Big confusion

Victor Bout before the verdict

Viktor Boot has been looking at the world for four years because of the prison grate

Big confusion. On the evening of April 5, the Federal Court in New York will issue a verdict in the case of the “death merchant” of 45-year-old Russian Viktor Buta. The sentence was postponed three times already. The New Times learned from first hand
In early November, when 12 jury unanimously found Bota guilty of all points, federal judge Shira Schendlin appointed a sentence for February. At the end of January, the court of prosecutor’s supervision recommended that the judge be sentenced to Bout to 30 years in prison. Since the BUT will already have settled in the preliminary conclusion by the time the verdict has already served (it was arrested in Thailand on March 6, 2008.-The New Times), and the federal deadlines are automatically reduced in the United States by 15% for Malian approximate behavior, Bout will spend less than a quarter of a century behind bars. And if he is in his last word, in the local judicial language, he also “recognizes his responsibility for the deed”, that is, he repented, Judge Schendlin will pierce him several years less. But the impression is that this will not happen - Viktor But will continue to categorically deny the guilt

* * See the New Times No. 5 of February 14 and No. 37 of November 7, 2011.

Butt like drifus

Viktor Boot, arrested at the Sofikitel Bangkok Hotel on March 6, 2008 and in November 2010, issued by the United States, is accused of conspiracy to kill Americans, the supply of anti-aircraft missiles of the Floody Leval Group, the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (RVSK) and the assistance of a terrorist organization. Earlier, in 2006, the United States imposed sanctions against several companies related to Bout, freezing their bank accounts. It was argued that this was done in connection with illegal supply of weapons to militants to the Congo. Prior to this, similar sanctions on companies controlled by Butu were imposed in connection with suspicions of his involvement in the smuggling of weapons in a number of other African countries and Afghanistan. |

In the United States, you can build up a deadline and agreeing to cooperation with the investigation. In the Russian media, there were assumptions that Bout, for example, could give a compromise on Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who, like him, worked in Africa (in Angola and Mozambique.-The New Times) by a military translator. In a conversation with the author Alla But, the wife of the defendant, categorically denied the acquaintance of her husband and Sechin, although, grinning, she said that he could hide it from her. As far as is known, almost immediately after the arrest, American investigators suggested that Butu cooperate with them. He refused, but they did not insist - perhaps in the hope that the prospect of a life sentence sooner or later would make the Russian change his mind. Hope has not come true. The parties could only submit to the judge in writing their considerations about the sentence. Albert Dayan, Buta’s lawyer, was ordered to do this by March 27, and the prosecutors Brendan McGweir and Guruanjan Sakhny - by March 30. On the night of March 27-28, Dyan sent a 14-page petition to the judge, in which he continues to insist on the innocence of his client, calls his political case, claims that it is concocted by the American intelligence services. On March 28, the author spoke several times with Dayan, and he repeatedly likened to Beta Bota, the affair of the French Jew Alfred Dreyfus, an officer of the French General Staff, baldly accused of espionage in favor of Germany at the end of the 19th century

* Despite the storm of protests, Dreyfus was found guilty, unclenched and sent to a lifelong link. Subsequently, he was acquitted. . There is evidence that the prosecutor's office will demand for a butter of life imprisonment.

Va-Bank Protection usually asks the judge to give the defendant the minimum period provided for by law. But in this case, the task of Dayan is complicated by the fact that Bout reeds with at least 25 years of prison at one of the four points of charge concerning portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) “Igla”, which, as it is clear from court documents, should have been given by his old acquaintance Petr Mirchev from the Bulgarian company KAS ENGINERING. But to persuade the judge to “limit” himself to a 25-year period is the complete non-Urazitsa. Therefore, Vaan, Va-Bank, went and asked Schendlin to completely cancel the indictment verdict and release Butt to freedom.

Judge Schendlin is far from speaking and recently made protection a large assignment, ordering the prison administration to transfer Buta from special mode to the general. He liked it so much in a new place that he enthusiastically declared to the judicial translator Andrei Garkush: “I'm almost free here!” But the judge is nevertheless connected by law and the appeal authority and it is hardly hoped that she will completely free Buta. However, it is just as unlikely that he will sentenced him to a life imprisonment. In the USA, it is a precedent law, and in this case the closest precedent is the case of a Syrian weapon of Monzer Al-Kassar weapons, which in 2008 was brought almost the same accusations as Butu. DEA, the American drug control department, even sent to the Syrian of the same agent Carlos Sagastum, who after that “developed” Buta. In both cases, the Sagastum, whom these operations made by the millionaire, impersoned the Messenger of the Colombian People's Missary Group, the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (RVSK) and agreed on its behalf on the supply of large parties of weapons. The Americans had even more thorough claims to Al-Kassar than to Butu: the Syrians were accused of recharge with weapons of conflicts in the Balkans and Somalia, the supply of Iran of the Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles, the armament of the Iraqi army on the eve of the American invasion in 2003 and the export from Iraq to Livania on a personal Saddam Hussein billions. Al-Kassara was sentenced to 30 years, and Shira Schendlin was then in the appeal instance, which rejected the complaints of the Syrian. Most likely, now Schendlin will give Butu the same 30 years.

