Kalashnikov for 30,000 rubles

Due to the war, the Belgorod region turned into a black market of cheap weapons. Grenades give as a gift

In the Belgorod Region, located next to the front line, in addition to the usual shelling and attacks of drones, another sign of wartime appeared - the illegal turnover of army weapons. Today you can buy Kalashnikov machine guns, hand grenades and even silent pistols in service with special forces for 300-350 dollars. “Cold” studied the materials of local courts in two years to make at least part of the grandiose weapons market, into which the Belgorod region turned.

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As we believed, the “cold” studied all published sentences issued by the district courts of the Belgorod region from February 2022 to March 2024 under Articles 222, 221.1 and 222.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The calculations included only combat weapons, which was in service with the Russian army, and ammunition for it, as well as military explosives (TNT, HEXEN, artillery gunpowder).

Our sample includes 71 published court verdicts, while the number of court cases that are related to the illegal turnover of army weapons are more: some of the processes continue right now, some of the court decisions are not published or did not come into force and appeal in the regional court.

The calculations do not include cases of illegal acquisition of sports and hunting weapons, as well as ammunition for it (cartridges and gunpowder, which are imprisoned in the conclusion of the examination and/or court decision). Also, combat weapons and ammunition from the Great Patriotic War were also included in the calculations.

We especially distinguish one verdict, which refers to the cache with ammunition, presumably prepared for sabotage.

To combat moles

On the evening of May 24, 2023, in the center of the village of Znamenka, which is 15 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, the traffic police crew stopped the Zhiguli Seven. The driver named Glebov was drunk. At first he begged the inspectors not to take the car to the parking lot, and when they refused, he unfastened the sweatshirt.

“Limonka” hung on Glebov’s neck- F-1 grenade. Having pulled out the check, he demanded that he give him documents for a car, a protocol and a memory card from a video recorder. The police fulfilled his requirements, and Glebov calmly left. They detained him the next day - the police remembered his last name and car number. Glebov later claimed that “he did not plan to kill police officers,” but he just wanted to scare them. At the trial, Glebov received three years in colony. Most of the term was given to him precisely because of the threat to the police.

In the past two years, there are no severe punishments for storing grenades and cartridges in Belgorod - from the judicial materials analyzed by the “cold” that, as a rule, the judges appoint the convict a conditional term or correctional labor. Since the beginning of a large-scale war with Ukraine, 63 manual grenades (from classic F-1 and RGD-5 to modern RGO and RGN) and more than 6,500 rounds have been seized among the population of the region, mainly to the Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The story of Glebov is only one of several dozens associated with the illegal turnover of weapons in the Belgorod region. The origin of these weapons is usually hidden. A typical explanation for interrogation, which is found in sentences: "Found in the forest." In some cases, such “finds” sound fantastically: for example, one of the inhabitants of the Belgorod district assured the court that he found three bags with a total weight of more than 34 kilograms in the field, and two convicts from the Borisov district “found” 26 and 15 kilograms of gunpowder, respectively.

The gunpowder, according to convicts, was needed for harmless household chores: ignition of stoves or barbecue. In one case, a resident of the Borisov district told the court that he planned to spend 15.5 kilograms of gunpowder on the fight against mole that ruined his garden.

The total weight of the “found” in the forest in all areas of the Belgorod region is at least 120 kilograms, explosives are 16 kilograms.

But sometimes frank indications also sound in the courtroom.

Grenades as a gift

At least five defendants admitted in court that they bought weapons from Russian troops. One Kalashnikov assault rifle was purchased for 30 thousand rubles , two more- 35 thousand , the same cost a silent 6-P-9 pistol (a special modification of the Makarov pistol with a silencer, which was in service with special forces).

Grenades in the border areas are almost nothing. For example, 4 grenades were added “as a gift” to the Kalashnikov’s purchased assault rifle, the soldiers presented 1 grenade to the driver who brought them from the Belgorod region to Voronezh, gave another soldier passing by the driver for help with the stalled car, 2 grenades were donated for help with the repair of the car. Against this background, the price of 19 thousand rubles for 2 grenades , which was paid by one of the defendants, looks excessively high.

