Environmental watch in the North Caucasus. Attack on Andrei Rudomakha: possible versions You are a native Kuban
Andrey Rudomakha during a public environmental inspection of the surroundings of the village of Krinitsa on the Black Sea coast. A winemaking chateau is being built illegally behind the fence. The attack on Ecowatch activists took place that same evening. December 28, 2017
How it all happened
Let us remind you that late in the evening of December 28 in Krasnodar, a group of activists of the Environmental Watch in the North Caucasus was attacked and robbed. The incident occurred immediately after the group returned from conducting a public environmental inspection of the surroundings of the village of Krinitsa on the Black Sea coast, where, without any permits, construction of a facility similar to a wine chateau began right on the territory of the state forest fund.
A surveillance camera at the house near which the attack took place recorded the appearance of three young men in light tracksuits and tights about half an hour before environmentalists arrived there. The criminals were waiting for the activists on the corner of the block: when a car drove up to the house, they moved closer and waited for the right moment, standing on the other side of the street.
Unsuspecting passengers of the car got out of the car, not having time to take their things and photographic equipment from there, when criminals ran up to the car from behind. They had pepper spray canisters. Andrei Rudomakha was the first to be “neutralized”: he was blinded with gas, after which one of the attackers knocked the environmentalist to the ground with punches and kicks and kicked the head (from the side of the face) of an already lying man - this blow caused the resulting concussion and a broken nose and jaw injuries. Rudomakha lost consciousness and lay bleeding while the thugs “dealt” with the other participants in the environmental inspection.
Viktor Chirikov (the driver of the car) was kicked in the stomach and sprayed with pepper spray several times. Vera Kholodnaya, a journalist for the online publication Free Media, was also injured - she was also thoroughly “treated” with gas.
After committing violent acts (everything happened very quickly - the attack took no more than a couple of minutes), the criminals entered the car and stole the activists’ personal belongings, equipment, and documents. It is obvious that these were precisely the goals pursued by the attackers: on the one hand, they obviously wanted to take away the footage, and on the other, obviously, the task was to simulate a domestic robbery and hooliganism as much as possible.
The police work without enthusiasm
The police and ambulance were immediately called to the scene of the incident. Andrei Rudomakha was hospitalized with suspicion of a serious traumatic brain injury and concussion (the doctors’ fears were later confirmed). The rest were treated on the spot.
And although the criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Robbery committed by a group of persons” was initiated almost immediately after the attack; the Krasnodar police showed almost no enthusiasm for catching the criminals without delay. Only an hour after the incident, the scene of the attack was examined by a dog handler with a dog - the animal indicated the place where the thugs with the stolen things got into the car that was waiting for them.
However, even if the direct attackers had been caught in hot pursuit, it is not a fact that they would have pointed to the mastermind of the crime, and the investigation would have wanted to look into some other versions other than the everyday one.
Photo: Environmental watch in the North Caucasus
From a killed boar to Putin's classmate
Meanwhile, there are several plausible versions about the possible masterminds of the attack. The most likely reason for the attack was retaliation for a public inspection of an illegal wine chateau. The fact is that during the inspection of the illegal construction site, there was a conflict with the security guards, who in the form of an ultimatum demanded that the photographic material be removed, which the activists refused to do.
The object itself, which was examined by a group of activists, is... an Orthodox chapel, moreover, the religious object itself, illegally built on the territory of the state forest fund, is surrounded by a fence. Nearby, roads were found cut through the coastal forest, as well as four more sites cleared of vegetation, where construction work is underway - pits have been dug, foundations for permanent buildings have been poured. The forest where the construction is taking place borders two large areas of agricultural land on which vineyards are located - i.e. All construction in the forest is in one way or another connected with grape production.
Construction is being carried out on two forest areas, which, in turn, are leased from two different companies. The owner of the first plot is Perspektiva LLC. Photographs taken during the public inspection show that a sign with the inscription “Hunting Farm “Perspective”” was installed directly in front of the fence where the equipment is working. At the same time, according to the law, hunting use does not allow any capital construction to be carried out on the leased site.