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Alla But, the wife of the defendant, categorically denied the acquaintance of her husband with Sechin, although, grinning, she said that he could hide it from her

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Albert Daian (2), the American lawyer Viktor Buta, turned to Judge Schendlin with a request to delay the announcement of the sentence (1)

The last postponement of the lawyer Daian, a native of Tashkent, twice asked the court to postpone the sentence Butu. The prosecutor Brendan McGavir, whom Danan by mistake called in his letter the female name of the brand, objected. The judge, as often happens, acted on the principle of “both ours and yours”, that is, gave protection a little more than half of the requested. In March, the prosecutors sent Schendlin two letters with an explanation of the reasons why they object to new deferrals. Firstly, they wrote, the defense had already had enough time to prepare. Secondly, the transfer of the sentence of But will entail a delay in the sentence to his accomplice, the sadus of Andrew Smulian. The latter was arrested with Bout in Bangkok, but immediately decided to cooperate with the investigation and voluntarily flew to New York, where he found himself guilty and then gave testimonies at the Russian process. As a rule, the sentence to such people is sentenced after the sentence to the accused, against whom they testified. The verdict was sentenced to Smooth for a long time on April 13th. He is 70 years old, he has bad health, and he has been in prison for four years - the prosecutors reminded the judge in support of his position.

Having made from this the conclusion that the Smulians would be sentenced to an already avoiding time and immediately let go, Davan angrily accused the prosecutor’s office of hypocrisy: they say, he is baking about the well -being of Smulian, who, “if you believe the accusation, is no less, or even more guilty” than the Russian, and is going to demand that Bota are given a life sentence. Judge Schendlin did not get into this dispute, but quickly agreed to postpone the procedure until April 5, making a reservation that there would be no more delay.

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Mirchev, whose company was one of the main sources of weapons for Bota, said in an interview that only one contract from the unit cost $ 100 million. According to Bulgarin, he personally tracked the loading of goods in Burgas

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Quietly looking

Alla But at a rally in support of her husband in St. Petersburg. December 2011

During the trial of the Russian criminal authority Vyacheslav Ivankov (Japanchik), who took place in Brooklyn in the summer of 1996, rumored on the sidelines: he was quietly sitting in the hall the old man - in fact, a thief in law and looking, sent by the brave to monitor the process. "Why guess when you can ask?" - the author of these lines thought and during the break approached the old man in the corridor. "Sorry, but is it true that you are a thief in the law and sent here to" look "?" - “What are you, what are you? - the old man smiled. “I am a family friend.”

During the trial of Bout, again, a rumor swept on the sidelines, as if a low brunette with his gray back - a Russian diplomat, who was sent in the hall, sent by the Mid to look after this process. "Why guess when you can ask?" - the author thought again and during the break went to the brunette. "Sorry, but is it true that you are a Russian diplomat?" - “What are you, Mr. Kozlovsky? - the brunette smiled. - Don't you recognize me? I am Bulangiyev! " Indeed, a few years ago I happened to write about the case of Joseph Bulangiev, arrested for the maintenance of a number of New York brothels. Bulangieva then defended Daian, his mother and informed the pimp that, they say, “her Albert” represents an important client in Manhattan - that’s Joseph and decided to look into the court.

But from the Russian Foreign Ministry, as it turned out, the pink-cheese man Alexander Prychanov, the vice-consul of the Russian Federation, who was instructed to bake about the Russians who were in American prisons, “looked” behind the process. There are many of them, and Okochinov, obviously, does not have enough time for everyone. Perhaps that is why he did not indulge in attention. Pryadinov met at the airport the wife of Prisoner Alla, who flew to the final stage of the court, and took his daughter Lisa there. But housing for Alla always found your humble servant through friends, and only now, in the Third Alin arrival

* For the first time, Alla Buta flew to New York with her daughter Lisa and mother Viktor Buta Raisa in January 2011, for the second time-in October of the same year. , they and Lisa were settled in a guest one -room apartment at the Russian Consulate General.

