Abandoned in Albania. The court arrested Russian diggers detained at a non -working military factory

Last week, the military detained two Russians and a Ukrainian at the abandoned military plant in Albania. Today, the court decided to leave them in custody until the end of the investigation, young people are accused of spreading secret military information and illegal storage of weapons. Two of them are the diggers and photographers known in narrow circles. Mediazona talked with the father of one of the accused and tells what is known about the case against the diggers.

On the evening of August 20, the local military detained three people near the city of Gramsha: Russians Svetlana Timofeev and Mikhail Zorin, as well as a citizen of Ukraine Fedor Alpatov. It soon became clear that the Russians are famous and photographers.

At the time of the detention, Zorin was in the territory of an abandoned military plant, and two others were waiting for him outside in the car. When Zorin tried to grab, according to the Ministry of Defense of Albania, he sprayed the “neuro-paralytic spray” into the soldier; As a result, the detainees were taken to the police department, and the victims of the military - to the hospital.

On August 24, the court in the city of Elbasan arrested the Digger on charges of spreading secret military information and illegal storage of weapons. In their car, tourist uniforms, a night vision, drone, money and two old bullets that they carried out from the territory of the plant were found in their car. All three will stay under arrest until the end of the investigation. They are facing the deadlines.

The press was not allowed for the meeting. On the terms of anonymity, Albanian journalists told Mediazone that the judge explained this by the need to preserve the “state secret”, so the media was informed about the arrest by lawyers when they went out after the meeting on the street. The defenders did not comment on the details of the case, referring to the "GOSTINE".

What is known about the detainees

33-year-old Russian woman Svetlana Timofeeva is known on the network under the pseudonym Lana Sator. Since 2007, she conducted a blog “abandoned buildings, bomb shelters, military facilities, dead equipment”, and later transferred publications from “Living Journal” to Instagram , where more than 250 thousand people were signed for it. Three months ago, she, because of her anti-war position, was forced to emigrate from Russia to Georgia.

The 24-year-old Mikhail Zorin, who was detained directly on the territory of the plant, was initially less information, and the 25-year-old citizen of Ukraine in Albanian press releases before the trial was indicated only by the initials of F.A.

The day after the detention of Mediazon, she found out that Zorin was studying chemistry in the Czech Republic, he wrote about this in the telegram channel . Like Sator, he actively leads a blog about his travels and publishes photos from trips.

Shortly before the trial, various versions of the biography of Mikhail Zorin began to appear in the Albanian media. Referring to unnamed sources, the Albanian media claimed that Mikhail was recruited by the Russian special services after he was detained on a protest campaign in Russia. In addition, Albanian journalists claim that Zorin’s mother serves in the Russian army, father of Albanian journalists simply call a lawyer.

In a conversation with the Mediazone, the father of Mikhail Yuri Zorin that he really received a lawyer status in 2000: “I am a lawyer who specializes in civil matters. That is, I do not deal with criminal law and the process. Sometimes I participate in the processes in the arbitration court, I work as a corporate lawyer, that is, I serve legal entities. In general, I am engaged in private law practice. ”

Answering the question whether his wife serves in the army, Yuri Zorin laughed. “This is complete nonsense. My wife is called Zorina Julia Gennadievna, she has two higher educations. For first education, she was a designer of women's outerwear, she graduated from the Russian correspondence institute of textile and light industry. She did not work in her specialty, but went to work as a secretary in a private company, where we met her, and then got married, ”says Zorin.

According to him, she soon received a second education - economic, began to work as an accountant. The company, in which Julia Zorina now works, is engaged in the supply of industrial equipment "from the countries of the Middle East."

“These are all the theories of the conspiracy, I don’t know where they come from,” says Zorin. - I read all this, try to restrain emotions, but inside they boil, about the family [they write]. My wife is such a purely domestic person, has never had anything to do with the armed forces. ”

Yuri Zorin also confirms that his son Michael was really detained on a protest campaign in support of Alexei Navalny, and then they wrote out a fine: “Mikhail takes an active civic position, the class, probably from the eleventh. He always supported Alexei Navalny, went to stocks that were arranged either by Alexei Navalny or his supporters. And the last action in which Michael participated was, in my opinion, on January 31, 2021. In general, this was dedicated to the return of Alexei Navalny to Russia. At this action, Mikhail was detained, a protocol was drawn up on it and it was fined for participating in an unauthorized action. ”

At the same time, Yuri Zorin did not hear that the Russian special services ever tried to intimidate his son.

“There was an attempt to visit law enforcement officers home in order to talk with Mikhail,” he recalls. - I don’t know who it was, I was not at home, there was only the youngest son. In the end, he opened the door for them. And they from the child, in general, pulled Misha's phone. Then it turned out that they wanted to talk to him that some personal data flowed into the network, to blame the Navalny fund of the fact that they, they say, did not protect these personal data. Michael refused to give evidence. Well, and that was all over. "

The last time Yuri Zorin talked with his son August 20, a few hours before the arrest, Mikhail sent a photo to the family chat with a view of the car window. After the detention, the young man was not allowed to call relatives. Friends of Michael, who learned about this from the media, told about the detention of his son Yuri Zorin.

Yuri Zorin tried to contact the Russian embassy in Albania in order to find out about his son, but did not succeed: “The Russian embassy in Albania sent a note to the Albanian Foreign Ministry in order to clarify this situation. But as of yesterday, no answer was received. Accordingly, the embassy, ​​unfortunately, could not help me with anything. ”

Having not received a clear response from the Russian Embassy in Albania, the father of Mikhail Zorin tried to hire the lawyer’s son: “I found only two offices that communicate in English, sent them letters, but never received an answer.”

For the detained Ukrainian Fedor Alpatov, relatives were able to hire a lawyer. At today's meeting, the defender Samir Visha filed a motion to exclude all the testimony of Fedor from the case of all the testimony of Fedor, given earlier at interrogations: the lawyer believes that his client’s rights were violated, as he was interrogated in Russian, and not in Ukrainian.

Mikhail Zorin has a lawyer provided by the state of Albania. He represents the interests of Svetlana Timofeeva.

“This lawyer, according to the appointment, told me that he had no right to communicate with me and generally anyone from Mikhail’s relatives, because the case is classified,” says Mikhail’s father. - And in this case, only completely official communication is possible through the embassy. That is, if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania answers the Russian embassy to the note that they sent. And only then I will be able to receive some information on the merits of the charges and, for example, about the state of health of my son. ”

Editor: Agatha Shcheglova