Russian pilots sentenced to 8.5 years

[Детективное агентство ИКС-Инфо.]

Russian pilots sentenced to 8.5 years to appropriate their aircraft
The first analogy that comes to mind is the capture of our IL-76 in Kandahar. For more than a year, Russian pilots languished in captivity with the Taliban until they managed to escape on their own plane.

But then - it was a hot spot, Afghanistan, Islamic fanatics and constant assistance from the native state. In the modern version of the Kandahar, there are two An-72s that crashed accidentally on territory like Tajikistan’s friendly Russia.

And two Russian pilots - Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy, who served 23 years in strategic aviation and an Estonian citizen Aleksey Rudenko, who graduated from the Aktyubinsk school in the Union.

The aircraft belonged to the Russian airline of the Russian airline Rolkan Investmens Ltd, and a private company from the United Arab Emirate, Aerospace Consortium, rented them for work in Afghanistan. An-72 transported humanitarian cargo under the auspices of the United Nations in a warring country until the contract came to an end.

Both sides were asked from the Kabul airfield, where there was not enough space for other aircraft. Sadovnichy and Rudenko, having completed all the necessary documents, headed for the Tajik airfield Kurgan-Tyube.

However, “miracles” began already in the sky over Tajikistan. The Kurgan-Tyube controllers suddenly announced that they had lost their permit numbers and advised both sides to turn back to Kabul. However, the fuel in the AN-72 was hardly enough for the return "walk", and the pilots requested an emergency landing. The Tajiks did not object.

Already on the ground, the plane was searched by customs officers, border guards and only representatives of the local state security found fault with a disassembled spare engine on one of the sides. So a criminal case was born under three articles - “violation of the state border”, “international flight rules” and “smuggling”.

“According to article 58 of the Air Code of Russia and article 34 of the Code of Tajikistan, the crew commander can change his flight plan,” said pilot advocate Gulam Babayev in an interview with KP. - Since he has the right, then there is no crime.

They requested an emergency landing, taking into account the remaining fuel. Because if he were returning to Kabul, then one plane would not have enough 900 liters, and the other 1200. The air navigation first forbade them to land, and then, when they had to request it, they gave permission. So there is permission. Disassembled spare engine - well, what kind of smuggling is it?

All these months, the pilots were waiting at home, hoping for a successful outcome of the proceedings.

- We initially thought that this was some kind of misunderstanding that was about to be resolved, the son of the pilot Sadovnichev Vladimir told us. - My father told me from there that everything is fine, everything should end normally, there are no problems.
He’s just a man who won’t disturb his family again. Therefore, he told us that there was no need to fly there. Yes, and my mother feels very bad in connection with this eight-month hassle - not before flights. Apparently have to go to the hospital. The tension is big, everyone said that they would be released any day, but when the case was brought to court, it became clear that everything was more serious than it seemed before .:
“The lawlessness is complete,” Dmitry Barilov, the former Aeroflot flight director for international affairs, shared with us. - First of all, they approved the fly plan. If he had not been approved, they would not have been released from Kabul. They themselves would not fly either - these are two. And thirdly, the approved flight plan is already a permission to cross the border and territory. And since the state allowed the passage to its territory, it is obliged to provide all types of security. These guys Kurgan-Tube was provided as a transit airfield.
Therefore, I have a serious question: why the hell did they climb to inspect the plane? Indeed, at the An-72, it was not the final airfield, but transit. How many years we flew to Cuba and Latin America with an intermediate landing. Never in our life have our ships been inspected at transit points.

And here is the smuggling case. Yes, what is their business, that he is lucky, especially since this is the property of the airline. Unloading of this engine was not supposed at them in Kurgan-Tube. This is no longer a violation of air law, but mayhem. Well, the behavior of our government bodies, including the Ministry of Transport, is striking. He was supposed to make a fuss the first eight months ago. Something is unclean there. This is legal nonsense.

For clarification of the situation, we turned to the Russian company-owner. It was here that they shed light on the possible reason for such strange behavior by Tajik colleagues.

- Actually there was an ordinary ordinary flight, not out of the ordinary. I myself am a pilot and have been in such situations ten times in the United Arab Emirates and in Africa. In the case, there is even an act of aviation losses in Tajikistan, which says that this incident qualifies as an aviation incident, ”Valery Pfefer, a spokesman for Rolkan Investmens Ltd, explained to us. - But in no criminal framework should he be investigated. You see, people have been sitting for eight months, now planes are confiscated. It took airplanes.
- Do you think all this mess due to two An-72s?

