General Nikolai Tkachev, named among those involved in the MH17 disaster, is ready to sue Bellingcat and Insider. Interview "Novaya Gazeta"

Journalists of the Bellingcat International Portal and their colleagues from the Russian online publication of Insider published a joint investigation, which, according to, identified the Russian general involved in the tragedy of the Boeing Malaysian. In particular, Internet investigators report that they were able to establish the identity of the militant with the call sign “Dolphin”, and they were the chief military inspector of the Central Military District, Colonel General of the Russian Army in reserve Nikolai Fedorovich Tkachev.

The militant with the call sign “Dolphin” was first called a defendant in the official investigation of the JIT International Investigative Group (it included the Netherlands, Belgium, Ukraine, Malaysia and Australia) in the fall of 2016. On the records of telephone negotiations between the separatists who were intercepted by the SBU and transferred to Dutch investigators, Dolphin also called himself “Nikolai Fedorovich”. In 2016, JIT called on everyone who knows something about the personality of this action movie to contact law enforcement officers of any of the six countries.

According to Novaya Gazeta, investigators JIT still cannot reliably establish the identity of the defendant. The group is known only to the name and patronymic of the "dolphin", which he used in telephone conversations in the summer of 2014.

Having pushed off from this only information, the authors from Bellingcat and Insider began their own investigation. Journalists studied reports of the pro-Russian blogger Boris Rozhin and the ex-head of the Novorossiy Army Igor Girkin, where they talked about the Russian adviser in the general’s rank and call sign “Dolphin”. Rozhin and Girkin said that the Dolphin task included structuring local scattered troops and establishing coordination between them. As Girkin pointed out, Dolphin had extensive experience in headquarters in Russia. Analyzing this information, Bellingcat and Insider came to the conclusion that a colonel general from Yekaterinburg Nikolai Fedorovich Tkachev is hiding behind Dolphin-Nikolai Federovich.

Read the Bellingcat and Insider investigation

Bellingcat and Insider conducted a phonoscopic examination of the Dolphin voice and compared it with a model of Tkachev’s voice, taking a telephone interview from the colonel general under the pretext of talking about the Suvorov school.

It is reported that the examination of the records was performed independently by two laboratories. The National Center for Media -Acominalism at the University of Colorado conducted by order of Bellingcat and Insider a technical analysis of the records and concluded about the “moderate degree of support” of the hypothesis of the similarity of two votes (Moderatly Strong Support).

At the same time, the Lithuanian center of forensic examination, in addition to Texanalysis, was also made by a linguistic study. The conclusions to which he came did not add absolute confidence. The Lithuanians compared Tkachev's voice with several recordings of the Dolphin voice, intercepted in the summer of 2014, the SBU. And they concluded that on two records of the Dolphin's voice has a “probable similarity” with Tkachev’s voice, and on two more records, the similarity has already “high degree of probability”.

A trip to Yekaterinburg

In parallel with Bellingcat and Insider, the New Gazeta also conducted its study. It was not so easy to establish all the living Nikolaev Fedorovich in the rank of general. Colonel General Tkachev from Yekaterinburg really turned out to be the most noticeable. His personality is enough for Median - this Nikolai Fedorovich often gives an interview in Yekaterinburg, participates in official events and receives awards from the country's leadership. Tkachev was born in the Zaporizhzhya region, although he lived in Russia all his life.

The older generation of journalists also remembers Nikolai Tkachev in the Chechen campaign, in which he participated among the highest commanders. The military observer of the New Vyacheslav Izmailov says that in the Chechen period of his career, Tkachev was in the shadow of the legendary Gennady Troshev and infrequently contacted the press. “But I managed to chat with him. Tkachev in that war made the impression of an adequate person, in contrast, say, from Shamanov, who talked with everyone around screams and orders. Tkachev was respectful, ”Izmailov recalls.

In the early 2000s, the names of Tkachev and Troshev appeared in the materials of the prosecutor’s audit on abuse of the official position during the construction of general cottages. Allegedly, generals used military equipment and personnel of the Chechen contingent for this purpose. However, the audit did not lead to any consequences.

Even before the publication of the joint publication Bellingcat and Insider, New Gazeta, interviewed Tkachev, in which he refuted participation in the events in the southeast of Ukraine in the summer of 2014. Since 2012, he has been in Yekaterinburg all the time, which, according to him, could be confirmed by his close people and colleagues.

