All victims

The history of electrician Alexander Nikitin, arrested after a fire in the Winter Cherry, and his family

She sways, leans a little forward. A very round, very folding woman in black coco. Her face is not yet used to tears. Woe and happiness seem to argue for the right to be on it, and happiness is about to yield. Such a love Nikitin seemed to me for the first time. I came to her home on Wednesday, the day after the trial of her husband Alexander, three days after the fire in the Kemerovo shopping center “Winter Cherry”, from which he no longer returned home. Electrician Nikitin was detained on the same day, and then arrested for two months.

Life "before"

The fifth floor of Khrushchev on the outskirts of Kemerovo, the apartment has a lot of things, which, it seems, has nowhere to go. Love Nikitina at our first meeting came home only half an hour before me, she attributed the documents to the investigator and gave a signal of non -disclosure. “We had a search,” she apologizes for the mess. However, even before that, it seems that everyone here is used to living in crowded. A small room with a TV, opposite it, a sofa. And the whole couple of steps to the window, which has the table of Alexander.

On his table is a bunch of books, different equipment and soldering iron, a printer with a computer pushed into a corner. The husband of Lyubov from someone’s supply in the media was called a cook who, without a specialized education, repaired electricity in the “winter cherry”. I ask if he is the cook, the woman’s face brightens for the first time from our meeting, and I understand that she is still very young, I note for myself to ask about age later. Yes, she says, Sasha studied for a cook, there is a “crust”, but it was a very long time ago. Then Alexander graduated from a specialized vocational school and always worked as an electrician.

Love lulls the granddaughter of Yasmin photo: Maria Turchchenkova for TD

By the conversation, it is clear that now Lyubov is difficult with the investigator and in general with any officials. She simply does not understand much - for example, the boundaries of the subscription about non -disclosure. She does not want to say where specifically the electrician Alexander received his specialized education, but simply cannot but talk about the fact that he has it, is excited and is upset when I am talking about a possible inconsistency of professional skills of work.

The tools on the table need Alexander for part -time jobs, he repairs electrical appliances at home, and there are always orders. That is.

Before the fire.

"Hide or influence the investigation"

Alexander generally loved to work with his hands, recently he became interested in decorative aquariums and began to glue them himself. There are many of these crafts around us, large and small, with militagte fish and a complete set of home -made equipment. A few more aquariums are in the second, children's and very girlish at the same time, room. The hobby appeared recently, when the eldest daughter of Lyubov and Alexander, Lilia, had his own child, Yasmin girl. “She often“ broke ”, and her husband decided that the aquariums reassure her,” Lyubov explains.

Kemerovo. March 27, 2018. Alexander Nikitin in the Zavodskoy District Court during the election of a preventive measure in the case of a fire in the shopping center "Winter Vishnya" Photo: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS

They and Alexander were born ten months ago, she has an innate genetic disease - imperfect osteogenesis. Simply speaking, this is the fragility of bones, for almost a year of her life, the girl suffered four fractures, one of them with a displacement. The very first was during childbirth, now the girl is also in a gypsum, and the grandmother and the young, very young mother begin to argue about the dose of painkillers, which must be given before bedtime.

Lilia gave birth to a girl in the school, very early, but love tells about it even without a hint of a reproach. “But the daughter immediately went to work,” Love explains, “she is an adult and understands that the child needs to be saved!” Now the young mother turned eighteen, she quit her studies and receives 10 thousand rubles for working as a sales manager in a large mobile company. The family agreed to postpone this money on a trip to Tomsk, where the child should drip medicine that prevents the loss of bone mass. One rate costs 70 thousand rubles, three of them are needed per year. So explained by the local doctors who established a protective regime for the child Nikitin and refused disability. “They said to get the first group, we need to break forty percent, and so far we are only thirty,” says love.

The protective regime - the inactivity recommended by the granddaughter - by this at the trial, the woman explained her request to let her husband go under house arrest. There are no other men in the family who could carry a girl in their arms. But with the standard wording “it can hide or influence the investigation” Alexander Nikitin was left in a pre -trial detention center.

“Look at our conditions,” says love. - How can he hide, what to influence?! "

I ask who helps the family now. Love says that mom sent products from the village. Other relatives? The woman has three brothers, but she forbade them even to call, afraid that they can be fired from work. Love with sobs repeats that her husband is innocent, cries when he speaks of the hope of a fair trial. But it is scary to sob, flooding the streams of tears, she begins when I ask what she would say to the relatives of the dead.

