There was a time when we were friends with Dmitry Begun (aka 63ru ) and Ernest Staratelev (aka staratelev ). But now a year has passed since we did not shake hands with each other. I do it because I’m afraid to get dirty in this shit, they because they consider themselves the “steers” of the blogosphere of the Samara region. Edakimi, guru. The guys are “in the know.”
And, indeed, for some time (not without the help of individual comrades from the circle of the former governor of the Samara region, Vladimir Artyakov), they managed to supervise social networks, create events, initiate news events in the region, and therefore blackmail businessmen and officials. No wonder Begun has home page The site has published numbers of various electronic payment systems. He himself does not hide the fact that he takes money for his publications.
Staratelev turned out to be smarter in this regard - he simply uses the Runner. But it works no less. Most of those blogs where “stormy” discussions happen are the work of Staratelev.
Today Ernest performs under a different nickname: trojanhorse_63
I know the style and manner of writing of Comrade Staratelev very well, since I have worked with him since 2000.
And he has about ten such blogs. Previously, living writers took part in the “scheme”: me, Nina Bogaevskaya, Dmitry Blinov (I won’t name the others, so as not to spoil relations with them). They want to earn money - a flag in their hands, a drum around their neck, an electric train coming their way.
To “legalize” the information, Staratelev was given the portal samara.ru (which is now on its last legs) and airtime on the Gubernia TV channel, where he hosted his analytical programs and, it seems, round tables that even he himself did not understand.
The “machine” worked like clockwork: a topic was “thrown” into blogs, then it appeared on samara.ru and regionsamara.ru, later broadcast in the form of announcements on Valera Koknaev’s radio stations, and if a businessman (or, as Staratelev put it, a “huckster” ) did not want to pay, it was published in “MK” in Samara,” or “Arguments of the Week.” Koknaev also had licenses to publish these media.
A year ago, I helped these “scammers” draw up some dubious reports for Valery Lebedev. He dragged them to the White House. They still didn’t understand a damn thing about social networks. Ernest took monstrous money from Artyakov’s entourage for promoting the ex-governor to search engines And social networks. Although in reality I didn’t hit a finger. “War games” on Begun’s blog don’t count.
Later, a “scheme” was invented, in which Valery Koknaev (Region Media) was again involved. He, as the owner of several large radio stations, helped “promote” the “hot” topic. The last example is the story with Alexander Mileev on TOK FM. But communication: blogs + radio for some reason failed.
Probably because Artyakov is no more. This means that our heroes cannot rely on either Viktor Kuznetsov (former adviser to the ex-governor) or Valery Troyan (vice-speaker of the Samara Provincial Duma).
Dmitry Begun came to United Russia wearing galoshes
Both were sad without orders. And then there’s the loss in Samara. Alexey Degtev, a protégé of Staratelev-Begun, failed to “crush” Mikhail Matveev in 2010. After this, Vladimir Koshelev (nominated for the State Duma from the Ulyanovsk region) was defeated in the elections in 2011. The same people managed the election campaign: Staratelev and Begun.
Another problem: the Runner turned out to be a scammer. And he managed to swindle most of the top bloggers in the Samara region out of money. Now living writers refuse to work with him.
What remains for Begun and Staratelev?
Dodge, lie, cheat, run over, lick. Moreover, for everyone: Mayor Dmitry Azarov, " United Russia", "bite" Governor Nikolai Merkushkin. Someone must take on the burden of protecting power structures on social networks.
But both Staratelev and Begun, to put it bluntly, crap themselves.
Pay attention to the quality of the Runner's information, say, in 2010 and now. Insider information disappeared because the governor changed and the fat man in galoshes was no longer allowed into the White House.
The blog “What newspapers don’t write about and TV doesn’t show enough” (the author’s spelling has been preserved - author’s note) is increasingly turning into a latrine. A magazine with more questions than answers.
February 25th, 2016
I couldn’t ignore the discussion of the video of the interrogation of blogger Dmitry Begun, posted by deputy of the provincial Duma Mikhail Matveev. It was especially interesting to observe how various interested parties began to reshape the meaning of what the blogger said, interpreting his words in their own interests. I tried to understand this situation. I will share my observations with you. 
