How the district center Svatovo Lugansk region lives, where the war did not reach

At the end of October 2014, changes in the criminal and criminal procedure codes entered into force in Ukraine. The law made it possible to judge in absentia to citizens accused of state treason, participating in terrorist organizations involved in the preparation, unleashing and conduct of aggressive war, etc. So, in Kyiv, for example, they are judged by the fugitive Yanukovych. True, my colleague, Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Birch, remembered the practice of absentee processes only when we sat down on a bench in the “dressing room” of the Swatovsky court ...

Svatovo is a rear close to the front and the only district center of the Luhansk region, where neither a separatist flag nor a Russian tricolor rose. The local authorities gave enough interviews about how in the spring of 2014 local self-defense under their leadership-about fifty men, armed with personal hunting carbines (according to other sources, “borrowing” the table weapons in the police department, already ready to surrender without a fight), the checkpoints were placed, the roads, including the fields, did not let in the captivors-the captivors-the captures-the captures were allowed- The battalion "Ghost" by Alexei Mozgovoy. By the way, a fellow countryman, a former employee of the military registration and enlistment office and soloist of a male vocal ensemble.

In a persistent town that did not betray Ukraine, even a regional state administration, prosecutor’s office, and other structures were placed for a while, not to mention immigrants from neighboring settlements. And the district court still has to plow for three: for itself, for the Krasnodon city and Leninsky district court of Lugansk, which were in uncontrolled territories. The bulk of criminal proceedings is associated with armed conflict in the Donbass.

The day of the trip to Svatovo, who was chosen by us in the Unified State Register of Courts, promised a meeting-sorry, in absentia-with several accused, representatives of the top of the LPR: “Minister of Internal Affairs” Igor Cornet, “First Deputy Head of the Republican Parliament” Stanislav Vinokurov, “Prosecutor” Nikolai Ermakov, executive of the GAI who occupied the GAI who occupied the GAI. The position of “Deputy Mayor of Lugansk” Andrei Katasanov and former television journalist, now militant Yuri Barbashov. Each of them was charged with article 258, part 3 - the creation of a terrorist organization or group, which entailed imprisonment for a period of eight to fifteen years.

The schedule that hung in the “pre -Bannik” on the premise board confirmed the information of a single registry, demonstrating truly cosmic overloads of the presiding judge Popova and two other members of the collegium.

At the meeting on Vinokurov, only half an hour was allocated, the same amount was measured by Barbashov, the cornet and further on the list. We waited more than an hour. Not autzakov and convoys, but at least someone who could explain why the number one hall, where the correspondence hearings should follow a series. In the rest of the halls, judging by the silence in the building, nothing happened either ...

- So on the vacation of Popov! - the policeman was surprised at the post at the frame of the metal detector in response to our surprise. - And the judge Polovinko is resting.

But we were invited to the office to Stanislav Aleksandrovich Yurchenko, the head of the Swatovsky court. Yurchenko is on guard of justice for no less than a quarter of a century.

Corpses

- ... I was able to achieve thirteen judges on the staffing table. Although in fact there are only five. Three resigned after certification, one died. They seconded one, without authority, she used to live and worked on the “that” territory. All judicial colleges formed earlier broke up. Three assistants graduated from the school of judges, have long had the right to occupy positions, but the qualification commission calls them only for October. And when the results of the assessment are announced - next year? Compared to 2013, we have 282 percent loading! - Stanislav Aleksandrovich could express his own attitude to the course of judicial reform in Ukraine, it seems, without pauses.

- Who, tell me, will want to move from the central or western regions in Svatovo? There are now full of their vacancies. And we are in limbo for a year. Every month we go to assessment. When you know that you have passed certification, you work calmly, because there are no complaints. Well, the salary is different. And so - the salary is the same, the load is three times greater, the family feels. For example, throughout Ukraine, 24 thousand protocols for illegally crossing the border and up to 20 thousand of them were examined by the Swatovsky court. ( *Before the Golden checkpoint, that is, the demarcation lines, hence more than a hundred kilometers.- *O. M. )

Then Yurchenko made a remark: he practically does not refuse the judicial administration. He asked for an additional server to distribute affairs quickly in a computer network - Dali was not enough to process the materials of secretaries in the office - they allocated additional rates.

-And now, instead of 100 administrative cases, we distribute 200. But 300 are acting anyway! They are accumulating, accumulating ... with criminal - another situation: people in custody, there are minors, no delay should be allowed. Especially in terrorism, the 258th, the most popular article here. Four years up to three dozen sentences were issued.

- And the "correspondence"?

Yurchenko looked at the state flag standing on the stand in the red corner of the office, and again, they mock us, or what?