- I do not think, but I know. We needed airplanes for free and had to invent something. Suck out of your finger and invent.

- And what is unique about these aircraft?

“They can land in the Antarctic, in the Arctic, in the desert, in the cotton field.” He needs 800-900 meters, and he will be lucky with seven tons of cargo. The same aircraft worked in Tajikistan for the Ministry of Defense. Here they are well acquainted. And they really liked them. In fact, such incidents usually end with a trial by the aviation authorities and scribble from department to department. Find where this permission number was lost, some clerk didn’t work, or they wrote the application incorrectly or something like that. All.

- What kind of engine is this notorious?

“Oh, my God, why did they cling to this engine?” This is a semi-disassembled engine. The plane is completely crammed full, so why only to this engine? There was an engine, only a smaller one - an auxiliary power unit. There are stairs, there are keys, bolts, nuts. What is there just not there. The plane is jammed with airline property. I asked the head of this customs service - at least one point in your customs legislation was violated by the pilots? Not. Nobody pulled a single bolt out of the plane, what smuggling, what are you talking about?

Russian diplomats have already called the court’s verdict unfair and inhumane: “We will fight for our citizen and our compatriot with all means available in our arsenal,” said Dmitry Kabaev, adviser to the Russian Embassy in Tajikistan.

OFFICIALLY

“We consider the verdict handed down in the city of Kurgan-Tube to Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko to be extremely severe and politically biased. The prosecution did not provide any convincing evidence of the guilt of the defendants. The indictment is built, in fact, on speculation and unfounded assumptions. The Tajik side openly violates existing international standards. This decision does not help to strengthen the alliance and strategic partnership relations that have developed between our two countries, and does serious damage to them. "

Gurchenko hired a detective to convict her husband of treason

 

[Игорь Эдуардович]

Yeah .... If everything is as it is, then there are no words.

 

[НСК-СБ]

Thank you, Roman - that's how it is - chaos! I have never been to Tajikistan, and I will never go there!

 

[Игорь]

It is necessary to ban Tajiks from coming to our country for a year, and then they will not only give the pilots and planes away, but they will send the judge to work as a gastrobiter.

 

[Евгений СБ]

It is necessary to ban Tajiks from coming to our country for a year, and then they will not only give the pilots and planes away, but they will send the judge to work as a gastrobiter.

I agree. Close the border.
In general, this is not fun. Already Tajikistan puts the device on Russia. What are we reputable now

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Roman - that's how it is - chaos! I have never been to Tajikistan, and I will never go there!

Andrew, and I was 91-93gg.
There is also "fun" and this article is a confirmation of this.
Thank you, Roman.

 

[Детективное агентство ИКС-Инфо.]

CONTINUED:
Convicted in Tajikistan pilot Sadovnichy admitted to the court that they had problems obtaining permission to fly.

The pilots convicted in Tajikistan before flying from Kabul knew about the issues that arose during the registration of aircraft, as well as about the mess with obtaining permission to fly through the republic. This was stated in court by pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy.
Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy, convicted of smuggling and illegal border crossing of Tajikistan, told the court the details of what happened in Kabul and in the air before landing in the Tajik city of Kurgan-Tyube, where the pilots and their two An-72 aircraft were arrested. The record of the pilot’s appearance in court was published on the Internet by the son of Vladimir Sadovnichy.
As it turned out, a certain person named Timur issued the Russian pilots to the authorities.
Who he is is unknown.

Aircraft owned by Rolkan Investmens Ltd were leased to the UAE, the Aerospace Consortium, which concluded an agreement with a major US logistics company Supreme Food, which supplies NATO troops with products. According to Sadovnichy, the problems began in early March, when he returned from another flight to Kabul airport. He was told that there would be no flights so far, as two An-72s had problems with registration. At the Supreme Food office at the airport, he was shown an email from the Afghan Civil Aviation Department.

“The letter said that a citizen, named Timur, privately sent a letter to the department, saying that two An-72 aircraft operating on Supreme Food, with such tail numbers, were removed from registration. After that, the aviation department recommended the company's management to suspend flights of these aircraft until the circumstances are fully clarified, ”Sadovnichy told the court. He indicated that this was not a requirement to prohibit flights, but only a recommendation to suspend them.
The pilots never received official confirmation of the lack of registration with the aircraft.
Sadovnichy added that monitoring the registration is the business of the owner and lessee, not the crew.