The same heart

It is impossible to say in any way in words, I have never seen people cry the way love is sobbing now, tears flow abundantly and non -stop. “I am also a mother, I also have children. I also have the same heart! How can you say something when there are people who have no one left. Nobody! This is a terrible tragedy. I believe that there must be a fair court, they must punish the guilty. I also grieve with the whole city, I understand everything. But I do not believe that Sasha can be involved! "

The Building of the pre -trial detention center in Kemerovo, where, together with other “winter cherries” arrested in the case, Alexander Nikitin photo is contained: Maria Turchchenkova for TD

We met twice more. The next day, I still asked how much love. The woman says that she gave birth to early, like her daughter, and with Alexander they are, along with the seventeen years old. She is only 35, he is 34. They live very amicably, he works, she worked in kindergarten, and then settled at home, with children. “We lived like that for eight years, and everything was fine,” I see a hint of a smile on Lyubov’s lips, “and then his mother insisted that he get married.” I catch myself thinking that I myself went to the registry office only after eight years, when our youngest was already two years old.

“Remember how you smiled before that,” I ask. She thinks and suddenly smiles clearly, almost childishly. Like this. I remembered. But only for a second - and now the woman sits again, swaying back and forth, the corners of the lips are low lowered.

"Where did you rest together for the last time?" I ask. At first, love says that he does not remember, and then adds: “Yes, probably, my husband has a“ winter cherry ”, where else.” She says that Alexander often took her granddaughter to the attractions, she would have gone on that very Sunday if Yasmina had not broken. Girls are covered with a cheerful red net on top, after Yasmin’s medicine smiles and importantly, pushing the photographer’s camera from him.

The next day I ask my husband one of the owner of the premises in the “winter cherry” why they will not contact the Nikitins. “Why? - He answers the question with a question. “We have two lawyers, we protect ourselves, we are nominal owners and innocent.” "And if he testifies?" I clarify. The husband of the arrested says that he does not know anything about it and know, in general, he does not want to.

By purpose

There are two options for the defendants in this case - commercial lawyers and state, for their intended purpose. The family has no funds for commercial lawyers, so Alexander has a state lawyer, and the second one, the first, refused to participate in the process. I ask another lawyer about the prospects for working with Alexander.

The lawyer replies to SMS that he is not ready to defend the "killer of forty children"

One of the lawyers tells me that it will be extremely difficult to enter this business to defenders from public organizations, allegedly there is an order of the Investigative Committee of the city to avoid any “politics”. However, to argue with the instructions on this subject, even if they are, it seems, none of the lawyers want.

Alexander and Lyubov Photo: From Personal Archive

I meet with those who worked on the fourth floor of the Winter Cherry shopping center - they say that the leadership ordered to drain the water and cut the fire system pipes on the ceiling at least once when they prevented the walls of stores. The square meters of the retail space are expensive. The billionaire Denis Shtengelov built this shopping center with his money, and investments were supposed to pay off. However, the Stengelov, the Tomsk businessman, now living in Australia, claims that he did not manage the shopping center and practically had nothing to do with him. He transferred compensation to relatives to the city administration of Kemerovo, three million rubles for each deceased.

Several electricians worked in the Winter Cherry - Alexander himself was not there, but in the company “System Integrator”, under a contract of fire alarms in the shopping center. In fact, he was an electrician in the shopping center itself and was appointed responsible for fire safety “Pump method”. What was to be done? In case of fire, know how and where to withdraw people. On Sunday, March 25, he came to the Winter Cherry on the call, when she was already burning, he could not go into the building. From there he left for a pre -trial detention center - as responsible for what happened.

"We are all people"

I go through the Nikitin’s courtyard, the path to the road is covered with ice and was powdered by snow. The leg rides slippery, I dance and remember how love told about the eldest daughter, who fell right there, in April 2012, and damaged the spine. The path demonstrates a sample of stability.

Granddaughter of Yasmin photo: Maria Tourchenkova for TD

I could hardly ask a question that you would tell the relatives of Nikitin, to some of those who have lost loved ones in a fire in the Winter Cherry. Four of them tried to commit suicide, one after identifying three relatives at once. In Khrushchev, standing in the middle of the Ice Kemerovo court, a woman cries on their native day and night. He cries around her husband in the cell of the pre -trial detention center, cries on his granddaughter with a red mesh on a gypsum.

I dial the number of fragile people found through my acquaintances Elena Meshcheryakova, and she immediately says: “I saw the plot about the Nikitins. I waited for you to call. Local doctors are wrong, you can help the child, we will do it. ” A little later, Tatyana Dumenko calls me, a representative of the Public Center for Assistance to the victims of the fire in the shopping center "Winter Cherry":

“We think that love Nikitin and her children are also injured,” she says. “We are all people, which means we will help them too.”

---

Timur Olevsky, Current Correspondent, specifically for "such cases "

Do you want us to send the best texts of “such cases” to you by e -mail? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

Alexander Nikitin arrestwinter cherry kemerovo fire