Kuban Cossacks, department of morals

Professional squads will be formed in the Krasnodar Territory

The Krasnodar region will become the first region where professional Cossack squads will work. The Cossacks employed in them will officially receive a salary that is quite high for the region. According to the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev, it is the Cossacks who should help the region cope with visiting criminals, and also discourage them from meddling in Kuban.

In early August, at an extended meeting with representatives of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Tkachev made loud statements on the national issue. He stated that people from the North Caucasus have already captured the Stavropol region and are now setting their sights on the Krasnodar region.

"Today I thought and reflected that we will still have time: between the Caucasus and Kuban there is a filter - Stavropol. But now I see that it is not there. The next ones are you and me. And who will be responsible when the first blood is shed here? When interethnic conflicts? “And sooner or later this will happen,” the governor of the Krasnodar Territory said with confidence. “We see how our guests behave completely differently, especially on the coast. They can turn on national music and drive along the embankment, where driving is prohibited, pay attention to attention to yourself. Behave arrogantly, cynically."

According to Alexander Tkachev, Cossacks can help save the region from interethnic conflicts. “[In Kuban] there is a working police force, there are Cossacks, I’d rather go to another place,” he reproduced the desired train of thought of a potential visitor. "We will squeeze out, restore order, ask for documents, deal with migration policy (where did you come from, why, and so on). So that those who are simply trying to come here 'for the fool', stake a claim, engage in provocations or illegal business, understand that in Kuban It’s better not to go,” he said. According to Tkachev, “what is not allowed for you ( police officers - Lenta.ru’s note ), a Cossack can. To a certain extent, at the everyday level, at the subconscious, at the conceptual level.” For these statements, Tkachev was accused of inciting national hatred, and the Public Chamber demanded that his statements be checked for compliance with the law.

Kuban Cossacks

Recently, the Kuban Cossacks have come to the attention of the media more than once. In June 2012, the Cossack movement “For Faith, Kuban and Fatherland” was established, and Tkachev attended its congress. During the liquidation of the consequences of the flood in Krymsk, the Cossacks, as reported by the media (mostly local ones), fought with the looters. In addition, the Cossacks appeared as opponents of the Icons exhibition , which was brought to Kuban by Marat Gelman. The opening of the exhibition was disrupted with the participation of the Cossacks. According to the official version, Cossacks who are not part of the Cossack army took part in the provocations.

This striking speech by the governor was preceded by an insignificant, at first glance, event. On August 2, Tkachev’s press service announced the creation of professional Cossack squads. It is they who will be engaged in maintaining public order and preventing interethnic conflicts. From September 1, 2012, Cossacks together with police officers will begin patrolling the streets. In total, about 1,000 people must go to work in the 44 municipalities into which the region is divided. The authorities justified their decision to create professional Cossack squads by the fact that there are not enough police officers in the Krasnodar Territory, including local police officers and patrol officers.

According to the provisions of the regional law, vigilantes will work only when accompanied by police officers. The same document states that they will be able to check the documents of citizens, as well as take measures to detain them. When asked by Lenta.ru on what basis a certain citizen, even in a Cossack uniform, would check the documents of another citizen, Igor Zhelyabin, a representative of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Krasnodar Territory, answered: “If a policeman stops someone and a Cossack asks for documents ", then it will be as if a policeman asked for documents. There is nothing like that." Zhelyabin, by the way, fully supports the creation of Cossack squads. “This will definitely help us,” he noted.

Previously, as Artem Averyanov, deputy ataman of the Ermolin Cossack kuren in Krasnodar, told Lenta.ru, Cossacks went on raids either free of charge or received about 700 rubles for going out. Now each member of the Cossack squad will receive about 25 thousand rubles a month. Thus, maintaining a thousand Cossacks at budget expense will cost approximately 300 million rubles a year.

However, in reality the costs will be higher . Only until the end of 2012 it is planned to allocate 169 million rubles for the “Cossack police” (that is, 42 million per month). In 2013, 650 million rubles (about 52 million per month) will be allocated for these purposes. Apparently, the money is supposed to be spent not only on salaries for the Cossacks, but also on their logistics. The press service of the administration of the Krasnodar region stated that the Cossack warriors will wear a special uniform: in the summer - in a tunic, white shirt, tie, trousers, black boots and a cap, and in the winter - in bekeshas (traditional Cossack jackets) with belts over them, hats, trousers and boots.