The co-owner of Perspektiva LLC is Pavel Ezubov, a long-time business partner of oligarch Oleg Deripaska. In addition, Mr. Ezubov is the son of State Duma deputy from the Krasnodar Territory Alexei Ezubov.
Another forest tenant is Axis Investments JSC. It was on the site (more than 20 hectares), which is leased from this organization, that the church was built. The plot is leased from the company "Axis Investments" until 2055 (the same organization also leases neighboring vineyards).
The founder and general director of the Axis Investments organization, which is engaged in construction, according to an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, is St. Petersburg lawyer Alexey Tot, who is known for being a business partner of Vladimir Putin’s classmate, also a lawyer from St. Petersburg, Nikolai Egorov. The company is engaged in “venture investing, including through investment companies.” Authorized capital – 10 thousand rubles. In addition to the law firm, Taut owns Apex Yug LLC, whose main activities are growing grapes and buying and selling land.
Andrei Rudomakha’s lawyer Alexey Avanesyan adheres to the version that the purpose of the attack on the group of environmentalists was precisely an attempt to prevent the publication of materials obtained during the public inspection.
“The attackers did not act very professionally. While waiting for environmentalists at the house, they walked under CCTV cameras several times without even noticing it. The incident itself was also fully captured on video: it is clear that the goal was precisely the seizure of equipment - cameras, video cameras, GPS navigators. Andrei stood closest to the car and could have prevented the criminal plans - it was he who, in addition to pepper gas, also received punches and kicks,” says Avanesyan.
The version that the attackers were connected with the security of the complex, which was inspected by environmentalists, seems the most plausible, but is not the only one. Both Ecological Watch and Andrei Rudomakha himself have recently been involved in a number of other scandalous topics. In particular, Rudomakha himself has recently been investigating the facts of, let’s say, rather strange activities of the internal policy department of the Krasnodar Territory administration, where for many years applied a wide range of “black” political technologies (from Internet trolling and DDoS attacks to the release of fake printed publications) against opposition politicians and public activists.
Such “services”, from which local “black” PR people and political strategists made good money, as Andrei Rudomakha stated, were paid from a certain “common fund”, in which tens of millions of rubles circulated under Governor Alexander Tkachev.
Andrey Rudomakha in the hospital after the attack.
Photo: Environmental watch in the North Caucasus
Another topic that EcoWatch has already dealt with is poaching with the participation of high-ranking officials near Gelendzhik. At the beginning of December last year, in the area of the village of Tekos in a forest, a group of people was detained, among whom were the head of the Main Directorate of Public Catering of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Bolat Zakaryanov (known as one of the former managers of Investstroy Management Company LLC, to which the so-called n. "Putin's Palace" near the village of Praskoveevka), head of the Office of Rosprirodnadzor for the Krasnodar Territory Roman Moldovanov, as well as head of the Department for Protection, Federal State Supervision and Regulation of the Use of Fauna and Their Habitats of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory Andrey Koloskov, together with two of his subordinates. .
A group of high-ranking officials was almost accidentally discovered by employees of the Russian Guard who were conducting an anti-poaching raid. The VIP hunters found a dead boar, but they were unable to provide either a license to hunt it or a permit from the hunting farm on whose territory the hunt took place.
Currently, the Investigative Committee is conducting an investigation into this incident, and it is possible that a criminal case will be initiated, and some will have to say goodbye to the warm bureaucratic chairs. But none of this, most likely, would have happened, and the incident would have been quietly hushed up if the Environmental Watch had not made it widely public.
Public reaction
After the beating of Andrei Rudomakha and his colleagues in December 2017, human rights activists released
On Friday night in Krasnodar, members of the “Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus” were beaten; the head of the organization, Andrei Rudomakha, was hospitalized with serious injuries. Environmentalists returning from an inspection of the Black Sea coast were attacked by unknown masked men - they stole all the equipment and documents about the organization’s investigations. Colleagues of the victims consider this a response to recent publications about poaching officials.
