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WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
much motivation here, we need just<br />
to talk to veterans.”<br />
Viktoriia HONCHARENKO,<br />
Dnipro Law School: “How have your<br />
life values changed after your injury<br />
and rehabilitation period?”<br />
V.S.: “My principal value is life.<br />
No one has the right to deprive anyone<br />
of it. My values have not<br />
changed, I have just grown to feel<br />
stronger about them. Many soldiers<br />
face issues after getting wounded, so<br />
I meet with their families and ask<br />
them to help them undergo rehabilitation.<br />
Subsequently, after they get<br />
whole again, the soldier will consider<br />
his family to be his everything. It<br />
is for the family that the soldier will<br />
turn the world upside down. Therefore,<br />
the key values for me are the<br />
family and our homeland.”<br />
K.V.: “The first victory of any veteran<br />
is the victory in the family, because<br />
when lads go to war, the whole<br />
burden of family support gets to rest<br />
on women’s shoulders. And then lads<br />
return home with the idea that they<br />
are masters of their homes. It is very<br />
important for wives to be psychologically<br />
ready to accept the fact that<br />
their husbands return as changed<br />
men. Lads themselves must also understand<br />
that not only they, but the<br />
entire families, who lived without<br />
them for a certain time, got changed.<br />
“It is often said that there is no<br />
family rehabilitation in Ukraine.<br />
But this is very important. People’s<br />
first psychologists are their wives,<br />
mothers, sisters who meet returning<br />
soldiers.”<br />
V.S.: “I even believe that the<br />
medals we receive are not ours but our<br />
wives’.”<br />
● “CREATIVITY AND WAR<br />
GO TOGETHER”<br />
Solomiia NYKOLAIEVYCH,<br />
Lesia Ukrainka Eastern European<br />
National University: “Mr. Svyrydenko,<br />
you worked for a newspaper<br />
for 10 years, engaged in its<br />
promotion. Do you plan to return<br />
to this line of work in the future?”<br />
V.S.: “When I went to war, I<br />
had my job protected, and after being<br />
wounded, I was invited to return<br />
to that job as well. But at the<br />
same time, I was asked to work<br />
where I really could be useful, especially<br />
for our veterans. When I<br />
returned from the Marine Corps<br />
Marathon in Washington, DC, I<br />
met with the president of Ukraine,<br />
and it was then that I realized that<br />
I had to help others get rehabilitated.<br />
There are many such organizations<br />
today, so there is strength in<br />
unity, as they say. We solve complex<br />
issues together.”<br />
Mariia PROKOPENKO: “In a<br />
conversation within the framework<br />
of the Wounds Project,<br />
Mr. Svyrydenko shared his opinion<br />
that there is more to the war than<br />
killing, as one can create new<br />
things there as well. How exactly<br />
do you understand these words?”<br />
K.V.: “I will try to answer. I<br />
know about some lads setting up<br />
their own radio station at the<br />
front. There are also those who<br />
write poetry, draw things on empty<br />
ammunition boxes. Creativity and<br />
war go together. On their return,<br />
lads look for ways to realize their<br />
creativity. My friend Yurii<br />
Neroslik draws military posters,<br />
and we have held exhibitions together<br />
at Kyiv City Hall and the<br />
Ukrainian House exhibition center.<br />
A lot of his images have spread<br />
over the internet, and not all users<br />
know that he is their author. We<br />
must not forget those who have not<br />
returned. All of them also dreamed<br />
about something.”<br />
The Summer School of<br />
Journalism is supported<br />
by the NATO Information<br />
and Documentation Centre<br />
in Ukraine<br />
By Igor YAKOVENKO,<br />
Moscow, special to The Day<br />
The obvious things include the<br />
very fact of the killing, its<br />
timing and location. Also,<br />
numerous witnesses have<br />
corroborated the purpose of the<br />
crew’s trip to the Central African<br />
Republic (CAR), it being making an<br />
investigative film dealing with the<br />
activities of Wagner’s private<br />
military company (PMC). It is the<br />
main thing that is unclear: who killed<br />
them and why.<br />
The Russian official line has it all<br />
backwards. The Ministry of Foreign<br />
Affairs (MFA)’s spokesperson Maria<br />
Zakharova posted on Facebook: “I am<br />
hearing and reading this nonsense<br />
about some ‘investigations’<br />
concerning PMCs<br />
in the CAR.” What exactly<br />
Zakharova regards as<br />
“nonsense” is not entirely<br />
clear: the statement that<br />
the journalists killed<br />
were conducting an investigation,<br />
or one about<br />
Wagner’s PMC being active<br />
in Central Africa?<br />
“There is nothing sensational<br />
about the presence<br />
of Russian instructors in<br />
the CAR, nobody has been<br />
hiding anything,” Zakharova<br />
asserted, and advised<br />
people to consult<br />
the MFA’s website. Following<br />
her advice, let us<br />
consult it. The MFA of<br />
the Russian Federation<br />
reported back in March<br />
2018 that at the request<br />
of the president of the<br />
CAR, military and civilian<br />
instructors had been<br />