First, let's remember why Begun was arrested. On October 29, 2015, bloggers Dmitry Begun, Natalya Umyarova and Oleg Ivanets were detained under accused of extortion of 1,300,000 rubles from a Samara entrepreneur. The scammers demanded this amount to stop posting incriminating evidence on their blogs. I remember that even then everyone was surprised by the unrealistic appetites of the enterprising trio. Taking into account, to put it mildly, the small popularity of these bloggers, in fact, one could brush them aside like annoying flies and not pay attention to their writings. The same Runner, specializing in Samara regional policy, read by a very narrow circle of people. There is nothing to say about the rest; their fame was practically zero. However, they were caught red-handed while handing over the money.
Why did I decide to remind you of the essence of the accusation? Look at this video posted by Matveev carefully. Pay attention to the Runner's behavior. Obviously, these are the first days after the arrest. Dmitry is still trying to remain confident and is trying to impress the investigator, calling big names and indicating his important role in the processes of the province. Agree, the step is quite understandable. I think he hoped that, having heard all this, the police would not want to get involved with such big names, and the investigator would be imbued with his importance. As in the case of the unrealistically inflated extortion amount, here he also tried to go all-in. As much as I have heard about Dmitry, scamming “suckers” on the verge of a foul has always been his creed. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work here.
Let's move on. Let's now look at the published excerpt of the interrogation text.
During interrogation, Dmitry Begun said that the Samara governor gave verbal instructions to make Mikhail Matveev a “political corpse” and throw him out of the political life of the province! Notice that he does not say that this instruction was given to him. He does not say at all to whom this instruction was given. Was Begun able to “throw out a regional deputy from the political life of the province”? Well, that's nonsense! If you carefully re-read the text, you get the impression that Dmitry is simply retelling rumors on the Internet.
Now we come to accusing the regional leadership of ordering famous regional and federal politicians from Begun. Just think about it. Well, how can a homeless person order the murder of Class A officials? Yes, Begun is well known in the Samara blogosphere and Samara media, but no more. I repeat that, in my opinion, there are about 300 people who visit his magazine dozens of times a day. This is his main audience. In due time. Of course, serious information players knew and understood this. What the hell is the order for Sechin, Neverov and Volodin? Here, then, is Navalny with all his shobla, studying accounts, assets, throwing in incrimination about dachas, etc. he can’t do anything, which means our provincial collective farm fleacher will write in his blog and that’s it, ales kaput to the sovereign’s people!)) In my opinion, it is in vain that Mikhail Matveev takes such seasoned politicians, who have been through fire and water, for idiots. For me, the very idea that a serious politician can be attacked by a provincial information swindler is generally offensive. I’ll tell you honestly, I would like to see the reaction of the First Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation when he is informed about this “order”.
Let's now see how our deputy Matveev comments on the payment for Begun's actions. “...From the case materials it follows that Begun received 12 million rubles in cash alone for such services, not counting non-cash transfers. The blogger received 500 thousand rubles monthly in order to denigrate some in his publications and remain silent about others...” Mikhail Nikolaevich, are you serious? Where have you seen officials deal with cash? They run away from this like hell, what kind of world do you live in? I explain: In order for an official to receive cash, he must first withdraw the money, then receive it, then cash it, then give it back. All this is tedious, costly, time-consuming, and leaves traces. It’s like hanging an ax over your head. Why should an official create problems for himself? problems if the opponent has a bunch of companies, his own media, etc.? I think Matveev perfectly understands the absurdity of these assumptions, as well as the impossibility of either confirming or refuting them.
Well, as for the huge sums earned by Begun, all you have to do is go to the website for checking legal debt and enter Dmitry’s initials in the boxes. What do we see?
It turns out that our “millionaire” has a debt of 785,345 rubles since the beginning of 2014. Well, of course, a person who receives 500,000 a month in cash for two years cannot pay off a debt of 780,000, and therefore is forced to hide from the bailiffs, refuse to travel abroad, etc. Well, this is complete stupidity!