Since Supreme Food products carried only three aircraft, the company chose to terminate the contract for two An-72s and hire new aircraft. “So we lost our job,” Sadovnichy sighs. They could not stay in Kabul. “There is simply no place at the airport: there are too many airplanes. Because of this, many airlines base their aircraft abroad: during the day they fly to Afghanistan, and go to other countries for night parking. Our assistants looked for temporary parking, but could not find it, ”says the pilot. -
The fact that we will fly to Tajikistan, in Kurgan-Tyube, we knew 10 days before departure.
Three days before the departure, we were given the command to prepare the planes and load all the belongings of the airline. ”

According to the pilot, the Aerospace Consortium company prepared a flight plan, it was received in Dushanbe and in Kurgan-Tube. Then it was necessary to obtain a second document - permission to cross the border of Tajikistan. As the pilot noted, they were also fully involved in the Aerospace Consortium.
“I found out that there is some kind of mess with permission to fly out in the morning of March 11,” Sadovnichy said.
The manager of the Aerospace Consortium called him several times and showed papers that came from the United Arab Emirates. But there was only a brief extract from the flight plan. “I said: this is not permission, call the Emirates. This was repeated three or four times, when something came, I looked, and again it was not permission. The last time the manager and I spoke at 12 at night. I told him: sorry, I had 3 hours to sleep, and at 3 o’clock in the morning we met again. He said - that’s all, there is permission, now they’re sending him, go, prepare the crew, ”says Sadovnichy. The last document was in order, and the crew, who were very late, rushed to the airport. “I was sleepy, tired, sweaty, and angry like a dog at our airline for starting to prepare in ten days, and it worked out that way,” the pilot recalls. - When we flew to the border of the Republic of Tajikistan, I established contact with Dushanbe, the dispatcher allowed entry. I experienced a feeling of euphoria: before landing, it was 10-15 minutes. After three to four minutes, the dispatcher asked to read the permission number. I dictated without a doubt. After that, the dispatcher says - you do not have permission to cross the state border, we recommend that you turn around and return to Kabul. ”

The pilot admits that he was shocked, despite the fact that receiving such a paper is a mere formality, says Sadovnichy. “A correctly filled out application from the airline is enough. There are no checks on the line of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on the line of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or special services. I decided that it just had not yet reached the dispatcher or the person who should send him at 4 in the morning, put him aside and fell asleep. This is not a crime, but an aviation incident. ”
Returning to Kabul was very dangerous, the pilot explains.
He emphasized that the ability to request an emergency landing for an aircraft that does not have permission to fly is indicated in paragraph 34 of the Tajik Air Code, which means that they did not violate any laws.
Therefore, the arrest was for the pilots a complete surprise.

As you know, despite all the arguments of the pilots, they were found guilty and sentenced to 8.5 years.

The representative of Rolkan Investmens Ltd (the owner of the aircraft) Viktor Pfefer previously told Gazeta.ru that permission to fly to Tajikistan was issued by the new airline Khatlon Air, "controlled by the commander of the National Guard of Tajikistan." As an argument, he pointed out that an airline that does not yet have airplanes placed an ad for a set of crews just for the An-72. However, the airline told Gazeta.ru that they were not involved in the incident. “Khatlon Air, established in March 2010, has nothing to do with the national guard and does not obey it: we work exclusively in the field of civil aviation,” said Vosif Tursunkholov, Deputy General Director of Khatlon Air Airlines. - The data that we are allegedly intermediaries between the aviation authorities and airlines also does not correspond to reality. We did not transfer any permissions. We do not even have a representative office in the United Arab Emirates, only an office in Dushanbe. As for the allegedly recruited crew recruitment announcements for the An-72, nothing similar was done either. ”

It is possible that the Khatlon FZE company, based in the UAE, was engaged in permission for the pilots. Pfefer blamed the troubles of the pilots Oleg Lysenko, who is just the CEO of Khatlon FZE. However, no one answered the only phone number listed on the company’s website. “Gazeta.Ru” sent questions for Lysenko to his email address.

Representatives of the Aerospace Consortium company also have not yet responded to the request with a request to clarify who issued the pilots permission to fly to Tajikistan.

