Base Hostage

22-year-old Russian conscript Igor Gordeev from the village of Aksubaevo (Tatarstan) is going to be tried in Tajikistan in connection with an accident that killed three citizens of the country. Gordeev served at the Russian base in Tajikistan, in military unit No. 93867 in Dushanbe, drove a KAMAZ on mountain roads, although, as his mother Lidiya Trofimova notes in letters, he did not have sufficient driving experience - before joining the army, he did not even drive a car , although he completed the courses. On January 21, his KAMAZ, traveling in a convoy of eight military trucks to the city of Kulyab, had an accident on the rise. His truck hit a wheel in a ditch, he tried to get out, pressed hard on the gas, the car suddenly jerked forward and ran into an oncoming car. He tried to avoid a collision, but failed. At the same time, when Gordeev’s truck got stuck, the convoy did not stop, no one began to help him (he was alone in the truck). Three people from the car died. His truck rolled into a gorge to a depth of 30 meters, but Gordeev miraculously survived. He was in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury and spinal damage, while the unit commander, Colonel Sergei Ryumshin, did not inform his mother about the accident or that her son was in the hospital. On April 26, Gordeev’s term of service expired, but he was not allowed to go home. Instead, an investigation began, and on June 17, Gordeev was handed an investigative report, according to which he is accused under Article 212, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan - the death of two or more persons by negligence. The Russian serviceman faces from five to ten years in prison.

Gordeev may be pardoned by the President of Tajikistan. According to the decision of the Constitutional Court No. 7-P of April 20, 2009, a serviceman can be detained in a unit if there is a court decision on the appropriate preventive measure. If there is no court decision, he must be demobilized. Gordeev’s mother reported in letters that neither she nor her son knew what preventive measure was chosen, in which court it was considered and whether it was considered at all, who conducted the investigation, and whether the military prosecutor’s office of the garrison was involved in this case. She only knows that her son is going to be tried not by a military court, but by a local court.

In addition, Gordeev himself submitted statements to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation and the Military Prosecutor's Office of Tajikistan stating that he did not consent to the consideration of the case by the authorities of Tajikistan.

Finally, the Agreement of January 21, 1997 between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan on issues of jurisdiction and mutual legal assistance in cases related to the presence of Russian military formations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan states: “The Russian side exercises its jurisdiction in places deployment of military formations and, in addition, outside the limits of their deployment in relation to persons included in military formations, when they commit unlawful acts in connection with the performance of military service duties, as well as in relation to the Russian Federation or its citizens. All other cases are subject to the jurisdiction of the Tajik side; its legislation applies and its competent authorities act.” It is clear that while Gordeev was in the military convoy, although he committed an action that resulted in the death of citizens of Tajikistan, he was on military duty. As Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers' Committees, reasonably noted in a conversation with a Daily Journal correspondent, "he wasn't going on leave."

Gordeev’s mother wrote letters to the regional human rights public organization of parents of Tatarstan conscripts, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin, and the military prosecutor’s office of the Central Military District (before going to Tajikistan, Gordeev served in Yekaterinburg, also drove a KAMAZ, drove only 50 hours in six months , five marches for ten hours; he studied to be a driver in the direction of the military registration and enlistment office, graduated two months before service), to the commander of the Central Military District, Colonel General Vladimir Chirkin, to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Tatarstan Ravil Muratov, the Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Yuri Popov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. Representatives of a human rights organization in Tatarstan contacted the military prosecutor's office of the Central Military District - the prosecutor on duty Vladimir Shein said that he spoke with the military prosecutor's office in Dushanbe, but they did not receive any more information from him. Human rights activists also contacted the commander of the base in Tajikistan, Colonel Ryumshin, but he refused to answer questions.