In conclusion, I will repeat. Dmitry Begun can say whatever he wants. A person who is under arrest tries to free himself by any means. This is a very difficult test for the psyche. Yes, due to the nature of his activity, he communicated with various regional officials and leaders. I leaked information, collected information, consulted, tried to get my own way. He was often seen near the DB. Do we really have anyone who didn’t know about his tender friendship with the head of the expert department of the regional government’s apparatus, Artur Gulko? The runner is a classic information swindler; deception and manipulation are his profession. Everyone knows this. So why are they now trying to present his testimony as something serious, as confirmed facts? All this is not good. Ugly... 
Vladislav Trifonov
[...] Traditional media are becoming increasingly difficult to use in the “fight against incriminating evidence,” including due to strict regulatory standards and a clear division of spheres. The high-profile story in Samara showed that today bloggers are following the same path as the press in the 90s, not disdaining compromising evidence and “ordered-out”.
On the evening of October 29, it became known about the detention of three of the most scandalous Samara bloggers - Dmitry Begun, Natalya Umyarova and Oleg Ivanets. We took them near the local Mega-Sport shopping center not empty-handed. As acquaintances of the bloggers reported online, money received from certain businessmen for refusing to post incriminating evidence was found on them. [...]
On the morning of October 30, the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Samara Region opened a criminal case against all detainees under the article “Extortion committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale” (Part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, bloggers expected to receive 3 million rubles from businessman Shatilo. in exchange for a promise to remove compromising information about him and the company he heads, Modern Medical Technologies, from the Internet. The Internet authors also guaranteed that they would not post other facts online that could damage the businessman’s reputation. Oleg Ivanets did not admit his guilt; two of his colleagues began to actively cooperate with the investigation, which did not prevent the Oktyabrsky District Court from sending all three to a pre-trial detention center for the standard period of two months. [...]
The mass arrest of bloggers in Samara became the first case in the region when the owners of online magazines became involved in criminal cases. And throughout Russia, criminal cases against owners of online diaries can be counted on one hand. You can recall the story of a student at the University of Mordovia, who in 2004, angry at the fine given to him by traffic police officers, posted a story about same-sex love on his blog, replacing the names of the characters with the real names of traffic cops. As a result - a suspended sentence and 10 thousand rubles. fine for insulting government officials and distributing pornography. In Krasnoyarsk, also in 2004, the leader of the local NBP cell received six months in prison for a collage with Vladimir Putin and profanity.
In August 2007, blogger Savva Terentyev received a one-year suspended sentence under the article “Inciting hatred or enmity” (Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code) after he posted recording with a promise to burn policemen, and two years later, the former head of the press center of the President of Tatarstan, Irek Murtazin, received 1 year and 9 months in prison for record of the alleged death of the President of the Republic Mintimer Shaimiev. However, all these stories are only confirmation of the established perception of blogs as modern analogue kitchen conversations. Never before the Samara incident had bloggers acted as extortionists, and the heroes of their publications did not take them so seriously as to try to pay off incriminating evidence posted online, and then attract the police to catch them.
Sergei Shatilo's company "Modern Medical Technologies" is an investor in a new cardiac center in Samara. The total area of the facility being built is more than 25 thousand square meters. m, and in January 2014 an investment memorandum was signed with the government of the Samara region related to this construction, which is scheduled for completion next year.
Oleg Ivanets, the only one of the arrested trio, for a long time wrote about various violations associated with this construction, believing that various preferences for the Shatilo company in this project were provided by local administration officials, and tax losses from this project exceed 220 million rubles. In September of this year, the blogger’s suspicions seemed to be confirmed. A case was initiated against the investor company for non-payment of taxes. The amount, however, was much more modest, just over 33 million rubles, but a few days later the case was closed.
Bloggers linked the arrest of colleagues in the shop with revenge for the incriminating evidence laid out by Ivanets. Local deputy Mikhail Matveev even posted a post with the title “The best response to the arrest of bloggers and countering publications about government corruption in the Samara region,” in which he invited everyone to submit applications to the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a demand to verify the facts of corruption in public procurement based on materials "Samara Syndicate", posted on Ivanets' blog. However, as noted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were no mass appeals from residents of the Samara region on this matter. Moreover, Matveev says that the same materials were offered to him, without specifying the source, however, but he refused to publish them.
