From Crimea to Donbass: Adventures of Igor Strelkov and Alexander Boroday

The Russian political strategist became the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic-if someone was looking for the “hand of Moscow” in the Donetsk separatism, then the searches can be considered successfully completed, here it is-the hand, and the Russian passport is in the hand. Get and sign.

However, I would clarify: the DPR was not just a Russian political strategist, but, obviously, a bad Russian political strategist, because the good, of course, would try to behave so that his ears would not stick out anywhere. Would lead from from someone's back; In Millionnaya Donetsk, it is not difficult to find a respected local man, some old honored miner, or a professor, or a doctor who would be a nominal prime minister, and no one would know who he in the cabinet’s silence gives him or even to talk about it, even some kind of basics; even less sophisticated in such matters, the Soviet government in similar situations always behaved from the Baltic states in 1940 years before Afghanistan of 1979-even in the most difficult situations, it was always possible to find a local Babrak Karmal, it never occurred to anyone to give official posts to Soviet emissaries). And for some reason, the Russian political strategist Alexander Borodai himself headed the Donetsk separatist government, as if he decided to make a gift to the official Kyiv, which will now wave this beard to the UN and anywhere else-look, they say, Russia has already stopped hiding, it has already openly tramples all existing norms.

I must say right away that the appointment of a beard really brings almost absolute clarity to what is happening in the Donetsk region. True, this is not at all the clarity that the Kiev side is counting on, but at the same time its purpose is pretty good news for Kiev in the sense that, unlike Crimea, in the Donetsk region, Kiev does not deal with Russian, open or secret, but with a group of armed activists, more similar to the group of Edward Limonov in Northern Kazakhstan in 2001.

"Private-state partnership"

After Alexander Borodai publicly admitted that he worked in the Crimea, I can already tell us about our acquaintance - giving me comments in early March, he asked not to call him by name, but now everyone knows nothing and there is nothing to hide. In my Crimean reports, Borodi appeared among the “Muscovites from Aksenov’s encirclement”, along with other among whom was the now famous Igor Strelkov (about him below). Presenting me bearded, the locals called him the "Minister of Propaganda" in the government of Sergei Aksenov, but he himself asked to perceive this title as a joke. I understood that he was not a minister - this is how officials from the administration of the Russian president look like a middle hand. To the direct question, whether he was an official, Beard answered negatively, and what works within the framework, a literal quote, a “private-state partnership”. What partnership are we talking about, I understood much later, when a friend from the Right Sector said that one of the sponsors of the election campaign of this organization Dmitry Yarosh was a large Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev . Given the sovereign-patriotic image of Malofeev, I considered this information funny-if I could confirm it, it would be a real scandal: either Malofeev helps the patented enemy of Russia secretly from the Russian state, leading some kind of game, or this enemy of Russia is actually not such an enemy (in fact, it is still unknown where there are more fans of the Right Sector-in Ukraine or in the Kremlin, for whom for whom The Right Sector is a favorite horror story). But I had no evidence of Malofeev’s participation in the campaign of Yarosh, and I, following the path of the least resistance, simply asked my readers on a social network if anyone had heard anything about it.

A call from Crimea came about thirty seconds after my recording. The calling Crimean official told me that the version of Yarosh is so funny that it cannot even be called a slander, because everyone who needs it, and so knows that Konstantin Malofeev is really actively involved in Ukrainian events, but not from the “right -wing sector”, but with the opposite - the Malofeev’s collection for the Crimea was quite public , and my Crimean intercourse told me from non -public, and my interlocutor told me. That even before the entry into the Crimea of ​​the “polite people”, Malofeev from his own pocket transferred in support of the “People's Mayor” of Sevastopol Alexei Chally, one million dollars.

I also took note of this information, but it also left a feeling of lack of charge. It was necessary to find out further. The telecommunications market in Russia is small enough, everyone knows each other, everyone has heard something. I began to ask about Malofeev and his affairs in Ukraine - who knows what, who heard what. They all answered about the same thing-I don’t know anything about Ukraine, but just from the beginning of the spring of the Malofeev somewhere, and when he disappears somewhere, this, as a rule, means that he formed some new business, not related to telecommunications.