The attack occurred at approximately 11 p.m. near the organization's office. As Ecowatch activist Viktor Chirikov told Kommersant, environmentalists spent the entire day on the Black Sea coast “with a public inspection.” “There is construction of an elite residence going on there, we recorded various violations,” he said. “At some point, the security of the site detained us and recorded our data.” The environmentalists returned to Krasnodar at night and drove a minibus to the organization’s office. “I got out of the car and immediately received a strong blow to the chest, then they poured tear gas on me,” said Mr. Chirikov. “At that time, other people beat Andrei Rudomakha in the face with brass knuckles.” After beating the environmentalists, the unknown men in medical masks turned to their belongings: they pulled out all the equipment, electronic media and documents of the organization from the car. After this, the attackers fled.
“Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus” was created in 1997, and in 2004 it was officially registered as a public organization. It is one of the most famous environmental NGOs in the region; WWF and Greenpeace Russia cooperate with it. In 2008, Ekovahta was able to achieve the postponement of the construction of two Olympic venues - a bobsleigh and luge track and a mountain Olympic village. In 2016, the Ministry of Justice included the organization in the register of foreign agents. The Presidential Council for Human Rights opposed this decision, but it was not reversed.
The head of Ekovakhta, Andrei Rudomakha, suffered the most during the attack; he was hospitalized. “His whole face is swollen, they suspect a traumatic brain injury, they urgently did an MRI,” said Mr. Chirikov. He himself has already given evidence to the police operational investigation team: “They took explanations and began an investigation. They said there was robbery, a very serious crime.” The environmentalist is confident that the attack is related to the activities of the organization: “These people were clearly aimed at stealing equipment and documents about our investigations.”
The press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory confirmed to Kommersant that the police are conducting an investigation into the complaint about the attack. “The victims told the police that near one of the households in the city of Krasnodar, three unidentified persons beat them and openly stole documents and property totaling over 60 thousand rubles. Police officers inspected the scene of the incident and also interviewed possible witnesses, the press service reported. The police are carrying out the necessary operational and investigative measures aimed at identifying and detaining persons involved in the crime. The issue of initiating a criminal case is being decided.”
The chairman of the Krasnodar organization “Southern Ecological Front” Mikhail Abrahamyan told Kommersant that he connects this attack with the recent high-profile investigation of “Ekovakhta”. “Two weeks ago, the guys started publishing materials about the illegal hunting of a number of Krasnodar officials,” he said. “They were detained by employees of the Russian Guard right next to the illegally killed wild boar, but then the matter began to be hushed up. “Ekovakhta tried to draw attention to the situation.” According to Mr. Abrahamyan, both he and Andrei Rudomakha began to receive calls “asking them not to ruin people’s lives because of some wild boar.” “But we didn’t think that things would come to such chaos,” he complained.
Let us recall that in September 2016, unknown masked men attacked the Kuban camp of Greenpeace and the Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus - environmentalists were engaged in extinguishing wild fires. Then the activists were beaten, their tents were cut up and they tried to set them on fire. After this attack, volunteer firefighters were forced to end the expedition early. The police opened criminal cases under Art. 158 of the Criminal Code (theft), Art. 119 of the Criminal Code (threat of murder) and Art. 115 of the Criminal Code (intentional infliction of minor harm to health). However, the suspects were never identified.
Alexander Chernykh
"ECOLOGICAL WATCH IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS"
ANDREY RUDOMAKHA IN CONNECTION WITH THE RECENT ATTACK AGAINST HIM
MET WITH THE GOVERNOR OF THE KRASNODAR REGION
At the meeting, in addition to issues related to the crime committed on December 28,
the situation with unsatisfactory work was also discussed
block of internal policy of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory
and acute environmental problems of the region
Yesterday, January 17, 2018, in the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, a personal meeting was held between the coordinator of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus, Andrei Rudomakha, and the Governor of Kuban, Veniamin Kondratyev. An agreement to meet was reached earlier when Kondratyev called Rudomakha at the hospital, where he was lying after injuries received as a result of the attack.