Vlast’s sources in the circles of Samara bloggers are confident that Ivanets was used, as they say, in secret: “Oleg did not know Shatilo personally, and it is unlikely that they would have been able to come to an agreement. He was clearly frightened by the whole situation with the investigation, because payments were issued there, tickets of officials, but he did not understand where the leak was coming from and, most importantly, whose name would appear on the blog tomorrow. So he went to look for a solution to the problem: most likely, he contacted Begun, he agreed to help for a percentage, and then Shatilo wrote a statement about extortion. and everything went on record. It’s a pity, of course, but everyone understood that this was fornication and a dangerous game from the very beginning.”
However, it is likely that the story of the Samara bloggers is not only an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail a businessman. As “Vlasti” has learned, Samara police conduct almost daily interrogations related to this investigation, based on the voluminous testimony of Dmitry Begun. The testimony, as Vlast's sources assure, is supported by correspondence seized from his computer and audio files of conversations.
According to Vlast sources close to the investigation, more than 20 people mentioned in testimony as enemies of the regional government were interviewed during the investigation. The list includes such significant figures for the region and country as Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, State Duma Vice Speaker Sergei Neverov, former regional governor Konstantin Titov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on the Federal Structure Dmitry Azarov, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Valery Rashkin and Leonid Kalashnikov, Chairman of the Regional Government Alexander Nefedov, Prosecutor of the Samara Region Murat Kabaloev, City Manager Oleg Fursov, Chairman of the Samara Provincial Duma Viktor Sazonov, Deputy of the Provincial Duma Alexander Mileev, Chairman of the Samara Regional Court Lyubov Drozdova, Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service for the Samara Region Denis Akimov and police generals Yuri Sterlikov and Nikolai Turbovets.
“Today I was interviewed in the “blogger case.” I received confirmation of assumptions about those who ordered the placement of slanderous materials about me. An abomination,” Dmitry Azarov, a senator from the Samara region and former mayor of Samara, summed up on his Twitter on November 30.
State Duma deputy from the Samara region Alexander Khinshtein also managed to visit the investigator’s office. “I said during the interrogation that I regard and perceive everything that Begun wrote in relation to me as causing damage that caused my moral suffering and other not very good consequences,” Alexander Khinshtein commented to the portal “63.ru.” “As far as I know , I am far from alone. The total number of people who have become victims of this type of discrediting campaign is about 100 people. we're talking about about the entire urban and regional elite, and not only the regional one. Indeed, among the targets of attacks there were also persons belonging to the federal center."
Deputy of the Samara Provincial Duma Mikhail Matveev emphasized that he could not divulge the essence of the communication with the investigator, but “judging by the fact that, as I know, half of the White House (the government of the Samara region. - “Power”) and a lot of people had already been there before me. other “witnesses” who have nothing to do with the history of Shatilo, and even more to come.” But judging by the correspondence obtained by the investigation with customers of its dubious “information services”, it provides very extensive food for building various chains of relationships. And since among the “clients” and objects of the chernukha during the years of his fruitful “work” with local political strategists Ernest Staratelev and Denis Sarov, there are hundreds of people, from small hucksters to governors and federal figures, then the matter, if desired, can take a very resonant turn, he adds deputy
Judging by the testimony of Begun himself, which already amounts to more than 40 sheets, in 2012, through the head of the governor’s office, Nikolai Enaliev, who was responsible for relations with the media, he met the head of the region Nikolay Merkushkin. According to the blogger, he was disturbed by the “critical and mocking” statements posted on the blog and on the website samara.ru, where Begun also worked. The recordings that appeared on these resources allegedly became a reason for criticism of the Samara governor in the Privolzhsky embassy federal district and the presidential administration for its inability to establish work with the online community. According to sources close to the investigation, in the fall of 2012, at the hotel complex of the government of the Samara region, the blogger received an offer to establish friendly relations in exchange for payment for his services in the amount of 300 thousand rubles. per month. The money had to be transferred to the account of the individual entrepreneur Begun at Koshelev Bank between the 20th and 30th of each month. The payer was a certain Novoulyanovsk reinforced concrete plant. Money was also transferred in cash with the help of the governor's proxies. Meetings with them took place in the same building, and each time the blogger was checked for the presence of recording devices. In return, Dmitry Begun was required to be completely loyal to the head of the Samara region, renounce criticism and satirical assessments of his work, ban on negative mentions of the Republic of Mordovia, which Merkushkin led for 17 years, and block information about the expansion of Mordovian business, including Mordovspirtprom in the Samara region . He was also involved in monitoring the political situation in the region, blocking negative information about the governor in local media, working with the expert community to promote a positive image of the governor and posting harsh criticism of his opponents.
