Yuri Budanov
Encyclopedia
Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov was the Russia
n military officer convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping
and murder
in Chechnya
.
Budanov was highly controversial in Russia: despite the conviction, Budanov enjoyed widespread support of Russian households, as polled by public opinion
. At the same time, he was broadly hated in Chechnya, even by the pro-Russian Chechens. In December 2008, a court in the south Russian Ulyanovsk Oblast
granted a petition for early release. After eight years in prison (of nine years he was sentenced), he was released on parole on 15 January 2009.
On 10 June 2011 Budanov was shot dead in Moscow by an unknown perpetrator; responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the Caucasus Emirate
.
, Ukrainian SSR
, Soviet Union
. He graduated from the Tank Military School in Kharkiv
and went on officer career in the Soviet Army
, particularly, serving with the Soviet base in Hungary
.
At the fall of the Soviet Union, Budanov was serving in Belarus
, but he refused Belarusian citizenship and was transferred to the Siberia
n Military District, and then to Chechnya. In 1999 Budanov graduated from the military academy
, receiving the rank of Guards Colonel.
According to the father of Budanov's victim, Budanov's tank
regiment
had been encamped just outside Tangi-Chu since February 2000, and Budanov himself had a notorious reputation among villagers. About ten days before the murder
, Budanov reportedly arbitrarily searched and looted
several homes in Tangi Chu, and two days before the incident he reportedly looted and threatened to torch several other homes.
From 2001 to 2003, Russian courts tried Colonel Yuri Budanov on the charges of March 27, 2000, kidnapping
, rape
(an allegation later withdrawn by the prosecution) and brutal murder of Elza Kungaeva
, an 18-year-old Chechen
girl whom Budanov alleged of being a sniper for Chechen rebels who were attacking his unit. He admitted killing her in a fit of rage, but denied the rape charges.
He was assassinated on 10 June 2011 in Moscow, Russia.
, and that he had gone into a rage while questioning her.
Colonel-General Anatoly Kvashnin
, then chief of the General Staff
of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
, appeared on national television
to announce to President Vladimir Putin
and the nation the arrest of Budanov in the grisly case. Kvashnin accused Budanov of "humiliating
" and murdering Kungayeva, and denounced the colonel's behavior as "barbarous
" and "disgraceful."
In a stark contrast, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov
, who was Budanov's commanding officer
, exhibited strong sympathy towards him. He said that Budanov was one of his best commanders and offered this challenge: "To [Budanov's] enemies I say: Don't put your paws on the image of a Russian soldier and officer."
The Chechen rebels offered to exchange nine recent OMON
special police captives for Budanov. After the Russian side refused the offer, the prisoners were executed on the morning of April 4, 2000.
Kungaeva endured prior to her death. He was also charged in the beating up a subordinate officer, threatening superior officers with a weapon, and other crimes.
Budanov claimed that he detained Kungaeva on suspicion of being a sniper
, and that he killed her during interrogation
. The investigation, however, reportedly found that no member of the Kungaev family had in any way been suspected of involvement in the anti-Russian activity.
Budanov used his official position and a combat vehicle
to remove Kungaeva from her home, and detained Kungaeva at a military installation; he was thus charged with exceeding his official position with violence resulting in serious consequences, which is punishable by three to ten years of imprisonment (article 286.3 of the criminal code
).
, a Captain
in the Russian military medical service, found three tears in her hymen
and one in the mucous membrane
of her rectum
, and the report concludes that she was penetrated anally and vaginally by a blunt object after death.
Three of Budanov's subordinates, Sergeant
s Li En Shou and Grigoriev and a Private
Yegorev, were found responsible. Charges against all three were simultaneously brought and dropped under the May 26, 2000 amnesty
law.
. Legal proceedings against Budanov, who underwent several retrials, lasted a total of 2 years and 3 months.
Witnesses included Yahyayev, the person in the town administration, who according to Budanov had given him the picture representing Chechen snipers. However, Yahyayev said he had given no such picture to Budanov. General Shamanov came to defend Budanov during trial. He expressed his solidarity with the defendant
, as did Colonel-General Gennady Troshev
and numerous other Russian soldiers and civilians who picketed the court. According to a poll
, 50% of the Russians asked supported the demands of picketers to release Colonel Budanov from custody; 19% did not support these demands.
