my opinion, are also present in the fact that there is no sympathy and respect for the common man, democracy, freedoms, and the ability to change the situation by voting.