The governor’s list of enemies, judging by the investigation, turned out to be quite extensive. The opponents, based on the testimony of Dmitry Begun, included the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, former regional governor Vladimir Artyakov, as well as deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin, head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov, Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko and Minister of Sports of the region Dmitry Shlyakhtin, who is considered his creation, head of Rusnano Anatoly Chubais.
For example, Vyacheslav Volodin, relations with whom were formulated as complex, was forbidden to criticize harshly, making rude statements, but “could not be left alone.” The assessments he expressed regarding the situation in the region should have been interpreted in favor of the governor, noting that he was being misled by Merkushkin’s opponents. Posts against Vyacheslav Volodin were removed at the first request of the customer. Igor Sechin became the subject of the governor's interest due to the large-scale presence of Rosneft divisions in the region. The governor allegedly did not like this situation, and he wanted to open the market to companies from Bashkiria and Tatarstan, but he encountered opposition from Rosneft structures. Bloggers were required to raise questions about the quality of fuel at Rosneft gas stations and launch topics related to the need for alternative suppliers. Curiosities also arose: when a post “Sechin misled the shores” appeared on Begun’s blog, based on frankly fake news about the statements of the head of Rosneft in relation to Ramzan Kadyrov, they immediately demanded that it be removed. The blogger took it down.
The head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, did not like the governor for his relationship with his predecessor, and the main message was the loss of control on the part of the head of the state-owned company over his subordinates and people from the company who held major positions in the regional government. One of them is Vice-Governor Alexey Bendusov.
From Vitaly Mutko, the governor allegedly wanted to obtain contracts for the construction of infrastructure for the World Cup for Mordovian companies. Samara contractors, as follows from the instructions to blogs on this topic, only know how to steal, throw, but not build. And so in detail, for each character, almost fifty sheets indicating dates, goals and tasks and ways to complete them.
At the same time, almost all those questioned refuse to officially comment on the bloggers’ story. Thus, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Samara Region, Olga Galtsova, in a conversation with a correspondent of the magazine “Vlast”, noted that the governor of the Samara region has nothing to do with the publications of Dmitry Begun: “Begun discredited the activities of many officials and businessmen, which outraged many. I believe that his publications caused moral harm to me personally. These slanderous materials are not freedom of speech, but the licentiousness and unbridledness of a journalist who does not value his reputation. What he wrote about me has nothing to do with it. professional activity"It's just speculation."
Olga Galtsova is confident that the story with Samara bloggers will not affect the reputation of the governor of the Samara region. “If Begun can slander so many people, then why can’t he slander the governor in his testimony? How can rumors affect the governor’s reputation? Reputation suffers when there are facts. He recently spoke impartially about the governor, wrote about him in a derogatory level, based on emotions, and not on facts. His publications did not in any way affect the reputation of businessmen and officials, because everyone understands that what Begun writes cannot be taken at face value,” concluded Olga Galtsova.
President of the Judo Federation of the Samara Region, deputy of the Council of District Deputies of the Krasnoglinsky District Ivan Motynga also believes “that the investigation into the “case of Samara bloggers” will not affect the reputation of the region’s governor.” “Who are bloggers and who is the governor? Most bloggers write using unverified information. Personally, I am immune to such things,” said Ivan Motynga.
How the rules of the game for bloggers have become tougher
Over the past two years, a number of laws have come into force in Russia that tighten regulation of the Internet, including the activities of bloggers. Thus, on December 30, 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed a law punishing calls for separatism, including via the Internet. Violators face up to five years in prison. The law came into force on May 9, 2014.On May 5, 2014, the President approved amendments to the law “On Information, information technology and on the protection of information", better known as the law on bloggers. According to the law, bloggers with a daily traffic of over 3 thousand users were required to register in the Roskomnadzor register, as well as indicate personal data on their page. Thus, bloggers began to bear personal responsibility for the reliability of the information they publish, equating to the responsibility of the media. For violation of the law, which came into force on August 1 of the same year, a fine of up to 30 thousand rubles is provided for individuals. As of December 10, 2015, more than 1 thousand have already been entered into the register. bloggers.
