Battle on the way

Warrant officers celebrated their graduation party with a mass brawl on the train

Fast train No. 11 will arrive in Chelyabinsk today, which will deliver contract military personnel to their place of duty, who the day before managed to become famous throughout the country not for their military exploits, but for their participation in a mass drunken brawl. On Wednesday night, about 170 graduates of the Chita school of warrant officers caused a riot on the Chita-Chelyabinsk train, as a result of which three participants in the incident were injured, and in two cars of the train the windows were broken and the seats were broken. It took more than 200 Buryat policemen to pacify the defenders of the Fatherland. 21 warrant officers were removed from the train and placed in the military commandant's office in Ulan-Ude, and the military prosecutor's office began an investigation. Meanwhile, the command of the Siberian Military District yesterday tried to do everything possible to prevent publicity of the emergency. The department stubbornly denied reports of a mass brawl between warrant officers, saying that they were “built on the speculation of police officers and journalists.” However, according to some reports, the Ministry of Defense is planning to send a commission to the district one of these days that will investigate the incident.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Buryatia, a message about hooliganism committed by passengers on the Chita-Chelyabinsk train was received from the train manager at midnight. As it turned out, seats in two carriages of the train were occupied by 168 graduates of the district school of warrant officers No. 328, located in Chita. On the morning of May 15, they received certificates of completion of six-month courses and were sent to their duty stations in Irkutsk and Chelyabinsk.

Apparently, the newly minted warrant officers began celebrating the end of their studies as soon as they boarded the train. As the conductors said, the military replenished the stocks of intoxicating drinks at stops and in the dining car. In the absence of strict discipline, the warrant officers, according to eyewitnesses, quickly turned into rowdies who began to sort things out. Fights broke out three times - the servicemen remembered past grievances, hazing, and expressed grievances about each other's service. Some of the warrant officers demonstrated their military training on the carriage windows. By the time the fast passenger train arrived at the Ulan-Ude station, seven windows in the cars were broken and shelves were broken.

To pacify the drunken military at 2 a.m., almost the entire personnel of the Ulan-Ude Internal Affairs Directorate, including 70 riot police, had to be called to the station. During the 20-minute stop of the train, the access roads were cordoned off, the carriages with military personnel were surrounded by a double cordon, and the warrant officers themselves were taken out into the street and lined up on the platform in two lines. According to participants in the “pacification” events, some of the servicemen could hardly stand on their feet and tried to be rude to the police. But the warrant officers did not risk fighting with the riot police.

During the stop, the police managed to remove the noisiest passengers from the train. There were 21 warrant officers in the military commandant's office. The rest, after a “preventative conversation,” were allowed to take their seats in the carriages.

To further maintain order, together with the police officers on duty, the train was accompanied to Chelyabinsk by riot police. In addition, the dining car was closed, and military personnel were prohibited from leaving at intermediate stations.

All the vicissitudes of the warrant officers’ scandalous journey became known only from the words of police officials. The Ministry of Defense and the command of the Siberian Military District denied information about a mass brawl all day. The command representative, Colonel Valery Shcheblanin, said that only two warrant officers had a fight, and it was they who would have to compensate for the damage caused to the railway and bear disciplinary responsibility. The military commandant's office in Ulan-Ude also declined to comment yesterday, saying that they had just begun an investigation.

Tatiana GRITSENKO