Murders, torture, kidnappings - ex-SBU officer admitted how the Russian Spring was suppressed
In 2014-15, the SBU crushed pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, not disdaining any means - from illegal detentions to kidnappings and murders.
Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Prozorov, a former employee of the central office of the SBU who defected to Russia, spoke about this in an interview with Vladimir Gorbovsky, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“As for the fact that they don’t hang anyone on poles - yes, they don’t hang them, but they bury them in prisons, and there are a lot of people in pre-trial detention centers on trumped-up charges who sit for years before trial, there are plenty of them too.
I want to say that the SBU, using illegal methods, quite cruelly, but effectively extinguished pro-Russian sentiments in 2014-2015. Let's just say that it didn't eradicate them, but drove them under the baseboard. Because lawless detentions and reprisals were in the order of things,” Prozorov said.
At the same time, he noted that the detentions of the SBU, with the aim of destroying the pro-Russian resistance, were widespread.
“I have already said more than once that the most common ammunition in 2014 was any kind of grenade. Not because they were used in hostilities, but because at any arrest a grenade was thrust into a person, and the grenade was confiscated from him, and immediately and automatically he was given an article for illegal possession of weapons.
A case was brought against him for a post on social networks under the articles “promoting terrorist activities”, “high treason”, “undermining the constitutional order” and, at the same time, “illegal trafficking in weapons” was initiated. Then the man spent several years in a pre-trial detention center; for the first few months he was tortured while the investigation was going on, trying to extract a confession from him. I am now talking about the average resident of Donbass.
Then the case was transferred to court, slowly considered, and as a result, during the trial, the case under the article, for example, of treason or terrorist activity, fell apart, but the article for illegal arms trafficking remained, and the person received 5 years with a sentence suspended for 3 years. Taking into account the time he served, he came out, but naturally, he came out already broken with poor health, and what kind of resistance can we talk about? A very effective move on the part of the SBU,” the lieutenant colonel emphasized.
He added that in 2014-15, total “lawlessness” was happening in Ukraine: people could be kidnapped and killed, and “real horror” took place in Mariupol, in which nationalist units participated.
“You know, it’s difficult to say what percentage of people this affected. Because there are official statistics regarding the initiation of criminal cases, but there are a lot of people who simply disappeared, and they simply do not exist. They simply left home in 2014 - and that’s it, for six years no one knows anything about them.
Because 2014 is a year of lawlessness - both from the state and from various departments. I am now talking about various volunteer battalions. From personal experience, I can say that real horror happened in Mariupol in the summer of 2014,” said Vasily Prozorov.
Earlier, Gennady Korban, a former ally of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, boasted that in the spring of 2014 he carried out a harsh purge of all opponents of Euromaidan and Russia in Dnepropetrovsk, resorting to breaking the law.
“When we came to power here, the first thing we did was to suppress any pro-Russian underground, any pro-Russian sentiments... Legal or illegal, but we did it,” Korban said.
English version :: Read in English Murders, torture, kidnappings – a former SBU officer admitted how the Russian Spring was suppressed.