The provocateur in the case of Ukrainian Valentina Tagirova may be an FSB officer. "First Department" publishes his real name

In November 2022, “First Department” wrote that Ukrainian Valentina Tagirova was being held in a Samara colony. The woman spent six months in solitary confinement, her daughter was taken away by guardianship authorities, and she herself was accused of preparing for a “terrorist attack.” Today, “First Department” tells why exactly Tagirova can receive a real sentence and why the defense believes that she needs to be acquitted.

From Donetsk to Samara

Valentina Tagirova lived in Donetsk. After the start of the war in 2014, she did not leave the city: she had her own beauty salon, a two-year-old daughter in her arms, and soon her mother suddenly died, which Tagirova took seriously.

In 2021, Valentina Tagirova received Russian citizenship. Now she regrets it, as she wrote to journalists from her imprisonment: “Then my Ukrainian passport was about to expire, and in order to get a new one, I had to go to the territory of Ukraine. It would take a lot of effort and time. Therefore, I then decided that it would be easier to get Russian citizenship and a Russian foreigner.”

On February 22, 2022, Tagirova and her daughter were taken from Donetsk to Taganrog under the pretext of receiving Putin’s payments. They promised that it would be possible to return home in two days, but upon arrival the Tagirovs were put on a train and taken to an unknown direction. Later it turned out that they were going to Samara. There, the Tagirovs, along with other residents of Ukraine, were placed in a “Temporary Accommodation Point”, where Valentina lived before her arrest.

Provocateur "Plato"

A year after moving to Samara, an unknown person wrote to Valentina Tagirova in a telegram, introducing himself as Plato. Later, FSB officers would write that Platon, who “does not share the goals and objectives of the Military Operation carried out by the Russian Armed Forces to demilitarize and denazify the state of Ukraine,” decided to carry out a terrorist attack in Samara in order to thus convince the Russian authorities to abandon the “SVO.” To do this, “Platon” convinced Tagirova to send him photos of several buildings in Samara, and later asked him to buy acetone and other things that were allegedly needed to carry out the terrorist attack.

According to Valentina, before “Platon” wrote to her, she received a message from an anonymous person who introduced himself as an employee of a paramilitary organization in Ukraine. He threatened Tagirova and her relatives if she did not agree to do what he said. This man knew a lot about her, including her daughter’s details, their place of residence, and was also aware that Tagirova’s father periodically travels from Donetsk deep into Ukraine. This convinced Tagirova that the threats were real, and she agreed. After that, “Plato” wrote to her. At first, his tasks seemed harmless: to take photos of the areas near the Solidarity Samara Arena stadium, the headquarters of the combined arms army and the buildings of the Office of the Russian Government. After sending the photo, Tagirova’s Qiwi wallet received five thousand rubles.

At the end of March 2023, after a long break, “Platon” wrote that he again needed Tagirova’s help. This time it was necessary to buy a few things and leave them in the yard of an abandoned house. Tagirova bought acetone, a plastic canister, a can of aluminum paint and a sheet of foam plastic. “Platon” said that with the help of these things “his man” would commit arson in Samara in order to “force the Putin regime to stop the war” and, as a reward, would transfer a total of almost 400 thousand rubles to Tagirova.

As soon as Tagirova took all her things to the abandoned house and returned to the car, FSB officers approached her and detained her on charges of preparing for a terrorist attack.

Is “Platon” an FSB officer?

Now Tagirova and her defenders are sure that 33-year-old FSB officer Yegor Elistratov wrote to her under the nickname “Platon”. He is involved in a criminal case as a witness for the prosecution. During questioning in court, Elistratov stated that he followed Tagirova only on those days when she took photos and went to the store on Plato’s instructions. Moreover, Tagirova performed these actions on different dates, and sometimes with a pause of several weeks. This means that Elistratov knew in advance when and where Tagirova would go. Only “Plato” could have such information.

Another oddity in Tagirova’s case is her detention. Prosecution witness Yegor Kazakov told the court that shortly before his arrest, Elistratov called him and asked him to participate in the arrest of the accused in preparation for a terrorist attack. On the evening of April 17, Elistratov informed Kazakov that Tagirova would be detained the next day and asked him to come to the FSB building in the Samara region in the morning. The second witness received a similar instruction.

At the same time, “Platon” wrote to Tagirova that acetone and other things should be left in the courtyard of an abandoned building less than a day before the required date. It turns out that Elistratov knew about the date of the alleged crime long before the accused herself found out about it.

If FSB officers really believed that someone would come for the things Tagirova left behind, they would have organized an ambush there and detained the person who came, Tagirova and her lawyers believe.

The case of Valentina Tagirova continues to be considered in the Central District Military Court. The debate has already been postponed several times. They will begin at a meeting on April 15. The next day, if nothing changes, Tagirova must make the final say.