- “Corpses” about seventy. Their criminal cases were sent to the court under the special procedure of the prosecutor's office and the SBU. But many things are inactive, this is true. There is order: before the start, it is necessary to notify the “that” side accordingly. We have no right to call and write, and mail does not go through a line of demarcation. We give ads for the defendants through the “Urovy Courier” *(a newspaper of the central executive bodies of Ukraine. - *O. M. ). If a person did not appear on the first call, the meeting is postponed. And if the second ignores, we begin the process in essence. Only we have money for ads through the newspaper ended. We chose the limit for the half -year from the budget ...

It is even more difficult to agree on the appearance of lawyers appointed from the state at such meetings, read free defenders, all nonsense people.

-That is, the cornet does not make sense to be afraid that he is about to get a deadline?

The question hung in the air. The case of the "Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" LPR "was transferred to the Svatovsky court at the end of 2016. In fact, in fact, they have not yet begun.

Criminal proceedings and the IC of the Russian Federation also opened against the same person involved-on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a Russian citizen. Let me remind you: in November last year, Igor Kornet, dismissed by the then “Head of the Republic” by Plotnitsky as the finalized before Russia, arranged an attempt by a military coup and even decided to declare himself “commander in chief”. The number failed, but the change of power in Lugansk still took place, and the cornet returned to the previous position. As Luhansk residents write in social networks, the “minister” flourishes - the gas station network is roofing.

Yurchenko said: of all the “correspondencemen”, only Zinaida was found in the process of the process above himself, a former deputy of the Lugansk Regional Council, the head of PJSC Lugansk -Niva. Found also incriminate the 258th, “terrorist” article.

-She still refueling on the “one” side. Very rich aunt, softly say. I hired three eminent lawyers from the "this" side.

- ( continues ) special people with video cameras fix everything, apparently for the report, - in the voice of Stanislav Alexandrovich there was respect. Try not to hold a meeting at the appointed time or allowing procedural violations with such and such a defendant!

We ask about the legal consequences of such sentences.

- They are subject to execution throughout Ukraine. When the convicts are caught, of course ... If they signed the Roman charter, then they caught the whole world, but no.

- They will go to Russia, rest in the Crimea, in Sochi. In Belarus, they will not be touched either, ”the head of the court argues.

But it goes to the optimistic ending:

- There is no quick legal proceedings at all. Remember at least events in Serbia. When Miloshevich was attracted - after thirty years? .. The fact that the quality of “correspondence” processes is able to play against Ukraine is warned by human rights activists of the “media initiative for human rights”. As soon as the Ministry of Justice transfers to the international instances a package of evidence to confirm the fact of military aggression by Russia, most sentences of national courts will be smashed there to fluff.

"Those" and "these"

Svatovo is the embodied dream of the Ukrainian patriot about the Donbass.

The feeling is stronger, if you do not forget: the war that divided the Luhansk region is not far from. In October 2015, the town trembled in the literal and figurative sense: on the outskirts, on the arts, the shells of the Grad and Hurricane salvo systems were burning and erupted. Mass victims helped to avoid a miracle. But the shock wave demolished from the roof houses, knocked out the windows, ruined schools, and a hospital. The General Staff even put forward a version of sabotage as a revenge on the matchmakers from the terrorists.

Now the consequences of the explosions, at least in the center, are not striking into the eyes. The building of the City Council is rushed, decorated on the outside on all sides by portraits - Lesya Ukrainian, Nikolai Gogol, Stepan Bandera.

Some images were placed above the second floor so that the vandals would not reach.

The bust was recently opened by Taras Shevchenko: a huge, similar to the Lenin, gilded head on a pedestal. And the memorial, where in the line there are a monument to the victims of the Holodomor, slabs with the names of fellow countrymen who fell on the fronts of the Second World War (on the stella was knocked out - “1939–1945”), the monument to the “Chernobyls”, the monument to those who did not return from Afghanistan, and the obelisk “bright memory of the defenders of Ukraine”. The dates of the death of soldiers born in the mid-nineties-2014, 2016, 2018.

But hello from Europe. A playground with hills-caches and a fashionable parking for bicycles are adjacent to the City Council, where

A car with the UN logo was stuck from the edge. Observers stopped resting after checking the “truce”.

In the square, among the rose bushes, the cemetery species of sculpture, angels and Christ were dispersed. But the tongue does not turn to call these amulets kitsch ... under each angel, however, there is a sign-the gift of a local philanthropist of such and such. The traditions of the merchants! The museum of local lore was told to me: historically Svatovo belonged to the Kharkov province, because if the war will push to the revision of administrative borders and “relocate” the area to the Kharkov region, people will only be happy. “Where are the terrikons here? Chernozems are here! "

On the streets of the Russian language there are few, more often Ukrainian speech is heard, and even more - surzhik. In two hotels, find a free room - luck. Guests mainly on the "that" side.