Crimea annexed the Russian army and the Orthodox oligarch

Malofeev himself described all my interlocutors equally - yes, he was sincerely and seriously obsessed with spirituality, sovereign, military history, he had a huge library of historical literature, back in the nineties, he was an active Orthodox figure in St. Petersburg, communicated with the deceased Metropolitan John (Snychev), who had the closest fascist reputation in those years (the closest fascist (closest to the closest fascist (the closest fascist Metropolitan's associate Konstantin Dushenov served in prison under the 282nd “extremist” article), and after the death of Metropolitan Malofeev, he moved away from church affairs, made friends with Alexander Dugin, then with someone else, and by the beginning of the tenths, parallel to his career of professional minority , turned into the brightest representative of the social group “Orthodox businessmen”-according The words of people familiar with him can have questions about how he earns his money, but there are no questions about how he spends it - churches, schools, historical research and so on. A person who is ready to spend any money that Russia becomes like the one that we have lost ”and about which he likes to write the site“ Satellite and the pogrom ”.

While I found out all this, in Slavyansk, the fighting of the militia Igor Strelkov was already in full swing. Another interlocutor from the telecommunications market answered my question with a question - you, he asked, probably want to know about Malofeev, because this shooter worked for him? Having passed for a look that I was asking that is why, I rushed to the other Malofeevoevs, asking: Wait, this Strelkov - did he really work for Malofeev in the Security Service?

No one could confirm. It turned out that in Marshall Capital (Malofeev company) there was no security service at all, and the name Igor Girkin (such a real name had such a name) did not say anything to anyone. This was the beginning of April, on the mysterious website “chat”, where someone publishes the contents of the hacked mailboxes of all sorts of slave people, the correspondence of Strelkov has not yet appeared, in which he calls himself the former head of the Marshall Security Service (and this, by the way, does not prove anything either- it is already clear that he loves and knows how to fantasize about his biography), and I continued to ask my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends about my friends Malofeev and Strelkovo. My next interlocutor, claiming the highest awareness, said-wait a minute, I know everyone who worked for Malofeev, there was no Girkina-Strelkov there-and began to list the names, something like: Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, Boroday. Beard?!

After the appointment, Boroday Prime Minister of the DPR, the fact of his work in Marshall confirmed to Vedomosti Konstantin Malofeev himself. You can not find out about Strelkov further, it does not matter. It is already enough that the beard himself from Marshall. With Riflekov (I did not know that it was Strelkov, he was simply called Igor Ivanovich, and I find out the name when I saw Strelkov on TV) In the Crimea, I was introduced to the beard, moreover, he, he himself, the beard, invited his old friend Strelkov to the Crimea.

This is the same “private-state partnership” in the Crimea, but, not understanding who represents the private side, I could not appreciate all the accuracy of this designation. Now I can. On the state side, the annexation of Crimea, as you know , was carried out by the Russian army, and with the private, the people of the oligarch Malofeev, who had a successful experience of delicate work in the interests of the Russian state during the cleansing of Rostelecom, from the people of the former Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman. Perhaps this will sound like a joke, but Crimea, apparently, was really annexed by the Russian military and oligarch Malofeev.

But, as has been said more than once, Donbass is not Crimea.

"Shooter" and "Sasha"

I still do not know what it was - a huge journalistic failure (did not write a sensational report) or a huge human luck (survived, did not die from a crazy bullet), but the Sesemsk from Moscow “The city of Slavyansk. Internal Affairs Directorate. Now there will be events ”I found me on April 12 at exactly the moment when my plane took off from Donetsk, taking me from this city. My mood was bad - I was waiting for to see the rebel city, and I saw the usual Donetsk, only instead of the regional administration in it - a squat in it, populated by unhappy people who are ready to compensate for their dull life with a game of an uprising against a fictional problem .