Kondratyev asked at the meeting about the progress of the investigation. Rudomakha said that the investigation is not being carried out at the proper level. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that, three weeks after the crime was committed, the attackers were still not found, although it seemed possible to find them without delay: the attackers were not particularly careful and left a lot of evidence. The governor promised to take appropriate measures.
Other issues were also discussed at the meeting. Andrei Rudomakha conveyed information to Veniamin Kondratiev that certain officials of the FSB Directorate for the Krasnodar Territory, who “protect” the construction business and are associated with various corrupt persons whose interests were affected by the Environmental Watch investigations, may have been involved in organizing the crime committed. Rudomakha asked Kondratyev to report this information to the head of the FSB Directorate for the Krasnodar Territory, Igor Kolosov.
In addition, Andrei Rudomakha informed the governor about the extremely unsatisfactory work of the Department of Internal Policy, as well as the Department of Information Policy of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, which, contrary to the governor’s policy aimed at establishing constructive interaction with the environmental community, devoted themselves to suppressing the activities of the Environmental Watch and watering it down dirt in the media under their control. Rudomakha pointed out the fact that, according to the information available to him, this activity of these departments is carried out in close cooperation with the above-mentioned employees of the FSB Directorate for the Krasnodar Territory, as well as with individuals from the previous leadership of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, when it was headed by Alexander Tkachev. Rudomakha informed Kondratyev that among his subordinates in the internal policy bloc there are traitors who act in the interests of Tkachev’s team and carry out systematic activities aimed at increasing social tension in the region, arrange provocations and deliberately generate conflict situations in order to create a negative image of the Krasnodar region.
Andrei Rudomakha also informed the governor that, acting in the interests of Tkachev’s team,The Department of Internal Policy formed the Human Rights Council under the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory and the Public Chamber of the Krasnodar Territory, which are pseudo-public and do not represent even to the smallest extent the interests of the population and the public. Separately, Rudomakha focused on the Public Environmental Council under the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, which also largely consists of nominal members introduced into it only so that they vote “as they should.” This Council last spring was marked by the adoption of a falsified decision on the issue of removing 800 hectares of land in Krasnodar from the forest fund lands. The decision was lobbied by the Administration of Krasnodar, which has big plans for these lands and has been actively engaged in cutting forest lands in the city for many years. During a meeting with Rudomakha, Kondratyev confirmed his position that forest lands cannot be given to the city.
At the meeting, the issue was discussed about the possible holding of a visiting meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation in the Krasnodar Territory in the near future.
In addition to these topics, other issues related to the protection of environmental rights of citizens were raised at the meeting. Particular attention was paid to the adoption of new master plans for Krasnodar and Sochi, the imbalances in which caused serious concern among the residents of these cities. Right during the meeting, Kondratiev, via intercom, instructed First Vice-Governor Andrei Alekseenko to be sure to coordinate all key decisions on the master plans of Krasnodar and Sochi with interested members of the public.
The public movement “Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus” (EWSC) is one of the most prominent environmental organizations in Russia. Ecowatch protests were widely covered in the media and social networks, and its activists Suren Ghazaryan and Evgeniy Vitishko became prominent figures in the environmental movement. Opponents have repeatedly accused Ecowatch activists of pursuing commercial orders, “ecological raiding” and black PR. However, no substantiated evidence of criticism was ever presented. Now, as Lenta.ru learned from sources in Ekovakhta, a conflict is brewing within the organization: the project managers do not agree on the issue of financial discipline. “Ekovakhta” grew out of the ecological communes “Atshi” and “Sakhray”, organized in the nineties by a resident of Maykop Andrey Rudomakha, who at that time adhered to extreme leftist views. Members of the communes included “greens” and anarchists, all together they were considered the Western Caucasus wing of the radical environmental movement “Rainbow Guardians”.“On an external level, we were engaged in environmental radicalism. We were blocking something all the time - construction sites, roads, government institutions,” Rudomakha recalled in an interview with Russian Planet. In 1997, one of the Atsha protests in Sochi ended very sadly: one of the participants, 22-year-old Anna Koshikova from Izhevsk, had her hand torn off.
