Translated material
From captivity - in jail
The ways of the war are inaccessible: the Siberian soldier from Siberia Andrei Balobanov somehow was captured in Ukraine, in November ended up in the Russian military units in Transnistria and is now under investigation for desertion. The New Times tried to figure out this mysterious story
Andrei Balobanov (in the photo) during the passage of military service in the Samara region. 2014
Photo: Blog on the social network "VKontakte"
It is known for certain that in five months Private Balobanov crossed the two state borders, and having returned to his homeland, he will come with accusations of evading military service. Next are the versions.
According to the army authorities, Balobanov, a native of the Omsk region of the Russian Federation, received a dismissal, he himself went to the Lugansk region of Ukraine, and there he turned to the Ukrainian authorities for political refuge in order not to serve anymore. Then, says the bosses, Balobanov got to Odessa and, having gone free there, moved to the Russian part in Transnistria, from where he would be delivered to Bryansk-just so, not to his native part, and for some reason to Bryansk-under the investigation.
According to relatives and friends, Balobanov expected sent to Lugansk, being there, he was captured by Ukrainian captivity - it was captured, and did not go to the Ukrainian side on his own - at the same time he was without weapons, and again in the Russian army was against his will.
Documents capable of confirming both versions, the human rights activists who are versed in the history of the soldier Balobanov still do not have no.
“They say he went to Ukraine himself! They also found a patriot to me! Yes, they have already drank all the blood out of the unfortunate boy, ” - Sergei Balobanov, the father of the soldier, trembles with Sergei Balobanov. He does not believe his son’s authorities.
"Is in dismissal"
Andrei Balobanov was drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces in December 2013, served in the Samara region and did not complain about anything. “Even before his disappearance, he wrote to a friend that they were going to send him in the direction of Lugansk, and his friend informed us,” says Sergey Balobanov about his son. - At first, Andrei often and in detail told how he served, but two weeks after he returned from the “training”, he became very laconic, and a little later completely disappeared. ”
According to relatives, Andrei stopped in touch after June 22, some time later they turned to the command of military unit No. 65349 in the Samara village of Kryazh, where Balobanov served.
“The units were rudely at first, they did not give any information, and then they said that Private Balobanov was dismissed, that is, there is temporarily absent,” says Alexey, Andrei's elder brother.
Until July 17, parents were ignorant, while in the media with reference to the head of the Ukrainian Civil Association “Information Resistance”* Dmitry Tymchuk, a message appeared about the detention of a Russian soldier in the Luhansk region. The next day, the same source specified the name and surname - the soldier was the son of the Balobanovs. On July 24, a video appeared on the official portal of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)-a Russian soldier sold, who had been “left” for more than a month in “dismissal”, refused to participate in the war in the Donbass, and now asks for political asylum on it.
Captivity
In fact, the phrase “left the part”, uttered on the video by Balobanov himself, sounds ambiguously-it is not clear from his words whether he crossed the Russian-Ukrainian state border as part of his part or independently. Andrei's father is convinced: the soldier sent his own bosses to the Donbass, and already there he was captured by Ukrainians. The same picture is built when reading the subsequent messages of Dmitry Tymchuk on the Web - it is repeatedly mentioned precisely about Balobanov’s “capturing”.
“After the week, after we turned to the unit for the first time, and this was at the end of June,” the soldier’s brother explains, “they told us that Andrei was running away and hiding somewhere in Russia. But after Tymchuk’s message, the father called up the SBU officers, and said that they had Andrei. They did not put forward any demands, and how Andrei came to Ukraine, they did not say. ”
He says Sergey Balobanov: “The Ukrainian officer called me and said that since my son was without weapons, nothing threatens him. He only asked: is he not a gunner. I said that no, they answered me that my son is alive, they have it safe, but if he goes to Russia, he will have trouble. And so it happened. "
There was no weapon at Andrei, because in his motorized rifle part he was a radio operator, his father explains: “The commanders praised him, he was fond of computers to the army, went to the north with me to make money on wires in the army. In general, after the service, he was going to learn from the driver, was interested in football. Well, that is, a normal person, like everyone else in 18-19 years. ”
The case of desertion
The Russian military authorities, as already mentioned, insists that Private Balobanov arbitrarily left part, that is, deserted, and fled to Ukraine to get political asylum there. This version, in particular, in early October was presented to reporters by the military commissar of the Omsk region Yuri Trubin. And the head of the press service of the Central Military District, which belongs to the Samara and Omsk regions, Yaroslav Roshchupkin confirmed The New Times that the case of unauthorized abandonment of the unit Balobanov was really initiated, but refused to comment on the details. Article 338 of the Criminal Code (desertion) provides for up to seven years in prison, if a soldier fled alone without weapons, and if with weapons or in a group - up to 10 years.
Parents and friends of the soldier do not believe in the escape version: “He liked the army, he even wanted to stay under the contract after the end of the deadline,” says Andrei’s brother, Alexei Balobanov. - He wrote that everything was fine, he did not complain about anything. We are sure that there was no desertion, and Andrei came to Ukraine by order of the command. ”
Alexander Myakishev, a friend of Andrei, is held by the same opinion: “The likelihood that he himself could go there (to Ukraine) is very small,” he says. On the Internet, Alexander communicates with the correspondent of The NEW Times is reluctant (in his opinion, the “personal” “VKontakte” may be read), but there is no doubt about the innocence of the comrade. He answers all difficult questions: “We didn’t talk about it about it,” although he confirms that he corresponded with Andrei before and after the Ukrainian “captivity”.