Pryadinov visited the first day of the trial of Bout, but then disappeared and appeared only at the end to scold the American customs of Russian journalists who had crowded around him. The bosses of the 30-year-old Ishkhanov also thundered thunder and lightning, but the family of boots saw a specific help from Moscow. It had to be heard that after the presidential election in Russia, the number of thunder and lightning would sharply decide.

On the eve of the sentence, the Bulgarian witness of the indignation of the Russian fans caused an article by Nicholas Schmidla in the New Yorker magazine entitled “Victor But's Disarmament”. And the lawyer Daian and the translator Garkusha together dismissed her, saying The New Times that, they say, there is nothing new and what is, then it is not true. I had to object: “How is there not a new one? And an interview with Mirchev? "

So, Schmidl turned out to be the only journalist who managed to interview Bulgarian Peter Mirchev, whose company was one of the main sources of weapons. Schmidl came to him very simply: on one of the last days of the process, a screenshot with a phone and an email address of Bulgarin appeared on the screen installed in the hall, and the agile journalist managed to record them. In a striking way, Mirchev agreed to meet with Schmidl, and soon he flew to him in Sofia. According to Bulgarin, they met Bout in the summer of 1995 - then the assistant Ahmad Shah Masud, a well -known Afghan field commander, leader of the Northern Alliance, and at that time of the Minister of Defense in the government of Burkhanudin Rabbani, addressed the Russian.

* Masud on September 10, 2001 died from the wounds received as a result of the attempt committed on the eve of the attempt. : Kabul was in dire need of weapons to repel attacks from the Taliban.

Butu did not have the sources of receiving a “goods”, but he knew who to turn to. Shortly before that, someone gave him the Mirchev’s phone, and the Russian called him, and soon sent a list of weapons in which the Afghans needed fax. Read the list, Mirchev wrote to Butu: "Come to Sofia." As Mirchev recalls, whom Schmidl characterizes as a “little man with pouting cheeks,” Bout made a pleasant impression on him. But Bulgarian "was struck by his illiteracy in terms of weapons." “He knew nothing at all! - said Mirchev to the American. - He confused calibers, systems, models! ” (Over time, the Butot has been upgraded, but not to the end: the author of these lines, having studied the list of weapons and cartridges, which Boot compiled at the Sofitel in the Bangkok hotel during negotiations with the fake envoys of the RVSK, found that he confused cartridges for the SVD sniper rifle with cartridges for Kalashnikov.)

According to Schmidl, among other things, Mirchev told him about Buta's operations in Angola. At first he supplied the rebers with the unit group

* The rebel group in Angola during the Civil War of 1975 - 2002. "Sardins, flour, potatoes, beer, whiskey and vegetable oil." In 1998, Bot met with the head of the unit Jonas Savimbi and soon after that he began to deliver to him (in violation of the UN Embargo for the supply of weapons to Angola.-The New Times) “Boxes with RPG, AK-47 and mortars”, as well as armored personnel carriers. Only one contract with Savimby, recalls in an interview with Mirchev, cost $ 100 million. According to Bulgarian, he personally tracked the loading of goods in Burgas.

Bout, whom Schmidl visited four times in prison, admitted that he delivered weapons to that and Zair, whose rulers were allies of the toilet in the fight against the promarxist MPL, but denied that he carried him to the partisan zones of Angola.

Attacks of the rabies of the Revelation of Mirchev in the New Yorker brought to the fury of the local supporters of But, primarily the overall black blogger George Mapp, who did not miss a single day of the process. Mapp, who is usually quite friendly, brought down a bunch of curses on Schmidla, saying that his article in the New Yorker consists of a half-truth and lies.

Critics of Schmidla significantly declare that his father is a general and an employee of the CIA, and he himself sings under the pipe of the American special services. "Is it true that your dad is a general and a tsereushnik?" - I ask Schmidl. “Yes, general,” the interlocutor confirmed with a laugh, “but the Marine Corps. He flew to the F-18. "

The Garkusha translator, helping Buta, told The New Times that Mirchev was dissatisfied with Schmidl and accuses him of the quote fabrication. "Mirchev made you any complaints?" - I ask Schmidl again. “Yes,” he willingly admits. - He called me and said: “Why did you write that I have inflated cheeks? You wanted to say that I am Zhirtrest, right? " Schmidl assures other complaints, Mirchev has not yet presented him.