Alien war

The New Times correspondent went to the Buryat village in Transbaikalia, from where 10 people left to fight under the contract for the Donbass, among them, among them, the tanker burnt under the Debaltsevo, and found out that he forces young Buryats to go to the war and why the new Buryatia newspaper had to be cut with stationery scissors

The 16th strip of the new Buryatia newspaper with a seditious article about the tanker Dorzhi, wounded near Debaltseve

On April 3, a short interview appeared on the site, and later on the pages of the New Buryatia newspaper, the mother of the tanker-gunner Dorzhi, who was seriously wounded during the battles near Debaltseve, who spoke at the beginning of March back in early March. In this note, the mother of a charred tankman complained that the military did not help the wounded son and that his son was in serious condition. A day later, April 4, the text of the interview from the website of the New Buryatia disappeared. It was not in the paper version of the newspaper, and the publication itself instead of Sunday, as usual, came to readers for a day, or even two later, and even lost weight: instead of the usual twenty pages in the newspaper, there were only nineteen.

Chancellery scissors

It was like this: on Sunday, shortly after the newspaper left the printing house, and on Monday to the room on the fourth floor of the Galaxy shopping center, located in the very center of the Buryat capital of Ulan-Ude, still smelling of the typographic paint of the number of New Buryatia No. 12 (263) dated April 5, 2015-50 thousand newspapers are also urgent. The editorial staff themselves were removed from the racks themselves, they were carried on the stairs of a spacious atrium, past boutiques, to an office with discreet furniture and yellow walls, where in two very tiny adjacent rooms, separated by a glass partition, and the newspaper’s editors are located.

There are seven journalists - all who are on the state, several technical employees and even the distribution manager picked up scissors in their hands: their task was to cut page No. 16 from the room, on which the “Buryat tanker from Debaltsevo is still in serious condition” was printed on the entire strip under the section “Society”. Then the “fascinated” numbers in the parties, as they were ready, returned to the previous racks.

Causes and consequences

The New Buryatia newspaper in the region is considered “independent”, it is distributed free of charge, but unlike the usual advertising publications, it has not a commercial, but a socio-political orientation. The circulation is funded by advertising. There are really almost more colorful ads in the newspaper than journalistic materials. Every Sunday, a fresh issue from the printing house is delivered to trays for free distribution. That is why about 3 thousand. The townspeople managed to disassemble the newly not cut specimens of the newspaper before the process of execution over the circulation began.

“At first, information appeared that the stripes had to be removed, because the tankman’s photograph on them was poorly printed, but I have an untouched specimen at home. Everything is in order with the quality of the press, ”Buryat journalist Arkady Zarubin, editor of the local newspaper Arshan, told the NT correspondent. “We calculated that, affecting the“ Ukrainian ”topic, we went beyond the borders of our competence, we are still a local newspaper,” the editor-in-chief of New Buryatia Timur Dugarzhapov is justified. “It was our own decision, I consulted with some people, colleagues, but no one crushed us,” says Dugarzhapov. However, according to the NT source, close to the editorial office of the Buryat newspaper, who asked not to call his name, “consulted” the chief editor not with his colleagues: emergency censorship measures were taken after the call of the FSB chief editor. “Losing a license means to freeze the release for two to three months,” the interlocutor of NT explains the essence of the threats voiced by the department. “Register under a different name is not a problem, but the team will be left without a salary for a time of forced downtime, and people need to feed their families.” The editors faced a choice: either manually remove the strip from the newspaper with an interview, or simply remove the circulation and not fulfill obligations to advertisers, creating serious financial difficulties.