In the early 2000s, Ekovahta opposed the implementation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium project, the construction of an ammonia transshipment terminal on the Taman Peninsula and a terminal for the shipment of mineral fertilizers in Tuapse, and defended Utrish, Sochi National Parks and natural complexes of the Kuban delta.
However, Tuapse lawyer Vladimir Taranov, who took part in the fight against the construction of the Tuapse terminal, believes that the activities of Ecowatch could have been much more effective if, in addition to provocations, its leaders had used more constructive methods of fighting for the environment.
“There are people of conviction in Ekovakhta, but, it seems to me, there is a lot of garbage,” Taranov told the Kuban Today newspaper. - Its coordinator Rudomakha has always acted unconstructively, he is a supporter of the actions. I would say this is a kind of “green extremism”. I stayed with them and stepped aside. Rudomakha is simply a provocateur. Somewhere something went wrong, somewhere there was a technological breakdown - Rudomakha is there. But the struggle is being waged in different ways. You can incite people to commit illegal actions and step away, but the perpetrators will bear responsibility. Many people know him, but even his entourage in the same “Ekovakhta” spoke sharply negatively about him. Man loves power above all.”
Taranov also stated that, in his opinion, Rudomakha made money from environmental actions. According to him, law enforcement agencies know where, when and how he made money, but for some reason they do not want to implement this information.
In 2009, Rudomakha became a member of the Yabloko party, and from June 2012 to November 2013 he was chairman of the Krasnodar regional branch of the party.
During this period, members of the Ecowatch were actively involved in public inspections of VIP real estate on the Black Sea: residence of Alexander Tkachev in Blue Bay, "Putin's palace" in Praskoveevka and the patriarch's dacha next door. They tried to fight the holding of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The result of such actions most often was the detention of activists.
This period ended with very loud criminal cases, which, as always, did not affect the head of the organization. In November 2011, Ecowatch activists wrote “Sasha is a thief!” on the fence of the Black Sea dacha of Alexander Tkachev - at that time the governor of Kuban - and dismantled one of the sections of the fence in order to enter the territory where, in their opinion, the law guarantees free access for citizens.
In 2012, the court sentenced well-known movement participants Evgeny Vitishko and Suren Ghazaryan to three years probation under Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Deliberate damage to property committed for hooligan reasons”). In February 2014, Vitishko’s sentence was replaced with a real one, and he was sent to a colony-settlement, where he stayed until the end of 2015, after which he was released on parole. Ghazaryan, after the initiation of another criminal case, was forced to leave for Estonia.
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| Suren Ghazaryan
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However, the greatest damage to Ecowatch’s reputation was not caused by political collaboration, but by disagreements over the issue of financial discipline.
Amazing story
Evgeniy Vitishko became widely famous after he received a real sentence in the “case of Tkachev’s fence.” Pickets in his support were held in different cities of Russia; such authoritative environmental and human rights organizations as Bellona, Greenpeace, Memorial, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others spoke out in defense of the ecologist. Even the International Olympic Committee and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed their concern about Vitishko’s fate. However, the activist was able to be released only after Vladimir Putin instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office to check the circumstances of his case.Funds were also collected to help Vitishko in prison. It was this campaign that cast a shadow on the leaders of Ekovakhta and became a reason for talk about the financial dishonesty of some of them. , in which members of the Ecowatch council took part, was conveyed to journalists by one of the activists.
In January 2015, in a “mail conference,” Andrei Rudomakha accused the coordinator of the campaign to protect Vitishko and council member Dmitry Gutov of embezzling money: “In the fall, Kate Watters allocated $2,000 from Crude Accountability funds to protect Zhenya Vitishko. The money was given to pay for a lawyer. When the issue with the lawyer was pending, it became known that Dima, at his own discretion, spent about 30 thousand rubles from these funds for his personal needs and that these funds no longer exist.” Gutov himself explained the shortfall as “a month’s delay in salary” and offered to withhold the next salary from Ekovakht to offset the debt.