On May 5, 2014, Vladimir Putin also signed the law on ban on obscene language in the media. It also affected those who were required to register under the law on bloggers. For violation of the law, which came into force on July 1, 2014, individuals face a fine of 2 thousand to 2.5 thousand rubles.
The first criminal case for commenting on a blog was opened in April 2007. The person involved was LiveJournal user Savva Terentyev. He was charged with inciting social hostility towards police officers under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In July 2008, blogger was sentenced to a year's probation, three years later emigrated and received political asylum in Estonia.
In August 2010, a case was opened in Kemerovo against blogger Alexander Sorokin after an entry appeared on his LiveJournal about the alleged involvement of Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev in raider takeovers. Mr. Sorokin faced up to six months in prison, but in December 2011 the case was closed after the decriminalization of the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on libel.
In April 2012, a case was opened in Petrozavodsk against Karelian blogger Maxim Efimov for a note on the website of the Youth Human Rights Group entitled “Karelia is tired of priests” criticizing the Russian Orthodox Church. There was no verdict in the case, and the accused emigrated to Estonia, receiving asylum there.
In August 2014, the first criminal case was opened in Russia for calls for separatism through social networks. Its defendant was Kuban activist Daria Polyudova. According to investigators, Ms. Polyudova tried to organize a march for the federalization of Kuban by publishing an announcement of the event on the VKontakte social network. The trial in the case is currently ongoing.
Mikhail Malaev
It's hard to be with a blog... April 20th, 2016
...or how to monetize a blog and go to prison.
Dmitry Begun is a star of the Samara blogosphere, a mega-top blogger in the region. At the end of last year, his name became known far beyond Samara. This is when Begun and another local blogger were caught red-handed “for extorting a million rubles from businessman Shatilo under the threat of making public information about the use of corrupt connections in the construction of a cancer center.”
...All winter there were only rumors about the “Begun case”, but on April 3, 2016, Samara Regional Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev posted on his blog scans of the Begun interrogation protocols, which were carried out in the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Special Investigations in early November. They mention more than 60 names of VIPs of the federal and local level, of which 26 demanded that a case be initiated against Begun under Art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (slander).
Dmitry Begun. Screenshot of a story by TERRA TV and Radio Company
Information came into the public space that Dmitry Begun regularly received quite serious money (even by Moscow standards) for posts on his blog...
According to Begun, after the first 7-hour personal conversation at the end of 2012 with the new governor Merkushkin, in which that same Enaliev took part, he began to receive assignments from him with reference to the governor. They were especially interested in construction, road repair and sociological research - those areas where structures associated with the governor from Mordovia worked. But the posts concerned not only the governor; information (true or edited) about other politicians and businessmen was also posted within the areas of “Politics”, “Economics” and “Pedagogy”. The third thing is most interesting: according to the “pedagogy” scheme, messages were allegedly posted on the blog indicating certain risks for certain individuals. These individuals fled (after all, everyone knew whose tasks the Runner was performing) to the “White House”, from there they called him, who knows the password, and then the message, having fulfilled its “pedagogical” mission, was deleted from the blog.
According to Begun, Merkushkin and his staff paid him for this work in 2013-2015, 3-5 million rubles annually...
...in November, non-ordinary investigators of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs worked with Begun, he was interrogated on video, with the participation of a lawyer, and detailed and precise questions were asked. In particular, a bank transaction confirms the payment of the first 3 million rubles to Begun from a Mordovian commercial structure close to Merkushkin. The interrogated Enaliev recalled dozens of telephone connections with Begun, although not immediately, but only under the threat of a confrontation. The runner listed not only his cars (“Porsche Cayenne”, “Range Rover” and something else), but also the license plates of the cars that were sent for him and took him “to the First Clearing” - to the governor’s residence. His correspondence has not been made public, although during interrogations the blogger called email addresses, along which he led her with the governor’s staff.