In a controversial decision, Budanov was initially found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity on December 31, 2002, and committed to a psychiatric hospital
for further evaluation and the length of the treatment would have been decided by his doctor.
However, in the beginning of March 2003 the supreme court
invalidated the sentence and ordered a new trial. This took place in the same place but with a new judge. The sentence of 10 years of imprisonment was given on July 25, 2003.
The judge who convicted Budanov, Vladimir Bukreyev, himself was convicted of bribe-taking and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on July 6, 2009.
regional governor
, signed a pardon
for Yury Budanov; Interfax quoted the head of the Ulyanovsk pardons commission, Anatoly Zherebtsov, as saying that if Putin backed the recommendation, Budanov would also get back his military rank and awards.
The commission's decision sparked outrage in Chechnya. "Whether in jail or freed, Budanov will remain a person who has committed a grave crime, which took the life of an innocent girl," Taus Dzhabrailov, the head of Chechnya's parliament
, told Interfax. Ramzan Kadyrov
said: "The Ulyanovsk commission's decision is like spitting on the soul of the long-suffering Chechen people." Kadyrov has also made statements that "If any of Elza's friends should meet [Budanov] I don't want to predict how they will act. The Chechen people do not consider him to be a human being, and as a war criminal, he does not deserve to be. One might be able to forgive his crime to some extent if he had killed a man. But to sexually assault a girl cannot be forgiven. He is beneath contempt. He has brought shame on the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."
In February 2006 a Russian prison official announced that Budanov, who is serving his 10-year sentence, might be released early on good behaviour. The Chechen regional branch of the United Russia
party addressed the State Duma
and the Russian President with a request not to grant amnesty to Yuri Budanov. The same month, on the petition of Budanov's advocate, with account of good behaviour of the inmate, the former colonel was removed from the strict custody colony to a settlement-colony.
On 24 December 2008, a court granted him a release on parole. This was the fifth attempt by Budanov's lawyers to obtain him a release on licence. Four applications before that were rejected. Victim's lawyers appealed to overturn the decision (thus the delay in release), but without success. Former colonel was released on 15 January 2009, 15 months before completion of his conviction term. The decision has been protested by Chechnya's human rights ombudsman
, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, who has accused Russian judges of "double standards" with regard to Russians and Chechens.
The lawyer for the Kungayeva family, Stanislav Markelov
, who had attempted a last-minute appeal against the release of Budanov, was shot dead in Moscow on January 19, 2009 along with Anastasia Baburova
, a 25-year-old journalist for Novaya Gazeta
. However, the investigation of Markelov's murder showеd in November 2009 that the murder was probably unrelated to this case, but committed by Neo-Nazis as a revenge for Markelov's support of Marxist activists as a lawyer.
was found with a silencer inside the car. Budanov's wife witnessed the assassination and is currently held by Russian authorities. Russian police investigators commented that the attack was carefully planned and they consider blood revenge as one of the likely motives. One witness to the murder described the driver of the car from which the six shots were fired as being "of Slavic appearance. Dokku Umarov claimed responsibility for the assassination as he sat by the commander of the Riyadus-Salikhiyn Brigade saying "I am addressing you today about a joyous occasion: yesterday, on June 10, Allah by his will brought us a great celebration, punishing one of the sadists, the reprobate, the killer Budanov. The same fate, the same revenge awaits the others. Let these celebrations happen more often for Muslims." Upon the release of a video by Umarov, one of the investigators in the case said that "We have been expecting this kind of statement for a long time because the 'Chechen version' is one of the main ones we are working with. Nevertheless, these types of terrorist statements will not alter the course of our probe. We are studying all the leads."
His funeral was attended by such Russian right-winged leaders as Vladimir Zhirinovsky
and accompanied by a three-gun salute. The Moscow police were report to have made a dozen arrests immediately before closing most of the investigation to the press.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n military officer convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
.
Budanov was highly controversial in Russia: despite the conviction, Budanov enjoyed widespread support of Russian households, as polled by public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
. At the same time, he was broadly hated in Chechnya, even by the pro-Russian Chechens. In December 2008, a court in the south Russian Ulyanovsk Oblast
Ulyanovsk Oblast
Ulyanovsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Ulyanovsk...
granted a petition for early release. After eight years in prison (of nine years he was sentenced), he was released on parole on 15 January 2009.