In at least one case, the soldier sold the Kalashnikov assault rifle belonging to the Russian military unit: the 3rd motorized rifle division.

“In the course of communicating with a military personnel named Artem or Anton, the latter said that during a special military operation, when leaving the city of Kharkov Ukraine, military personnel of Russia brought military trophies: armored personnel carriers, weapons, ammunition. He showed an automatic machine, AK-74M, ammunition to it, a shot of the VOG to the grenade launcher "Bonfire", explained that there is a lot of such weapons, and he can give it for free, " -from the verdict of the Valui district court .

In total, the sentences of the Belgorod district courts are mentioned by 14 Kalashnikov and 3 army pistols, seized during operational-search events from February 2022 to March 2024.

Witness No. 3 asked not to kill his mother

So far, weapons and ammunition, which have fallen into the area after the start of the war, are used to commit crimes relatively rarely: more often they are simply stored at home “just in case”, less often - they get to shoot for holidays right in the yard or simply check if they shoot.

In June 2022, the twice convicted Sergey Strizhakov bought for 30 thousand rubles from an unfamiliar Russian soldier Kalashnikov’s machine gun with cartridges and received four grenades as a gift. He kept these things at home for almost a year.

On March 8, 2023, after a feast with alcohol drinks, Strizhakov and his son went out into the courtyard to check the operability of the machine gun, and shot 28 rounds in the yard. After that, they returned to the house, threw the machine gun on the floor, where the police found it.

One of the defendants even decided to test the F-1 grenade in his own yard with the flight of fragments within a radius of several tens of meters.

“In March, he decided to check the combat effectiveness of the F-1 grenade. To this end, 03/25/2023 went out into his yard and screwed the fuse, pulled out the ring through his actions, throwing a grenade into his courtyard, which exploded. As a result, a funnel remained after the explosion and a metal barrel was sung. After the incident, police officers arrived, ”and the verdict of the Volokonovsky District Court .

However, cases of serious and especially serious crimes using this weapon are already known. In one of the cases, the defendant on the street of the city of Valuyki Belgorod Region threw a combat grenade into the car of his friend, with whom he quarreled on this day. By a lucky accident, only the car suffered from the opening of the fragments.

In Belgorod itself, as a result of a drunken quarrel due to the construction of a fence between the houses, one person was killed by the F-1 grenade and another received fragmentation wounds. According to the court verdict , the conflict began with the comments of one of the victims: "Why can't you make a fence?" In response, Belgorod took a grenade that was stored next to his shed, and threw her under his feet to a neighbor.
Another defendant threatened his wife with a grenade, demanding that she take a divorce statement. However, the grenade was educational and, according to the defendant, also found in the forest.

Having left the car, he continued to express the threat to the murder to the victim No. 1, he took out the corps from the training grenade from his pocket and, being in the immediate vicinity of the victim No. 1, began to express threats to the murder of the words “I will explode to you now”. To scare her, he immediately put his hand along with the grenade corps by her out of the dress. All the children were with them on the street, heard this, so they began to cry, and Witness No. 3 asked not to kill his mother, ” - from the verdict of the Valuy district court.

For this, the defendant received only six months of a colony-settlement.

Warehouse for saboteurs

One of the cases of the detection of military weapons in the Belgorod region is not the same as other affairs about the local weapon market. In this case, we are talking about a cache that differs sharply from the reserves of weapons of the Middle Belgorod, who were judged for this.

On May 31, 2022, behind the outskirts of the village of Vyazovoye in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district of the Belgorod region, about five kilometers from the border with Ukraine, border guards found explosives, which would be enough for several terrorist attacks or sabotage (8 kilograms of British plastic PE8, 8 kilograms of the Soviet PVV-7, 4 detonating cords and 15 detonators, including 2 hourly), as well as two disposable anti -tank grenade launcher AT4, which are in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The FSB officers detained five people who, according to the court verdict, were preparing to transport ammunition further from the border - to the Yakovlevsky district.

This, however, is the only well -known case when people managed to detain before the crime. Most often, weapons and ammunition discover when the owners decide to “check” them right next to the house or begin to boast of them in front of their acquaintances.

How many more army weapons are stored today in the Belgorod region among less active and sociable private owners, it is not possible to evaluate.