“In general, I don’t like the opacity of Vakhta’s financial affairs, so I would like to clarify the situation,” wrote Suren Ghazaryan. - As a member of the council, I would like to understand what is happening with the finances of “Vakhta” and why this information is not communicated to all its members? The question arises about how and by whom all this is controlled and managed, what grants and projects “Ekovahta” carries out and what is the situation with past grants.”
“I believe that your letter is an ordinary denunciation that has nothing to do with the activities of Vakhta. And you had no right to write it on the organization’s letterhead and on its behalf, without discussing it in the council,” Ghazaryan addressed Rudomakha. “While you repeatedly falsified financial reports and engaged in other financial fraud, Gutov worked at Vakhta without documents, without a salary, with a menial and very small salary, practically on a voluntary basis.”
But Rudomakha was adamant: “People like Dima Gutov are unworthy of help from Freedom House and other human rights organizations. No one pursued him in Russia. He just dreamed for a long time of leaving this country that he hated.” In the heat of the dispute, the Ecowatch coordinator accused Ghazaryan of “covering for Gutov due to family relations” and “participating in a corrupt attempt to make him a political refugee.”
In response, Ghazaryan told an “amazing story” about a $44,000 NED (National Endowment for Democracy) grant to create a new Ecowatch website.
“I suddenly learned about this grant when I was invited to NED in the USA and asked why the site had not yet been launched,” said Ghazaryan. “I then referred to problems with the authorities and asked for more money to support Vitishko - the same 6 thousand dollars that Rudomakha for some reason now calls his personal funds. It is not clear where the money was spent on the site, but the site did not exist and does not exist. If you dig deeper into the entire financial history, no less compromising things may be discovered. I don’t want to lose my reputation because of financial chaos and dishonesty, and even flavored with writing denunciations. The risk is too great."
It all ended with Ghazaryan publicly declaring in April 2016 that he was leaving Ekovakhta “for reasons of personal hygiene”: “Unfortunately, the coordinator of the EVSK (Rudomakha) did not understand that people and reputation are more important than personal ambitions. “I cannot remain in an environmental organization, on whose behalf, on its letterhead with a seal, denunciations are sent out that are not related to the protection of nature,” he wrote.
The departure of one of the key associates was not commented on by the organization’s leadership, as was the sudden disappearance of Ekovakhta’s main media person, Evgeniy Vitishko, from among the members of the EVSK board.
Original of this material© compromiser93, 05/20/2016, Illustrations: via compromiser93
A.V. Rudomakha asked to supplement
Today Andrei Vladimirovich gave an interview to Yugopolis, in which he spoke about the nature of the birth of his revelations and their customers. On the question of customers - this is an official under whom the chair began to shake. And the reason, attention:The information war against us is caused by the fact that in the last few months constructive cooperation has been established in order to protect the rights of citizens and public interests between me and the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratyev.
In general, they encroached on the most valuable thing that was accumulated through backbreaking labor - friendship with the governor!
Andrei Vladimirovich also assessed my previous post with screenshots of correspondence: “... this leak has certain signs of authenticity with some omissions and additions.”
1. I solemnly inform you that there are no additions to the correspondence! I didn’t draw a single letter or even a punctuation mark.
2. There are omissions, but this is only for reasons of humanism towards readers. And so, 35 pages - for one blog entry - is mortal hell. I will improve.
Here, for example, is Andrei Vladimirovich’s denunciation:
[...] Original of this material
© compromiser93 , 05/18/2016, Rudomakha is a thief, Illustrations: via compromiser93
[...] Today I was sent correspondence from Andrey Rudomakha with members of the Council of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus and representatives of the environmental community who are not members of the Watch. The letters date from January and April 2015 and relate to financial issues. For example, waste of money allocated to help Vitishko and other foreign grants. There is a lot of tasty stuff there: the names of foreign funds that sponsor Ecowatch, denunciations of their own comrades, mutual accusations of financial fraud and a complete mess in organizational matters.
From the letters it becomes clear why Ghazaryan left the Ecowatch with a scandal.
Andrey, to embezzle 44 thousand dollars allocated by the Americans for the site - you are cooler than I expected! [...]