Pensioners visit payments: do not turn out through checkpoints per day. Someone needs to receive a “real” passport in a “real” court. Young people are drawn to the “real” coffee shops, although the prices are almost flush with the capital.

In the Cafe "Fidget" (the Es-Pron project icon at the entrance, air conditioners, bright furniture, an intricate menu) there are no places in the middle of a weekday. Couples, companies, parents of several preschool children cut a birthday cake.

... - We have a city of millionaires! And not hryvneys,-Andrei Kryukov, the publisher of the independent newspaper Svatovskiy Vedomosti, traveles on his Honda Akord, of which the road consists. Kryukov does not joke. I understand this, as soon as the last street ends and the fields begin: on the one hand, to the line of the horizon - sunflower, on the other - the wall of corn.

- Millionaires are farmers. They rose like sheikhs on oil. Children are taught in London, apartments are bought in Kyiv and Kharkov. And here only production sites.

- Do not want to drop off the roads?

- It’s easier for them to change the cars. Or by air ...

On the left, an improvised airfield is really visible: locators, markings, a booth on duty, a helicopter on the jokes, but the main attraction, a light single -engine aircraft, was not on the spot. Perhaps the owner in the case in the Cabinet of Ministers waved or to negotiations.

The agrarian lobby of the Svatovsky district is a noticeable force. Politicians of the highest echelon want to be friends with them.

Under the presidency, Kuchma into farmers, mainly immigrants from the managerial elite of collective farms turned into farmers. They, according to the old memory, were called to the “carpet”: “You rent the land for rent in a pottery, you are in Mankovka, without failures!” Loans gave large, under state guarantees. No one went bankrupt. And from the side, from the "simple", no one climbed. Livestock died, but the fields became gold and high -tech. The combines "John Dir", seeders with ji-pi-es, all the way electronics ... Who was lucky, held on to the employer's money and his outlook on life with both hands. Unlucky and too linguistic left. The population of the district center decreased to about 10 thousand people.

Then farmers massively entered the ruling Party of Regions. In 2013, they called on Yanukovych to strangle the Maidan. A referendum on the independence of Donbass was held in Gromad (by the way, it took place in Svatovo right on the main square.) Now they are passing for a single Ukraine, Army helps and racing in front of the City Council of Guardian angels with registered tablets.

Kryukov has an explanation why this is:

- They are always on the side of the authorities. Any. With those who are stronger at the moment.

Andrei generally likes to debunk local myths. I begin to retell that I know from the media about the heroic resistance of the matchmakers to the “Russian world” and I get a plot, as in May 2014, when Lugansk fell, the “Ataman” of the Mozgovoy with machine gunners was already in a businesslike way into the office of old acquaintances-regional chiefs. The head of the district council Tatyana Berveno began to ask:

“Lesha, do not smash, do not make the Ukrainian flag take off! Maybe while you go to visit your father? "

And accompanied by two officials, the “head of the folk resistance of the Luhansk region” departed to his native village. So won the time.

- Self -defense was, of course. And I was on duty with others at the checkpoint. We were just lucky: the attack of the Separov stopped at Kremennaya, and the military echelon managed to arrive in Svatovo, although they tried to block the rails in front of him. It was sobering great. All the "regionals" immediately put the anthem of Ukraine on mobile phones.

Explosions in the artillery warehouse, which were done in 2015 so much trouble, according to Kryukov, also occurred due to conspiracyology.

- A few months before what happened, the police outfit accidentally found at an abandoned refueling, not far from the warehouse, a hole full of gunpowder. No, not a cache of saboteurs! The shells, apparently, was slowly disassembled, fuses-on a heap, and the “blanks” were handed over to metal ...

“Svatovskiy Vedomosti” has been coming out for 12 years - a case unique to a private district. The authorities call it the "yellow press": it repelled the audience from the "organ" of the City Council. Publisher Kryukov, part -time journalist, layoutor, driver and courier, delivers the circulation of shopping, including rural ones. Everything is sold out.

“We left politics, write about life,” says Andrei. - There is a resonance.

They published in the newspaper, for example, electronic income declarations that local officials filled, as it should be, with their own hands. It seems like non -design materials, all on the Internet, but users in the villages of the Lugansk region, on the “one” that on the “this” side is delicious. The scandal turned out.

They betrayed the publicity and declaration of the head of the Swatovsky court. With several large land plots, a granary, a grain canopy, a Modograi store, a VAZ truck, Lexus, Mitsubishi, a solid account in dollars and hryvnias owned a reliable rear, a hardworking, successful farmch. Stanislav Alexandrovich against this background looked really poor and could help his wife only with advice. Yes, and then in a time free from meetings.

Svatovo Lugansk region - Kyiv