In the military garrisons in the Kemerovo region, the servicemen were imposed a tribute by criminals closely associated with the command and security forces

In large military units located in Yurga in the Kemerovo region, the servicemen were imposed a tribute by criminals closely associated with the command of the units and the security forces. This was reported by the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers.

There are three military brigades in the vicinity of Yurga. A large number of contractors serve in them, from whom representatives of the local criminals collect extortions. How informs Ura.ru, only a few such cases have become known, although the problem is massive.

So, in November last year, one of the servicemen of unit No. 59361 was approached by his colleague-warrant officer and asked to lend him 28 thousand rubles. The soldier agreed to help a colleague, while his colleague asked to transfer the money not to him, but to a certain Mikhail. As the publication found out, the real name of the man is Mudaris Tartykov. He called the military and gave the card number to which the money should be transferred. A little later, he called the serviceman again and began to openly extort money, threatening some “thieves” from Kemerovo. He also intimidated with his connections in the law enforcement agencies of Yurga, in the command of the unit and in the FSB. After the man transferred money to the extortionist, he began to demand regular payments over several months.

“The same story happened near Khabarovsk recently,” Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, told The Insider. “Such stories began somewhere in the mid-2000s in the brigades near Khabarovsk. Caucasian bandits came there in jeeps, robbed everyone, and no one wanted to interfere in this. The territorial ones said: “This is a military unit,” the prosecutor’s office and the chiefs said: “These are civilians.” Until one valiant police general, a State Duma deputy, went to the Minister of Internal Affairs and explained what was happening to him, all this did not stop. Then everyone was tied up and convicted, the situation was somehow settled, and the mass complaints stopped. Now it’s all coming back again. Neither the command of the units, nor the military prosecutors, no one bangs a finger, and this is very sad. I wanted to call the military prosecutor’s office, but I saw that it was located right in Yurga and should, of course, be aware of it. According to the functions of the military police, they must also protect the legal rights of servicemen, so let them protect them, ”Melnikova said.

As Ura.ru found out, this case in Yurga was not an isolated one – Tartykov was paid tribute by other servicemen, including officers. In addition, the bandits had a special list of contract soldiers who went on business trips to Syria, where they made good money. Upon returning from trips, they were forced to pay large sums to Tartykov. Another serviceman of the garrison became a victim of extortionists also on a tip from one of his colleagues. According to him, in the fall of 2020, another colleague invited him to visit with a colleague. When they arrived at the apartment, several young people were already sitting there. A little later, a certain Klyuev joined them, who immediately began to make claims against one of the young people, demanding more than 100 thousand rubles from him. After that, Klyuev began to threaten the two contract soldiers who came, intimidating them with physical violence and criminal prosecution. They took away their cell phones and locked them in the apartment for a day. After the military transferred the money, Klyuev and his friends extorted money from them many times under various pretexts, and once even broke into their apartment.

“The story in Yurga is disgusting. This means that no one fulfills their official duties, not a single structure that is called upon to do this – neither the command, nor the political officers, nor the military police, nor the military prosecutor’s office, nor the local police, “Melnikova said. “Everyone is sitting and everyone is waiting for something. I do not believe that all these people and all these departments are afraid of one dumbass. From the point of view of the military regulations and the function of unit commanders, all of them should be tried for negligence. In your unit, people are robbed – whether it is inside, which was still more often, or is it someone outside – you do nothing, and if you don’t, you should be kicked out with a wolf ticket. This situation means that control is completely lost, and the command of the military units is not even interested in what is happening with the people. This is already complete corruption, ”Melnikova is sure.

As noted by Ura.ru, Mudaris Tartykov is a very famous person in Yurga. He is a native of the nearby village of Zimnik and is known by the nicknames “Mandarin” or Miha the Bear. He freely drives around the city in a tinted car without numbers. The interlocutors of the publication claim that he has been engaged in extortion from military personnel since at least 2017. Tartykov allegedly has a list of almost a hundred soldiers who regularly pay him tribute, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of rubles a month.

When stories of new extortions were made public, a criminal case was opened against Tartykov and his accomplices. During the searches, other people’s bank cards, IOUs and drugs were seized from them; in February 2021, the gang was sent to a pre-trial detention center. However, in December, a tinted car without numbers, driven by Tartykov, again began to drive around the streets of Yurga, several times he was seen on the territory of a military unit.

As human rights activists point out, this testifies to the fact that Mudaris Tartykov really has serious connections in the security structures of the Kemerovo region. According to the victims of the military, Tartykov is also associated with the command of the unit and even helped some of the commanders in the search for the stolen car.

The position of the official authorities on what is happening in Yurga and around the military town is absent. The local police send journalists to the Kemerovo Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee, and from there the questions are forwarded to the central department of the Investigative Committee of Russia in Moscow. The press service of the Central Military District said that the media information “partially corresponds to the events of 2020,” on which “a check was carried out and appropriate procedural decisions were taken.”