We met with Tkachev at the headquarters of the Central Military District in the center of Yekaterinburg. A short, tightly folded man of about 60 years old met us in his office with a sign above the door "Chief Military Inspector of the Central Federal District, Colonel General Tkachev N.F.".

Tkachev is dressed in a civilian suit, in the corner of his office - a huge globe on which Crimea is designated as part of Ukraine.

The conversation began about the 90s in the North Caucasus.

About Chechnya

Talking about Chechnya Tkachev volunteered.

“You remember what were the times under Yeltsin. As the country almost collapsed. And the Ural Republic tried to form here, and Kazan started something there. You remember how many advisers Boris Nikolayevich had from abroad. So in Chechnya. There were all bandits, from all over the world. As in Syria now, for money, they howl from all over the world in ISIS ( prohibited in the Russian Federation - approx. Ed. ). Of course, Maskhadov and Basayev were Chechens and even served in the Soviet Army, but stood, so to speak, to the side of their people. For their people, they were heroes, and for us - traitors ... There was a real rebellion there. And we had to restore justice. And we did it, broke the situation, did not let the country break up, retained Russia. ”

Talking about Chechnya and the “New Year's assault” of the Grozny, Colonel General Tkachev himself refers to Ukraine (“He was there in Grozny as his ... Yatsenyuk”). Our conversation smoothly flows into the discussion of the world geopolitical situation (“America wants to maintain a sluggish conflict at our borders ... Well, accordingly, to draw material and technical means from Ukraine, they do not need a strong Ukraine either”).

It turns out that General Nikolai Tkachev is closely monitoring the news from Ukraine, as well as self -proclaimed republics and is well oriented in the agenda of the mainstream Russian media. However, to my question, whether he can evaluate the military-technical equipment of the “DPR” and “LPR”, Tkachev meets a categorical refusal. “I don't know, I don't know. I will not say. I did not do the analysis. " But he soon adds: “By training, they probably are already surpassing Ukrainian troops. If you believe the press that writes. ”

About Ukraine

-Is it possible, in your opinion, to say that Ukraine, like Russia in the 90s, is also fighting to preserve its country? - asked the correspondents of "New".

“It is incorrect to compare,” General Tkachev answered. - Everyone fights for his own interest. Although they have such an idea - to preserve the country. But we also say that [the self -proclaimed republics of the DPR and LPR] be part of Ukraine as autonomies. There, in the east, mostly Russian -speaking. We are generally the Slavic people - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. No one ever thought that it would be [between us]. And then here, again, money, sales leaders played ... I myself was born in Ukraine and worry about what happened there. All these events, what they turned into the country into.

- Who do you mean?

- And who else to have? The Western forces, of course, on whose money they, all these Yatsenyuki, swayed the country. The Americans live due to conflicts. They create conflicts and sell weapons, ammunitions themselves there, and the military -industrial complex is developing, so the world is unprofitable for them, it is unprofitable to neither Rockefeller, nor Rothschild, Sorros for all sorts of different ones .... We took a whole country under external management! There is not even an independent player there! If something says something wrong, he will be removed on the same day and put an obedient.

- You said relatives live in Ukraine. Are they the same opinion?

- And I do not ask them political questions. I ask "How are you?" And all. The sister has their own garden, there is gas, their own water, they live, the people are simple, far from all this [in politics], they do not particularly reason, but they suffer. A brother five years younger, I don’t ask questions either ... but about these republics ... since we started to support them there [in the DPR and LPR], we must continue. And we need to look for allies. For some questions with China, for some with India, Belarus ...

Investigation reaction

After the material of Bellingcat and Insider, the New Gazeta once again contacted General Tkachev and asked him to comment on published information. Nikolai Tkachev stated that he did not know the people who appear under the names “Dolphin” and “Orion” ( the interlocutor of “Dolphin” in telephone conversations intercepted by the SBU, 2014. He also called himself by the Foreign’s Family “Andrei Ivanovich” ), and repeated that he was never in Krasnodon. “They, damn it, wrote this there, thought of the whole country! I will consult with the guys and come up with what to do. Let them there [in Bellingcat and Insider] will now worry. I will probably sue them. Let them prove at least something that they came up with! ” - said Nikolai Tkachev.