[DLMURL] https://www.gazeta.ru/social/2011/11/12/3831066.shtml [/ DLMURL]

 

[Anonymous]

Six months before the detention of a Russian pilot in Tajikistan, a Moscow Region court sentenced the husband's daughter's brother Emomali Rakhmon to 9.5 years in a penal colony.
Farhod Avgonov, Muzaffar Aliyev, Faridun Sangiev and Rustam Hukumov were in the dock. The latter turned out to be the son of Amonullo Hukumov - the head of the Tajik Railway. It turns out that the matchmaker of the president of Tajikistan was planted near Moscow.
The decision was harsh, but fair - four criminals from Tajikistan found more than 9 kilograms of one of the hardest drugs - heroin.

 

[НСК-СБ]

Russia is ready to respond to the "slap" of Tajikistan with an arsenal of funds except military

November 9, 2011 "Newsru.com".

Having sentenced two pilots of the Russian airline to 8.5 years in a colony “for smuggling”, Tajikistan, according to experts, gave Russia a slap in the face. Sources in the Foreign Ministry claim that Moscow is determined to rescue the Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy and, if necessary, “use the entire arsenal of funds,” except for the time being only the military. Enumerating possible measures, observers also shared their guesses why the Tajik authorities took such an unfriendly step and why Russia did not make noise in time.

"We received a monstrous, unfair sentence, which I can only describe as a slap in the face to our state," said Anatoly Kucherena, head of the commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on monitoring the activities of law enforcement bodies and the judicial system, told Kommersant.

“The lawlessness is complete,” Dmitry Barilov, a former Aeroflot flight director for international affairs, shared with Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Well, it’s amazing the behavior of our government bodies, including the Ministry of Transport. It should have made a fuss the first eight months ago. What- it's unclean. It's legal nonsense. "

“This is a clear anti-Russian attack that needs to be answered,” Gennady Gudkov, a State Duma deputy from “Fair Russia,” said. “Because if we continue to demolish this, we will not be counted for people and will not spit in the face.” He also added: "For some reason, they are starting to protect Russian citizens when it comes to an official who has fallen into history. They don’t remember about ordinary hard workers." The most noteworthy quotes from the press are provided by the website “Titles.ru”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been urgently seeking a telephone conversation with his Tajik counterpart Hamrokhon Zarifi for the second day, an agency source told Interfax on Wednesday. However, the Tajik side is still evading the conversation. “We hope that such contact will nevertheless take place today,” the diplomat said.

On the eve of the Russian Foreign Ministry called the verdict "extremely harsh and politically biased" and emphasized that the court’s decision "will not help strengthen the relations between the two countries of the alliance and strategic partnership."

At the same time, a senior Foreign Ministry source explained the sluggishness of the Russian embassy in Dushanbe with the peculiarities of diplomatic work. "Our task is to rescue these people, and not to cause a scandal. Therefore, we did not beat all the bells, but quietly acted on our channels so that no one would lose face," he told Kommersant.

Another newspaper source on Smolenskaya Square added that the embassy received information about the arrest of the Russians two months after their arrest. “According to the rules, Tajiks were supposed to notify the embassy of the detention three days later, back in March. But our diplomats learned about this from a company representative who came to us only in May,” he explained.

At the same time, diplomats are convincing that Moscow will take the necessary countermeasures. “There will be an appeal, other procedures that make it possible to play back. We have not yet deployed our entire arsenal of means in communicating with Dushanbe, but now we will use them,” the source said. “Unless the 201st division (the Russian military base in Tajikistan - Ed. Ed.) We won’t raise it yet. "

What can Russia answer to Tajikistan

Experts are sure that Russia has enough methods of influencing Tajikistan. Moscow may increase duties on oil products supplied there, require the recovery of debts for electricity from Sangtuda-1, or even introduce a visa regime and prohibit remittances to Tajikistan, thanks to which Tajik guest workers feed the whole country.

However, the leadership of the Russian Federation, apparently, will not use such measures. “Such things are used in the last turn. Indeed, the ban on money transfers can lead to disaster,” Carnegie Moscow Center expert Alexei Malashenko explained to the publication, recalling that relations with Tajikistan are very difficult, especially in connection with the idea of the Eurasian Union, which Dushanbe is actively involved in.

One of the most real and most effective measures may be the introduction of strict quotas or even a visa regime for entry for citizens of Tajikistan, experts say, interviewed by Moskovsky Komsomolets. Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Konstantin Zatulin noted that the Russian government can block all channels of assistance to this country.

“There is a feeling that someone did not attach particular importance to this matter in time,” he said. “It seems to me that we have real opportunities to influence the Tajik authorities, but for some reason this was not done. There was an impression that the Russian the party will not be very concerned about the verdict. "

Versions: Tajikistan avenges Russia for grievances or its planes were simply needed

PIR Center expert Vadim Kozyulin, however, believes that the sentence to the pilots is a well-thought-out response from Tajikistan to Russia, which "has offended him twice in recent years."