...Samara froze in anticipation. Options are possible: 1) Begun’s testimony about working for Merkushkin in court will be passed over in silence - they have nothing to do with the topic of extortion; 2) The runner, despite the protests of the judge and the prosecution, will try to repeat his story out loud; 3) the court will send Begun for a psychiatric examination, he will be declared insane, and the case against other accomplices of extortion will be considered later.
...For three years the Runner walked along the corridors of power, opening any door with his slippered foot. Of course, the roof was blown away, especially since he is a man with imagination (that’s for sure). However, exaggerating its own political weight, the rest of the postmodern scheme and information society in their Samara version, the Runner is described as an expert.
Details
“Fifteen years ago, on April 29, 2002, the editor-in-chief of Togliatti Review, Valery Ivanov, was killed...”, my colleague Sergei Melnik recalls on Facebook.
I also remember how, several months before the murder of Valery Ivanov, I met him.
As a young, aspiring stringer at the newspaper "Life", I was investigating some brutal domestic murder. The editor-in-chief of the Samara edition, Alexey Sementsov, loved only truly “yellow” materials, and therefore sent me on that business trip to Tolyatti.
“If something doesn’t work out, go to Valera Ivanov, he will help,” Sementsov admonished me.
I remember I managed: I found all the heroes of the stabbing, but I couldn’t find a photograph of the deceased. There is nothing to do, you will have to ask the Togliatti Review for a photo.
It was spring, just like the gentle, velvety weather was now. I went into the TO editorial office and made it clear from the door that I would only talk with the editor-in-chief. In response, Togliatti Review shrugged their shoulders and, I remember, even laughed.
A minute later he went out into the corridor: smiling, simple and light.
Are you coming to me?
I nodded my head.
Well, let’s go,” and he opened his office.
Now, of course, it’s funny to remember all this. As I tried to bargain with Ivanov, he promised a fee for the photograph I needed.
And he continued to smile, studying me carefully. Then I took it off telephone handset and asked someone to come to his place. A minute later I had the same photo.
Valera was already a legend then and I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be as warm, smiling, successful, insightful.
And then he was killed. 15 years have passed, but even we, local journalists, still don’t understand why Ivanov was taken from us?
I want to say thank you to Sergei Melnik for reminding us all what a talented journalist and editor worked in Tolyatti. He reminded the security forces that they had never solved this contract killing. And then another monstrous crime - the murder of Valery Ivanov's deputy Alexei Sidorov. And now I’m back in Tolyatti. But this time in court, where a completely innocent person is accused. Like, this is Kuibyshevazot mechanic Evgeniy Maininger, who is so professional in sharpening that Alexey, bleeding, died near his entrance.
But the horror continues: Maininger is kept in a cage, although both Sidorov’s relatives and colleagues unanimously assure the investigation: “This was not done by a Kuibyshevazot mechanic.”
A low bow to those who fought for Eugene, defending his innocence. I know that after the nightmare he experienced, Meininger left for permanent residence in Germany.
And Valera and Alexey “left” for the Banykinskoye cemetery.
“On April 29, our colleague, Chairman of the Board of Editors of the Togliatti Review newspaper, Valery Ivanov, was killed. The man is certainly a professional, who has been a prominent figure in Togliatti journalism for many years.
We consider murder unacceptable and unacceptable as a way to resolve any issues. It is impossible for our city, as well as throughout the country, to resume life without rules, according to the principle “no person, no problem.” This is unacceptable for a society that considers itself free and democratic.
We hope that the investigation will sort it out and punish the criminals according to their deserts...." - Togliatti editors and journalists wrote in 2002.
Now that 15 years have passed since Ivanov’s death, I personally no longer hope for anything. Moreover, I am sure that in both Samara and Togliatti there live non-humans who are capable of ordering the murder of an editor or reporter. They don't care that it's 2017 outside the window. You can always provoke a journalist by locking him in a cage for 5-6 years. And the real perpetrators of blackmail, as in the case of journalist Dmitry Begun, are not only left free, but also rewarded with a new project.
To those who are behind the murders of Togliatti journalists; behind the imprisonment of Samara colleagues: blogger Dmitry Begun and investigative journalist Oleg Ivanets, high-quality press is not needed in the region. They have enough one-legged propagandists on their territory. The same disabled people without principles, mentality and faith, like themselves.