“Cutting stripes from a number ready for distribution is an unprecedented case,” says Zarubin. The author of the unfortunate note, journalist Sergei Basayev, explains the caution of the editor -in -chief by the fact that the newspaper already leads two acute topics of the regional scale: the resignation of the rector of the Buryat State University and the impeachment of the head of Khural. “Once again, it made no sense to substitute the publication under attack,” says Basaev. He calls his own note “lazy”: in order to understand the situation, it would be necessary to go to the place, to Mogoituy, where the Batomunkuev family lives, and this is a neighboring region, almost 800 km of path. The journalist limited himself to a phone call: “The military theme in Buryatia is not in great demand and does not cost such costs. For the Buryats, this is someone else's war. ”

The interlocutor of Kobzon

Dorzhi Batomunkuev, photography from the personal page of VKontakte.ru, 2015

At the end of winter, a video on which the State Duma deputy from the Trans -Baikal Territory Singer Joseph Kobzon was talking in Donetsk with a burnt stormy. In the video, a guy with a bandaged face without abysss declares a pop star: "You and I have already seen when you came to us in Mogoituy." And calls the specialty: gunner. The singer’s visit to the burn center at the Donetsk Regional Central Clinical Hospital came on February 23. A week later, an interview appeared on the pages of Novaya Gazeta, made by the newspaper Elena Kostyuchenko, presumably with the same young man-his name and number were announced there for the first time: “Dorzhi Batamunkuev, 5th separate tank brigade, military unit No. 46108”.

The military unit No. 46108 is apartment in the capital of Buryatia Ulan-Ude (the Trans-Baikal Territory borders on Buryatia): the guys from the former Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug, which was united in 2008 with Transbaikalia, traditionally serve here. In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, the tanker Batomunkuev, lying in the House of the burn center at the regional hospital, told how, together with the regular Russian troops, by order of the military leadership, he fell into the territory of Ukraine, how part of them was transferred near Debaltseve, where heavy battles were going on between the detachments of the DNR separatists and the Ukrainian army, and he himself received heavy burns. It was on February 19, seven days, after peace agreements were signed in Minsk with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Germany and France.

In search of Dorzhi

From Ulan-Ude to Chita, the capital of the Trans-Baikal Territory, on the train for about 11 hours-exactly this path was made by the NT correspondent. Before the Poron, who had settled in Chita, did not have time to crawl the cargo composition slowly past the station: military trucks, strengthened on open platforms, move to the west. "For war!" - sighs next to the author an elderly woman. There are no signs that there will be one of the unrecognized republics, only random passers -by nod their heads: the Donbass is the first thing that comes to them at the sight of military equipment.

The village of Mogoytuy (stress on the second “O”) is located in the south of the Trans -Baikal Territory, 194 kilometers from Chita ( NT correspondent reached it on a new route taxi in 2.5 hours), in the center of the steppe basin, surrounded by gentle hills. Scorched yellow grass, rare trees ... The end of April here is a hot season, in the sense of fire, despite the penetrating wind and almost zero temperature at night. For several years, the region is a leader in forest fires and steppe pairs. There is almost no snow in the Trans -Baikal steppes in the winter, by April the earth is dry, and the grass can erupt from a simple cupcaster or recklessly abandoned matches.

The house in which the mother, stepfather and the brothers of the Buryat tanker, the Trans -Baikal Territory, the village live. Mogogetui, April 2015

Rare passers -by are seeded in the streets in clubs of whitish smoke. An elderly taxi driver, squinting, points to the red, barely distinguishable sun: "Fire engines from the outskirts drove off only yesterday, there was a danger that the fire would spread to the house." To the north, closer to Chita, forests burn.

Lyubov Dashitsyrenova, her former groom will now fight in the ranks of the separatists in Ukraine, photography from the personal page of VKontakte.ru, 2015

Once there was a dairy, poultry farm and repair base. Now there is practically no work in Mogoituye - most enterprises were closed in the early nineties. In the center is a three-story pink building of the administration, several stores, a railway station, an agricultural and industrial college and the only hotel. Most houses are brick, but there are no trees or cattle behind low fences (although the region was once famous for its livestock).

The neighbor of Batomunkuyevs - they live on the street Zugalayskaya - Olga Semenova (in appearance to her about forty) confirms that in the video with Kobzon - indeed Dorzhi. “My son Alexei and Dorzhi are friends. The son says that Dorzhik really was in Ukraine, friends knew everyone, but their parents did not say that they would not be worried. And in the video - the son says - dorges. " Near the gate, Olga’s husband is busy with his old black Honda: he refused to speak.