Actually, this was so until that day, until April 12, and to the SMS, which came from Moscow in three hours before Slavyansk began. The sender of the Sesapeman is my old friend. Who warned him about Slavyansk - he never told me, but at least he was familiar with Beard. The Borodaya name will sound for the first time in the news three days later, when the SBU will intercept the telephone conversation of the separatists in Slavyansk - someone with the call sign “Shooter” (the name of Igor Strelkov will become known a little later) asked a certain “who we scattered?”, And “Sasha” promised the “arrow” direct inclusion on the Lifenews television channel.

Judging by the tonality of the conversation, the senior was just “Sasha”, and when the journalists find out that Sasha is the Moscow PR man, the situation will look like a literal quote from the film “The Tail wags a dog” - the political strategist commands the militants! But it was a month ago. Now, when so much blood is shed, laughing at how life copies the movie is completely impossible. “Shooter” now is the main character of the drama of Donbass, and “Sasha” is the Prime Minister of the DPR. Together again.

Slavyansk against Donetsk

The Russian information space is not very rich in new faces. The appearance of a whole dozen new names can simply drive crazy; Even I, when I write this text, all breaks up instead of “beard” to write “Babay” - for sure they will be confused for a long time, especially since the Babay field commander has a large beard , and the phrase of “shooters and beards” sounds more like a quote from “our rashi”. I think for many in Moscow all the leaders of the DPR per person.

And this is not at all like that. It is not just about different people - about mutually exclusive. It is probably worth starting, in chronological order, with Pavel Gubarev - this person appeared in the role of the “People’s Governor” of Donbass before everyone else, quickly disappeared, being imprisoned in the Kiev prison, and now he was released and even managed to make several scandalous statements.

The Russian official media call Gubarev “the People’s Governor of the DPR”, but this is a mistake caused, probably, the habit of these media to solve problems with the facts at the expense of the facts themselves. Pavel Gubarev proclaimed himself the “People’s Governor” not of the Donetsk People’s Republic, but the Donetsk region - the same one that is still part of Ukraine. Pavel Gubarev’s wife in the DPR is a minister or even a former (there is no Foreign Minister of the DPR on Friday at all) Foreign Minister, Gubarev himself in the DPR - no one. The leaders of the self -proclaimed republic did not give him any post - perhaps, therefore, he is now so critical of the leadership of the DPR and is trying to hold on to Igor Strelkov. Actually, he was released from prison, exchanging for captured Ukrainian special forces, just shooters - other leaders of the DPR Gubarev was obviously not needed. Pavel Gubarev - an episodic character from the series before last, no more. Former Santa Claus , who proclaimed himself the “People’s Governor”, ​​I suspect, on my own initiative in case Moscow suddenly needed its local Alexei Chaly in Donetsk. Most likely, this is why Gubarev got the SBU so easily - Donetsk himself passed it, "we do not need initiatives."

Those DPR leaders, who, according to Gubarev , existed at the expense of the main Donetsk oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, is the team that proclaimed the Republic Denis Pushilin ( he writes about his connection with Akhmetov, indicating specific episodes, Julia Latynina; it is also worth recalling the anecdotic case when the people of Pushilina defended the Bank's Office belonging to the ex-Presidential Presidential Yanukovych), who previously participated in the movement of MMM depositors. These are the very people who have been sitting in the captured building in the center of Donetsk for a month now, they don’t shoot at anyone (they either do not have weapons or a little), hang posters on their barricades, rally and, in general, do not threaten anyone, but they create a convincing picture of Donetsk separatism - I will assume that Rinata Akhmetov is more necessary to indicate that it indicates, indicating, indicating She, to bargain with Kiev and promise, with proper concessions on his part, to convince Pushilin and his supporters to go home. It would probably have happened in the end if Slavyansk had not begun. This is in Donetsk - squat in the administration building, rally grandmothers and parody barricades. In Slavyansk, everything is likely. In Slavyansk shooters.