In Odessa
“The military is constantly lying to us, first they talk about dismissal, then they say that supposedly the unit of his son went to the exercises, and he remained; Then - about the escape. But from Samara to Ukraine quite far, what did he come there on foot? " - exclaims the father of the soldier Sergei Balobanov. According to him, for the first time after the disappearance, Andrei himself got in touch with his relatives from the Ukrainian territory, after the appearance of a video and calls from the SBU.
Relatives claim that for the past few months Andrei spent in Odessa. According to Alexander Myakishev, at first a soldier was kept locked up somewhere, but already in September he could move around the city freely. The elder brother also confirmed that when he talked with Andrei, he was on the street. Parents sent money to Andrei, which he could live in Odessa, where, however, there were also distant acquaintances, who could also support him in difficult times.
“Many times I tried to find out from Andrei how he got there at all, he answered“ I can’t say anything ”, probably followed him, maybe they even listened to the phone,” his brother suggests, but he assures that the younger Balobanov did not complain about anything in these months.
Again in the army
The second disappearance turned out to be no less strange than the first: “How he got into the Tiraspol (the capital of the self -proclaimed Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR), in which the Russian troops were deployed since the summer of 1992. - The NEW Times), we do not know, in mid -October, I stated him for the last time,” says the elder brother. Balobanov led the correspondence with friends until October 24, and his last appearance on the social network dates from the 27th. Alexander Myakishev claims that Andrei was not going to return to the Russian army, because he knew from the press about the trial of a judicial persecution on charges of desertion.
On November 5, relatives were called from Tiraspol, the capital of an unrecognized PMR, bordering the Odessa region, and reported that their son independently arrived in the location of Russian military unit No. 13962, deployed in the city. According to the military, the soldiers are in satisfactory condition.
“In that part in Tiraspol, we called repeatedly, but since then there has become very few information about Andrei,” the father says. “They answer us: we have no right to say anything to you.”
According to relatives, when Andrei in the Tiraspol military unit for the first time after Odessa gave a telephone - to talk with his relatives - he did not really explain anything, since then he called infrequently, and if he called, then always in the presence of outsiders. “More recently, we were informed that Andrei will soon be transferred to Bryansk, where the investigation in the desertion case will take place,” says Alexei Balobanov. Why Bryansk? The only reasonable explanation: the troops of the Western Military District are deployed in the Bryansk region, to which the Russian contingent in Transnistria is also assigned.
Soldier mothers
Alexey Balobanov, Andrei's brother, lives in St. Petersburg. On November 7, he turned for help to the human rights organization "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg." By this time, the relatives managed to learn from the officer from the Tiraspol part that Andrei with “cuts from the reed” on November 5 arrived there on his own and that he was really facing a criminal punishment for desertion. “Soldiers' mothers”, in turn, sent requests to the authorized bodies, but still could not get some new information on the case of Andrei Balobanov. “Usually, when people run away from the unit, they, first of all, are looking for their relatives, friends ... Nobody was looking for Andrei, and no one notified his parents about the escape or that the case was opened on him,” says the representative of the St. Petersburg Committee of “Soldiers' Mothers” Alexander Porruk. “This is nonsense so that the soldier fits abroad.” We admit different versions, but so far there is nothing that could dissuade us in the correctness of the words of the soldier’s parents, ”concludes the frontrupe.
Parents of Andrei received a notification in the case of desertion only recently - from the Samara department of the Main Military Investigation Department of the SK. This document says that on September 22, a preliminary investigation of desertion opened in July was suspended in connection with the "unhealthy location of the suspect." Parents were surprised: the paper came old, inactel. They already knew that the case was again aroused, and their son was actually awaiting the stage in Bryansk.
To the mercy of fate
The responsible secretary of the Union of Committee of Soldiers' Mothers Valentina Melnikova told The New Times that the Committee has not yet received reliable information from the soldiers about their participation in the conflict in Ukraine. Her colleague from the Mother Law of Veronika Marchenko is more unambiguous in his assessments: "Russia is not a suicide, not a single document on the presence of the current soldier of the Russian army in the territory of a foreign state in the near future we will not see."
Only the official recognition by the military leadership of the fact of Andrei’s participation in hostilities can help their son in the current situation in the current situation. However, Veronika Marchenko makes it clear: this is a stick about the two ends - from the point of view of international law, a person who illegally crossed the border of a foreign state with weapons in his hands in order to enforce the armed overthrow of the existing system, is a terrorist. Therefore, Marchenko is “not sure that a specific person has a strategic meaning to fight for a recognition that is dangerous in the legal sense.”
The trap, in which Private Balobanov fell slammed shut. And is there any way out of the current Sitius is a big question.
<figure> <img SRC = "https://archivarius-public.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rima/web/Media/img/019581412710FA666CF08A62F070014.jpg"/> </figure> Andrey Balobanov With brother Alexei (in the photo on the right) before the draft 
*A civil association created after the Maidan by a former employee of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Dmitry Tymchuk and became one of the most popular unofficial sources in conflict in Ukraine.