Most of the cars in the village of Mogoituy are used foreign cars of Asian production. The Batomunkuyev house is almost on the outskirts, but against the background of others it looks wealthy: a massive garage is visible behind the fence, then residential buildings, a stone house for two families. In one half, Batomunkuyev live, in the second - Olga Semenova and her husband.

About Dorzhi Olga speaks with the heating room: “In general, he is a good, sociable guy. Happy birthday to our grandmother congratulated every year, she is now sick, otherwise she would tell. " Recently, neither she nor her husband practically communicate with the neighbors: “They now have their own problems,” the woman nods knowingly, referring to the injuries of Dorzhi. The son of Olga himself studies at Chita, at the Medical Academy, through his account on the social network, the NT correspondent tried to find out the details of what happened to Dorzhi Batamunkuev, but Alexei refused to communicate: "I will not talk about another." Almost no one doubts that the Dorzhi Batomunkuev, the interlocutor of Kobzon and the hero of the interview, is almost no one in the village. But to speak openly, especially with strangers, they are afraid of the “Ukrainian” topic, and if they agree, then almost in a whisper, not under record and anonymously.

Defender of the Russian World

Tatyana Balzhimaeva, a hospital for the hospital of the Mogoituysky district hospital, assures that Dorzhi Batamunkuev did not undergo treatment in her institution. These words are ready to confirm in private conversations not only the nurses, but also the neighbors: "Dorzhika from Donetsk did not bring here." After the video was shown on TV, according to Olga, on the third day, the parents themselves flew to Ukraine, and later the tanker was sent to St. Petersburg from the war zone, to which hospital is unknown. Before the video appeared on the network, parents did not report the whereabouts of Dorzhi. And this is despite the fact that the family by rural standards is not easy: the tanker’s mother works as a clerk in a local court, stepfather Yegor Ustinov is an investigator in Mogoituya, his uncle Ayur Bataev - police major. Both mother and uncle refused to speak with a NT correspondent. As well as the director of the school, in which Dorzhi studied, referring to the fact that the guy got out "too long."

After graduating from the Mogogotuskaya school No. 2, Dorzhi, like most of his classmates, entered the institute, but, apparently, threw his studies by 2013 and went to serve in the army, and after the end of the military service he remained to serve under the contract. Chimita, a young girl, a native of a neighboring village, says that her brother was a colleague of Batomunkuev and recognized him on a video with Kobzon.

Immediately after the story of Batomunkuev received publicity, the FSB officers visited the village. Since then, relatives refuse to comment, says an employee of the Aginsky military commissariat, who agreed on the basis of complete anonymity to talk with the NT correspondent. Moreover, he says that Dorzhi is not the only native of the village who got to the Donbass. About 10 people visited the conflict zone from the Mogoytuy district, in the conflict zone.

“The flow of contractors has grown significantly over the past two years,” says an employee of the military enlistment office. - From Aginsk, where the recruiting point for the contract service is located, they fall into the very part where the dohs served, they sign a letter of resignation from the service with the open date and go to Ukraine. If something happens to them or the journalists suddenly reveal their surnames, there is already a paper confirming that the Buryat guy left the army shortly before his sending and only then signed up for the “militias” for ideological reasons-to defend the Slavic world! ”

Dorzhi was not alone, but it is unlikely that he would be able to find his brothers in arms in Mogoituya, the employee of the military commander summarizes: “Those who went to fight, while everything is in Ukraine, and no one will talk to you, there will be such people here, no one will say anything.”

A girl from the local, Mogoituysky, who agreed to talk with a NT correspondent “About the guys who are sent to Ukraine”, at a meeting, smiles restrained. In a local cafe, looking around for rare visitors, she is sitting at a neighboring table. After a couple of minutes, the message comes from her: “How are you? Found something? " The conversation comes down to the exchange of short remarks through the messenger of the popular social network: the interlocutor occasionally raises her head, taking his eyes off the screen. He promises to find the phone of one of those soldiers of the locals who are now in the Donbass. But he asks not to name her surnames. After a couple of days, she will refuse to give phones: "The guys themselves did not want to communicate." It seems that everyone is afraid of the words "Donbass" here.