On 10 June 2011 Budanov was shot dead in Moscow by an unknown perpetrator; responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the Caucasus Emirate
Caucasus Emirate
The Caucasus Emirate also known as the Caucasian Emirate is a self-proclaimed virtual state entity, partially successor to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and was officially announced on October 31, 2007 by former President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov, who became the first Emir...
.
Biography
Budanov was born in 1963 in KhartsyzkKhartsyzk
Khartsyzk is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine. Population is 64,175 ....
, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. He graduated from the Tank Military School in Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
and went on officer career in the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
, particularly, serving with the Soviet base in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
.
At the fall of the Soviet Union, Budanov was serving in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, but he refused Belarusian citizenship and was transferred to the Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n Military District, and then to Chechnya. In 1999 Budanov graduated from the military academy
Soviet military academies
There were/are a number of military academies in the Soviet Union/Russia of different specialties.Unlike Western military academies such as West Point, Soviet, now Russian, military and police institutions referred to as "academy" are post-graduate professional military schools for experienced...
, receiving the rank of Guards Colonel.
According to the father of Budanov's victim, Budanov's tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
had been encamped just outside Tangi-Chu since February 2000, and Budanov himself had a notorious reputation among villagers. About ten days before the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, Budanov reportedly arbitrarily searched and looted
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
several homes in Tangi Chu, and two days before the incident he reportedly looted and threatened to torch several other homes.
From 2001 to 2003, Russian courts tried Colonel Yuri Budanov on the charges of March 27, 2000, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
(an allegation later withdrawn by the prosecution) and brutal murder of Elza Kungaeva
Elza Kungaeva
Elza Kungayeva was an 18-year-old Chechen woman abducted, beaten, and murdered by a Russian Army Colonel during the Second Chechen War....
, an 18-year-old Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
girl whom Budanov alleged of being a sniper for Chechen rebels who were attacking his unit. He admitted killing her in a fit of rage, but denied the rape charges.
He was assassinated on 10 June 2011 in Moscow, Russia.
Arrest
Budanov was arrested on March 29, 2000. According to press reports, Budanov claimed that Kungaeva was a suspected sniperSniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
, and that he had gone into a rage while questioning her.
Colonel-General Anatoly Kvashnin
Anatoly Kvashnin
General of the Army Anatoly Vasiliyevich Kvashnin was the Chief of the Russian General Staff from 1997 to 2004, when he was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin. Kvashnin graduated from the Kurgan Machine-building Institute in 1969 and served in the armed forces from this time...
, then chief of the General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are the military services of Russia, established after the break-up of the Soviet Union. On 7 May 1992 Boris Yeltsin signed a decree establishing the Russian Ministry of Defence and placing all Soviet Armed Forces troops on the territory of the RSFSR...
, appeared on national television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
to announce to President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
and the nation the arrest of Budanov in the grisly case. Kvashnin accused Budanov of "humiliating
Humiliation
Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have...
" and murdering Kungayeva, and denounced the colonel's behavior as "barbarous
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
" and "disgraceful."
In a stark contrast, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov
Vladimir Shamanov
Vladimir Anatolyevich Shamanov is a Lieutenant General in the Russian Army, the commander of the Russian Airborne Troops since May 2009 and a former Russian politician...
, who was Budanov's commanding officer
Commanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
, exhibited strong sympathy towards him. He said that Budanov was one of his best commanders and offered this challenge: "To [Budanov's] enemies I say: Don't put your paws on the image of a Russian soldier and officer."
The Chechen rebels offered to exchange nine recent OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
special police captives for Budanov. After the Russian side refused the offer, the prisoners were executed on the morning of April 4, 2000.
Charges
In relation to the case of Kungayeva, Budanov was charged with three crimes: kidnapping resulting in death, abuse of office accompanied by violence with serious consequences, and murder of an abductee. No charges have been brought expressly for the beating and tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
Kungaeva endured prior to her death. He was also charged in the beating up a subordinate officer, threatening superior officers with a weapon, and other crimes.