At first, she refused the Rogun hydroelectric power station project - as they are confident in Dushanbe, under the influence of the Uzbek lobby, he explains. And then, left Tajikistan without support in the spring of 2011, when militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan sharply intensified there. "The Tajiks then asked the CSTO for military assistance, but they were refused. I had to turn to Iran, which helped to cope with the Islamists. So, as soon as the opportunity presented itself to Russia through the nose, Rakhmon did this," the expert concluded.

But a different conclusion is made by aviators. “We needed airplanes,” Valery Pfefer, representative of Rolkan Investmens Ltd airline, where the convicted pilots worked, expressed his opinion to “Komsomolskaya Pravda.” “I don’t think, but I know. I needed airplanes for free and I had to invent something. .

He explained that airplanes are unique in that they can land in virtually any environment - "in the Antarctic, in the Arctic, in the desert, in a cotton field." Such an aircraft "needs 800-900 meters, and it will carry seven tons of cargo. These same planes worked in Tajikistan for the Ministry of Defense. They got to know them well here. And they really liked them."

We recall that we are talking about two An-72s, whose crews were commanded by pilots Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian citizen Aleksey Rudenko. According to the verdict of the Tajik court, they were confiscated.

The same version — that Tajikistan simply needed these planes — was expressed in an interview with Russian News Service by a former colleague of Vladimir Sadovnichy Alexander (he did not give his last name).

In his opinion, everything that happens is extortion. “As for the Tajik side, I will give you a simple example. At one time ... the 201st division is there, right? In order for the Su-125 planes to fly in Tajikistan, the pilots used to fly there. Previously, they were in the war, then in Tajikistan, in "They transferred Dushanbe. They made a condition for the Russian side - the engine on the Tu-154 from the repair plant should be transferred to Tajikistan for free."

“These are the conditions,” he continued. “For the Su-125 to fly there, you will bring the engine from us for repair, just for free. Bring, take from the factory and pay for the repair of this engine. The fact is that they don’t have many planes there in the Tajik airline in Dushanbe itself. And here is another nuance. And why not take An-72 to your hands. An-21, apparently, is a fresh aircraft by resource, etc. "

The pilot is confident that the Tajiks "will start to extort something in return." "It is very difficult to work with Asians. There, everyone sitting in an armchair pulls a blanket over themselves." He did not rule out that we would be talking about some sort of ransom, bargaining. “Somewhere at the state, maybe, level, if the president is now connected with Vladimir Vladimirovich or Medvedev.”

“I know the commander of the ship very well and I want to tell you that he could not allow some kind of stupidity. This is all a real lie,” he said. “Somewhere, something was lost in interstate (affairs), most likely. It’s just that they (Asians) are very vindictive, they don’t forget anything about it. They will always find how to dodge and how to seize the moment. "

The Case of the Pilots

Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko worked for the Russian airline Rolkan Investmens Ltd .: commanded two An-72 aircraft. They transported humanitarian aid to Afghanistan under an agreement with the government of that country.

In March of this year, they returned from Afghanistan and on the way they asked for a landing at the Kurgan-Tyube airport in Tajikistan, having previously received permission to cross the border. However, at the point of intersection of the territory of Tajikistan, local dispatchers said that there was no permission on the ground and the plane should return to Kabul.

The Afghan airport could not immediately receive Russian ships, the vehicles did not have fuel to wait, and then the pilots decided to board the Kurgan-Tyube. After landing, both crews were detained, arrested, and only two months later they were charged.

The pilots were arrested on charges of illegally crossing the border, violating international flight rules and smuggling. The subject of smuggling was considered a disassembled aircraft engine.

The lawyer of the Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy claims that for a long time he unsuccessfully tried to attract the attention of the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe.

The verdict was announced on November 8. The judge appointed the pilots 10 years and six months each in a maximum security colony, but taking into account the amnesty in Tajikistan until December 1, they reduced their sentence to two years - up to 8.5 years. The term of imprisonment is calculated from May 11, 2011.

 

[Детективное агентство ИКС-Инфо.]

...
The lawyer of the Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy claims that for a long time he unsuccessfully tried to attract the attention of the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe ...

Embassies are the same everywhere - they live their own lives ... what the hell are citizens' problems with them? ..