Che Guevara in Bolivia

The later, that is, completely recent, after everything that happened, the legend from another source in the Crimea, which I believe at 50 percent-supposedly leaving the Crimea, Riflekov told his Crimean friends that he had completed the task, but he did not want to go home, and now, without any assignment, he was going to go to fight in Donbass-but there will be a noble KEGELBAN. It really can be a legend, but what is happening in the Donbass to something now indicates. Strelkov does not have a place in any cunning combination like the one in which the mummy separatist Pushilin intimidates Kiev in the interests of Akhmetov , Yanukovych or the Kremlin. Strelkov is simply fighting, he just does what he dreamed about all these years when he arranged reconstructions and wrote articles in the newspaper Tomorrow. Literally - he left the hut, went to fight in order to give the land in the Donbass peasants. The peasants themselves, of course, do not care, but who and when such trifles stopped.

The constant rumors about the military coup in the DPR, that is, about the overthrow of Pushilin with rifle - these rumors also primarily indicate the aggravating contradictions between Slavic and Donetsk. Donetsk does not need Slavyansk, Pushilin does not need shooters. Strelkov does not allow the separatists Donetsk to go home, even if Akhmetov gives Pushilin the corresponding indication. The militants in Slavyansk have more than once took hostages , but the main hostages of Slavyansk are sitting just in Donetsk - the separatists are involuntarily, who thought it was such a game until the shooters came. Calling Boroday’s DPR to the premieres of the DPR, Strelkov, in fact, seized power in the Donetsk office of the DPR - now there is for his main person.

That is, most likely, the beard became the prime minister in the DPR not as a Moscow political strategist, but as a friend of Strelkov, as, by the way, the White House defender in 1993, as a long -term author of the newspaper Tomorrow and the family of the family of Alexander Prokhanov. When we are talking about people working on the Kremlin, for some reason we usually mean scorched cynics who are ready to talk for money and do anything. But this is a dishonest simplification, in reality there is a tangible number of people who have the current values ​​of the Kremlin formulated for themselves twenty years before Putin. People who have always dreamed of just such a Kremlin, and for whom work on the Kremlin is not a business, but simply a continuation of what they did in the newspaper tomorrow in the nineties.

The beard, of course, refers to such people. His appearance in Donetsk as no longer a secret consultant, but a person who openly committed a serious criminal offense under the laws of Ukraine indicates only that he is no longer at work. Strelkov’s last appeal testifies to anything, but not that Russia helps him - Strelkov is clearly in despair, the locals are rather not supporting him rather and are definitely not ready to fight for him, there is nowhere to wait for his help. He is in the position of Che Guevara in Bolivia - everyone thinks that now everything will be like in a cube, but everything, of course, will be different. The attachment of a beard to Strelkov in such an environment is the story that Borodi for Strelkov turned out to be a real friend, and nothing more. «Российский политтехнолог стал премьером ДНР» – да мало ли на свете российских политтехнологов. Наверное, все бывавшие в эти месяцы в Донецке журналисты знакомы с помощником назначенного Киевом губернатора Донецкой области Таруты Константином Батозским – тоже, между прочим, российский политтехнолог, до этой весны работал в Росатоме, а потом уехал работать к Таруте. Значит ли это, что Тарута – «рука Москвы»? It is unlikely. Так и Бородая нельзя считать доказательством причастности Кремля к активности Стрелкова. Это не рука Москвы, это просто Бородай, так тоже бывает.

Россия – да, разумеется, она несет ответственность за украинский кризис с самого его начала, и конкретно в случае Донбасса одной пропагандистской поддержки достаточно, чтобы считать Россию покровительницей сепаратистов. Но пропагандистская поддержка – дело такое. Ее можно включать, можно выключать, как не раз уже бывало. Но как выключить полевого командира Стрелкова? Развитие событий в Славянске очень убедительно указывает на то, что этот участок украинского фронта живет уже по собственным законам, давно вышедшим за пределы и внутриукраинских интриг с участием Ахметова, и того «частно-государственного партнерства», которое мы видели в Крыму.

И нет на свете ничего более интересного, чем политическая интрига, вышедшая из-под контроля ее первоначальных авторов.