Budanov claimed that he detained Kungaeva on suspicion of being a sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
, and that he killed her during interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
. The investigation, however, reportedly found that no member of the Kungaev family had in any way been suspected of involvement in the anti-Russian activity.
Budanov used his official position and a combat vehicle
Combat vehicle
A combat vehicle, also known as a ground combat vehicle, is a self-propelled, weaponized military vehicle used for combat operations. Combat vehicles can be wheeled or tracked.- Automation :...
to remove Kungaeva from her home, and detained Kungaeva at a military installation; he was thus charged with exceeding his official position with violence resulting in serious consequences, which is punishable by three to ten years of imprisonment (article 286.3 of the criminal code
Criminal Code
A criminal code is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law...
).
Lack of a rape prosecution
The forensic physicianPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, a Captain
Captain (OF-2)
The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...
in the Russian military medical service, found three tears in her hymen
Hymen
The hymen is a membrane that surrounds or partially covers the external vaginal opening. It forms part of the vulva, or external genitalia. The size of the hymenal opening increases with age. Although an often practiced method, it is not possible to confirm with certainty that a girl or woman is a...
and one in the mucous membrane
Mucous membrane
The mucous membranes are linings of mostly endodermal origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organs...
of her rectum
Rectum
The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the gut in others, terminating in the anus. The human rectum is about 12 cm long...
, and the report concludes that she was penetrated anally and vaginally by a blunt object after death.
Three of Budanov's subordinates, Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
s Li En Shou and Grigoriev and a Private
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
Yegorev, were found responsible. Charges against all three were simultaneously brought and dropped under the May 26, 2000 amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
law.
Trial
The trial began on April 9, 2003, in Rostov-on-DonRostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
. Legal proceedings against Budanov, who underwent several retrials, lasted a total of 2 years and 3 months.
Witnesses included Yahyayev, the person in the town administration, who according to Budanov had given him the picture representing Chechen snipers. However, Yahyayev said he had given no such picture to Budanov. General Shamanov came to defend Budanov during trial. He expressed his solidarity with the defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
, as did Colonel-General Gennady Troshev
Gennady Troshev
Gennady Nikolayevich Troshev was a Russian Colonel General in the Russian military and formerly the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, including Chechnya, during the Second Chechen War...
and numerous other Russian soldiers and civilians who picketed the court. According to a poll
Opinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
, 50% of the Russians asked supported the demands of picketers to release Colonel Budanov from custody; 19% did not support these demands.
In a controversial decision, Budanov was initially found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity on December 31, 2002, and committed to a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
for further evaluation and the length of the treatment would have been decided by his doctor.
However, in the beginning of March 2003 the supreme court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
invalidated the sentence and ordered a new trial. This took place in the same place but with a new judge. The sentence of 10 years of imprisonment was given on July 25, 2003.
The judge who convicted Budanov, Vladimir Bukreyev, himself was convicted of bribe-taking and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on July 6, 2009.
In prison
On September 21, 2004, Shamanov, now the UlyanovskUlyanovsk
Ulyanovsk The city is the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin , for whom it is named.-History:Simbirsk was founded in 1648 by the boyar Bogdan Khitrovo. The fort of "Simbirsk" was strategically placed on a hill on the Western bank of the Volga River...
regional governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
, signed a pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
for Yury Budanov; Interfax quoted the head of the Ulyanovsk pardons commission, Anatoly Zherebtsov, as saying that if Putin backed the recommendation, Budanov would also get back his military rank and awards.
The commission's decision sparked outrage in Chechnya. "Whether in jail or freed, Budanov will remain a person who has committed a grave crime, which took the life of an innocent girl," Taus Dzhabrailov, the head of Chechnya's parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, told Interfax. Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov is the President of Chechnya and a former Chechen rebel.Ramzan is a son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007 Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as President, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post...
said: "The Ulyanovsk commission's decision is like spitting on the soul of the long-suffering Chechen people." Kadyrov has also made statements that "If any of Elza's friends should meet [Budanov] I don't want to predict how they will act. The Chechen people do not consider him to be a human being, and as a war criminal, he does not deserve to be. One might be able to forgive his crime to some extent if he had killed a man. But to sexually assault a girl cannot be forgiven. He is beneath contempt. He has brought shame on the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."
