Yuri Budanov was already free. But the Minister of Defense prevented this.

On Monday, at a court hearing in Rostov, information was announced that Sergei Nazarov, the state prosecutor at the Budanov trial, had been transferred to the reserve “for health reasons” by order of the head of the Ministry of Defense Sergei Ivanov. He was replaced by the assistant to the Chief Military Prosecutor of Russia, Vladimir Milovanov. Who immediately announced “ a change in the position of the state prosecution regarding the assessment of the defendant’s actions .”

The previous position of the state prosecution was expressed by the prosecutor on June 18. It was that at the time of the murder of 18-year-old Chechen Elza Kungaeva on the night of March 27, 2000, Yuri Budanov was insane, and therefore, as Sergei Nazarov said, the murder charge against him should be dropped. And for “abuse of official authority” (illegal abduction of Kungaeva from her home in the village of Tangi-Chu) give him three years. But Budanov would not have had to sit in prison: as a holder of two Orders of Courage, he was eligible for amnesty under this article.

Already on June 20, Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said that his department was inclined to disagree “ with the arguments of the repeated examination, which declared Budanov insane at the time he committed the murder .” However, it seemed that the discussion was only about the protest of the Prosecutor General’s Office against Budanov’s de facto acquittal, which Nazarov’s stated position at that time made inevitable. Only on July 1 did it become known that on the same day - June 20 - the head of the Ministry of Defense had already sent prosecutor Nazarov to the reserve.

And on July 1, the new Criminal Procedure Code came into force. The first thing at the meeting on Monday, prosecutor Milovanov referred to Article 246 (section 4) of this code, which reads: “ If during the trial it is discovered that it is impossible for the prosecutor to further participate, then he can be replaced. The court provides the prosecutor who has re-entered the trial with time to familiarize himself with the materials of the criminal case and prepare for participation in the trial┘ At the request of the prosecutor, the court may repeat the interrogations of witnesses, victims, experts or other judicial actions ".

After the judge gave Yuri Budanov the last word on July 1 (which he refused), the hearing was adjourned until Tuesday. Budanov’s lawyers initially stated that a verdict would be handed down on July 2, but then admitted that the break could last longer if the request of the new prosecutor Milovanov is satisfied. Budanov, according to his lawyers, is “severely depressed.”

He is depressed, obviously, not only because prosecutor Milovanov may again demand that he be found guilty of murder. In his “justification” speech on June 18, Sergei Nazarov also mentioned the emerging evidence of Budanov’s involvement in the murders of four more residents of Chechnya. “ This information is undoubtedly interesting and requires verification, ” Nazarov said, “but not within the framework of the current process .” The new prosecutor may not agree with this either.

But psychologically, the most difficult thing for Budanov may be the realization that the top leadership of the army wants him to be convicted as a murderer. If the former head of the Ministry of Defense Igor Sergeev described the colonel as a “victim of circumstances” and said that he sympathizes with him as a human being, now the Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin calls Budanov “a disgrace for the army,” and the Minister of War dismisses the prosecutor, who actually asked the court to acquit Budanov.

When on June 19, the father of the murdered Elza Kungaeva shouted to Budanov, “You are not a Russian officer!”, Budanov had every reason to believe that the commanders thought differently. He was wrong.

On Tuesday, the court of the North Caucasus Military District canceled the previously scheduled sentencing of Yuri Budanov. Now the judicial investigation in this case will be resumed. The presiding judge at the trial, Viktor Kostin, stated the need to clarify the circumstances related to resolving the issue of the defendant’s sanity or insanity. Budanov will undergo a new psychiatric examination.

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