The Buddhist Dugan (temple) is visible from almost anywhere in the village, Trans -Baikal Territory, pos. Mogogetui, April 2015

At the reception of Lama

The former Agina Autonomous Okrug, like Buryatia, is a Buddhist region. Even in the smallest settlements there are small Buddhist temples - Dugans. The golden roofs of the Mogoytuysky dugan can be seen from almost anywhere in the village. The hill on which the pot-bellied snow-white building of the temple is located was once the local teenagers were nicknamed the “Mountain of Love”: from here the best view of the district opens, and even before the construction of the sanctuary, the couple’s lovers had the custom of the evenings here. On the weekend, children frolic on the territory of the temple, they spin huge cylinders with mantras (prayer drums), while parents nearby, near a miniature conical stupa (prayer stapa is usually white), read prayers. Around the temple there are several log cabins, here the lamas accept visitors for conversations and simple rites.

“When the soldiers are at home, they come here: to cleanse spiritually. They do not rejoice that they fought there (under the “there” the Lama mean Ukraine) and that someone was killed, and do not feel like heroes, ”almost all the inhabitants of the village are periodically at the appointment of the Ayur Lama temple. While the lama, wrapped in a traditional red mantle, talks to us, measuredly sorting out wooden rosary, into a room, almost devoid of furniture, with the exception of a small “iconostasis” with images of a bodhisatv and a written table, crowned with a certain likeness of an elephant in the form of an elephant with a huge peacock feather stuck into it, visitors constantly knock.

Lama, not without hesitation, agrees to name the number of those who served in Ukraine: about 10 people - the same figure was called at the military registration and enlistment office. “They come in a very bad state, because they come from a war, which is not clear for what, it’s not clear with whom, but if you signed the contract, you should go where they are ordering,” Lama pronounces these words with almost a whisper, barely audible. “I don’t know in what kind of kind of troops they served, they do not tell, keep feelings in their souls, but ... there is no joy on their faces.”

For war, for money

Against the backdrop of unemployment and very small salaries, a contract service for many of these edges remains the only way to feed the family. 30 thousand rubles. - So much is paid to contractors per month - by local standards, good money: here 20 thousand per month is a big luck. Prices in Mogoituye are not too different from Moscow. Products in stores are mainly Russian. Clothing, technology and, oddly enough, potatoes - from China. It’s very close to the Middle Kingdom, if you drive about 300 km along a deserted steppe - already a border. Some of the inhabitants earn shuttle transportation. Army contract is a reasonable alternative to shuttleness.

In addition to Dorzhi, so far from the Ukrainian war, almost no one has returned. “My husband’s friend Bair Bolotov served on a contract, like the rest, but in November he suddenly arrived. Without documents, he said that he was in Ukraine, ”says Chimita. Judging by her words, the young man deserted, but it is impossible to pursue him for this: formally, because there is no Russian military in Ukraine, and the contract with the open date allows the command of the unit to “dismiss” anyone who creates problems.

Not finding a job in his native village, after a couple of months, Bair again went to the front. True, already as a militia. Two more - the former girl of Bolotova, Lyubov Dashitsyrenova, and his brother Bato Budazhapov, who lives near Mogogetuya, confirms that Bair really was in Ukraine, but they insist that for the first time - in the ranks of volunteers and never - as a soldier of the regular army. To the question about the reasons for the participation of Bair in the armed conflict, Bato Budazhapov answers extremely honestly: "Most likely, money." Chimita insists on his own: "Bair was settled in the troops through the same Aginsky set of the recruitment in the contract army as my husband, only Bair left in the summer, and we are only now submitting documents." The fact that the guys are sent to fight on a distant Ukraine is outraged by Chimit. But he understands that her husband may find the same fate: “What to do? We need to feed the family, but we have no other choice here. ”

Photo: Facebook.com/arkady.zarubin, VKontakte.ru, Dmitry Rebrov