In February 2006 a Russian prison official announced that Budanov, who is serving his 10-year sentence, might be released early on good behaviour. The Chechen regional branch of the United Russia
United Russia
United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...
party addressed the State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
and the Russian President with a request not to grant amnesty to Yuri Budanov. The same month, on the petition of Budanov's advocate, with account of good behaviour of the inmate, the former colonel was removed from the strict custody colony to a settlement-colony.
On 24 December 2008, a court granted him a release on parole. This was the fifth attempt by Budanov's lawyers to obtain him a release on licence. Four applications before that were rejected. Victim's lawyers appealed to overturn the decision (thus the delay in release), but without success. Former colonel was released on 15 January 2009, 15 months before completion of his conviction term. The decision has been protested by Chechnya's human rights ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, who has accused Russian judges of "double standards" with regard to Russians and Chechens.
The lawyer for the Kungayeva family, Stanislav Markelov
Stanislav Markelov
Stanislav Yuryevich Markelov was a human rights lawyer and journalist who wrote investigative articles on Chechnya. Markelov had been the attorney for the family of Elza Kungaeva, a young Chechen woman killed by Russian colonel Yuri Budanov, who was released from prison in mid-January, 15 months...
, who had attempted a last-minute appeal against the release of Budanov, was shot dead in Moscow on January 19, 2009 along with Anastasia Baburova
Anastasia Baburova
Anastasia Eduardivna Baburova was a journalist for Novaya Gazeta and a student of journalism at Moscow State University. She was born in Sevastopol, Ukraine.A member of Autonomous Action, she investigated activities of neo-Nazi groups...
, a 25-year-old journalist for Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
. However, the investigation of Markelov's murder showеd in November 2009 that the murder was probably unrelated to this case, but committed by Neo-Nazis as a revenge for Markelov's support of Marxist activists as a lawyer.
Assassination
Yuri Budanov was assassinated around 11:30 on 10 June, 2011 in central Moscow (Hamovniki, Komsomolski prospekt), Russia. Six silenced shots were fired, four of which struck Budanov in the head. The killer escaped in a car driven by an accomplice. The car was subsequently found partially burned several blocks from the site of the attack. A gun believed to be a Makarov PMMakarov PM
The PM is a semi-automatic pistol design. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it became the Soviet Union's standard military side arm from 1951-1991.-Development:...
was found with a silencer inside the car. Budanov's wife witnessed the assassination and is currently held by Russian authorities. Russian police investigators commented that the attack was carefully planned and they consider blood revenge as one of the likely motives. One witness to the murder described the driver of the car from which the six shots were fired as being "of Slavic appearance. Dokku Umarov claimed responsibility for the assassination as he sat by the commander of the Riyadus-Salikhiyn Brigade saying "I am addressing you today about a joyous occasion: yesterday, on June 10, Allah by his will brought us a great celebration, punishing one of the sadists, the reprobate, the killer Budanov. The same fate, the same revenge awaits the others. Let these celebrations happen more often for Muslims." Upon the release of a video by Umarov, one of the investigators in the case said that "We have been expecting this kind of statement for a long time because the 'Chechen version' is one of the main ones we are working with. Nevertheless, these types of terrorist statements will not alter the course of our probe. We are studying all the leads."
His funeral was attended by such Russian right-winged leaders as Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a Russian politician, colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe....
and accompanied by a three-gun salute. The Moscow police were report to have made a dozen arrests immediately before closing most of the investigation to the press.
External links
- Insane 'Heroes' of Our Time The Moscow TimesThe Moscow TimesThe Moscow Times is an English-language daily newspaper published in Moscow, Russia since 1992. The circulation in 2008 stood at 35,000 copies and the newspaper is typically given out for free at places English-language "expats" attend, including hotels, cafés and restaurants, as well as by...
- Crime without punishment: Russian policy in Chechnya OpenDemocracyOpenDemocracyopenDemocracy is a website for debate about international politics and culture, offering news and opinion articles from established academics, journalists and policymakers covering current issues in world affairs. openDemocracy was founded in 2000 by Anthony Barnett, David Hayes, Susan Richards and...
- Final verdict