The volume of funding for the Kuban Cossacks can be called unprecedented. As the ataman of the Moscow City Cossack Society, Viktor Zaplatin, told Lenta.ru, the capital’s organization does not receive money from the budget. Its funds are generated from contributions and extra-budgetary sources. “In Moscow there is a Cossack squad that works as part of the people’s squad of the city of Moscow, that is, legally the Cossacks act according to the law on the people’s squad. Three times a month a Cossack goes on patrol for at least four hours. All this is free of charge. We do not provide paid services,” - said Zaplatin. At the same time, according to him, the capital’s Cossacks would not work for 25 thousand rubles, since this salary is below the market. “Security guards in private security companies receive 35-50 thousand rubles. Why would a Cossack work for that kind of money?” - Zaplatin is surprised.

The head of the capital’s Cossacks does not believe that squads similar to those in Krasnodar will be created in Moscow. According to him, the people's squad consists of 19 and a half thousand people, and all they received from the budget was free travel on public transport. The Moscow people's squad in 2012 will cost the capital's budget approximately 900 thousand rubles.

In the Rostov region (it borders the Krasnodar Territory), Viktor Mogilny, chief of staff of the All-Great Don Army in Rostov-on-Don, told Lenta.ru, the Cossacks are paid from the regional budget. However, he found it difficult to name the salary amount. In general, the Krasnodar law on Cossack squads was practically copied from the Rostov one, which came into force back in 1999. The difference, however, is the amount of funding for the Kuban and Rostov Cossacks. Judging by the program for supporting Rostov Cossack societies, in 2012, approximately 11.5 thousand rubles are spent per member of the squad per month, that is, half as much as their neighbors. Moreover, under this program, a total of about 500 million rubles will be allocated for the Cossacks in the Rostov region, while in the Krasnodar Territory it is planned to spend 650 million just on the maintenance of squads per year.

A campaign to recruit future employees of Cossack squads has already begun in Krasnodar. As Artem Averyanov, deputy ataman of the Ermolinsky Cossack kuren in Krasnodar, said, there is still agitation going on among those who have not yet joined the army.

“About 200 people have already passed through us ( the Ermolinsky kuren, there are 27 of them in the city - Lenta.ru ), 73 of whom we recommended to join the squad. We check whether they are suitable for this work, conduct interviews so that they can join the squad those who were only ready to throw zigs in the street and shout 'Caucasus, come home' were not included,” he reported the details of the selection. The deputy chieftain does not hide the fact that participants in “Russian jogging” are recruited into the squad - usually they are organized by nationalists who lead a healthy lifestyle. Averyanov himself, judging by his photographs on VKontakte, also took part in such events.

In his opinion, Cossack squads will fight not only against crimes committed by visitors. “We have enough cattle of our own. But when Vasya, Petya, Alyosha were sitting drinking vodka, and then they ran out of vodka, and they committed a crime - that’s one thing, you can deal with it. And when they come deliberately, they set up here, and then they call it a clash of cultures - that’s something else,” says Averyanov. “The other day, three Caucasian friends of mine, a police officer, were shot at with a traumatic pistol. They’re constantly attacking the girls - robberies, rapes. But we haven’t had a single investigator go to Grozny yet to catch at least one."

According to Artem Averyanov, 25 thousand rubles is a good, stable salary for Krasnodar. He gave an example: installers in his company earn 18-20 thousand, and security guards earn 14-18 thousand rubles on average in the city. “But in general, many people go to the squads not to earn money, but to restore order,” says the deputy chieftain.

By hiring a thousand vigilantes, the Kuban authorities are de facto creating a new profession with a very attractive salary. According to Averyanov, there will be more people willing to become a warrior under such conditions than there are vacancies. On the one hand, this is beneficial for the Cossacks, since their army will expand significantly. But on the other hand, the main goal of this entire event is to reduce the number of offenses in the Kuban, and, if we recall Tkachev’s emotional speech, not just any offenses, but primarily those directed against local customs and traditions. It follows from this that the regional authorities must somehow assess how effective the Cossacks’ actions are and whether it was in vain that they allocated so much money for them. However, for some reason no one says anything about the effectiveness criteria.

Vladimir Tsybulsky

Kuban Cossacks, department of morals

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