sent to that country. It<br />
has not a single word to<br />
say about Wagner’s PMC,<br />
which is just a common<br />
gang according to Russian law, since<br />
there is no law providing for PMCs in<br />
Russia, and therefore, any armed formation<br />
that operates outside the<br />
Russian uniformed services is just a<br />
gang and nothing else.<br />
“What were they really doing in<br />
the CAR, what were their objective<br />
and tasks – these questions are still<br />
unanswered,” spokesperson of the<br />
Russian Federation’s MFA Zakharova<br />
continued her mendacious message,<br />
despite being undoubtedly well aware<br />
of the killed journalists’ objective<br />
which brought them to the CAR. In<br />
fact, she confirmed it, when recalling<br />
the “nonsensical” investigation of the<br />
PMC activities.<br />
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.<strong>41</strong> AUGUST 9, 2018 7<br />
Dancing on journalists’ bones<br />
Concerning the tragedy that befell the film crew of journalists Orhan Dzhemal, Kirill<br />
Radchenko, and Alexander Rastorguev, who were killed in the Central African Republic<br />
on July 31, 2018, some things are obvious and proven, while others are still unclear<br />
The day after the journalists’<br />
killing, TV channel Russia 1 broadcast<br />
its 60 Minutes program, which featured<br />
a merry dance on the bones of<br />
the dead. Of course, the leader of the<br />
Liberal Democratic Party was invited<br />
as the principal dancer. I have long<br />
stopped asking questions of media<br />
troops soldiers. These are people of a<br />
different profession that has nothing<br />
to do with journalism. However, they<br />
call themselves journalists and sometimes<br />
try to pretend they are. In this<br />
case, I became interested in how Olga<br />
Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov would explain<br />
the presence of Mr. Zh. (Vladimir<br />
Zhirinovsky) in a program discussing<br />
a killing of journalists. Is<br />
Zh. a journalist? Or is he a specialist<br />
in journalistic investigations? That<br />
man is known for his fierce hatred of<br />
journalists, cases of direct violence<br />
against them, and urging his guard<br />
live on the air to rape a journalist.<br />
Inviting Zh. to that program was a<br />
provocation as vile as, for example,<br />
inviting an open and known anti-<br />
Semite to the funeral of a rabbi.<br />
And Zh. fully justified the confidence<br />
of Skabeeva and Popov.<br />
“There is no need to go anywhere!”<br />
Zh. screamed as soon as he was asked<br />
to speak. “Mikhail Khodorkovsky is<br />
an enemy of Russia, and we should<br />
not help his hirelings!” Zh. stated<br />
when responding to Zakharova’s<br />
Next, Khodorkovsky explained<br />
the reasons and extent of his involvestatement<br />
that the MFA had stood<br />
ready to assist the journalists. After<br />
that, Zh. was flinging dirt at the<br />
dead for quite a long time: “Thrill<br />
addicts!”, “They were involved in illegal<br />
business! These were illegal<br />
diggers!”, “They went there to engage<br />
in illegal pursuits, and now the<br />
public has to pay for them?” Skabeeva<br />
tried in every way to show that<br />
she did not share Zh.’s stance. It<br />
looked as if Zh. was invited to her<br />
program by some strangers, completely<br />
unknown people, and she had<br />
nothing to do with it.<br />
Zakharova emerged as a pure<br />
source of the most reliable information<br />
on the big screen in the studio,<br />
and reported the following. Firstly,<br />
“the official stated purpose of this<br />
group’s trip was tourism.” Secondly,<br />
“they carried expired journalistic certificates.”<br />
Thirdly, “they never contacted<br />
the MFA.” And fourthly, “had<br />
they declared their true purpose,<br />
everything could have been different.”<br />
“An exhaustive presentation!”<br />
was Skabeeva’s enthusiastic response.<br />
And she added: “We must understand<br />
who will be held responsible for it.”<br />
Actually, the respondent defendant<br />
was already known. “Political<br />
scientist” Dmitry Abzalov said that<br />
“the problem is in the very ap-<br />
proach” and asked indignantly:<br />
“Why was there no accreditation?”<br />
Following that, he pronounced the<br />
verdict: “People were thrown into<br />
this system!” Employee of Komsomolskaya<br />
Pravda Alexander Kots<br />
was more specific: “They had with<br />
them over 8,000 dollars. Security<br />
personnel can be hired for 300 dollars<br />
there.” Skabeeva immediately<br />
and understandingly exclaimed:<br />
“They economized on that business<br />
trip!” Employee of the VGTRK<br />
broadcaster Sergey Pashkov and employee<br />
of the Kommersant newspaper<br />
Maksim Yudin said, both claiming<br />
experience in the field, that the<br />
killed men’s failure to inform the<br />
Russian embassy in the CAR of their<br />
arrival was a fatal mistake.<br />
I have no doubt that all the participants<br />
of the 60 Minutes program<br />
only pretended to be idiots when<br />
claiming to not understand the reasons<br />
why Dzhemal, Rastorguev, and<br />
Radchenko had preferred not to deal<br />
with representatives of Russia and<br />
minimize contacts with local authorities.<br />
It would be weird to go to investigate<br />
the activities of a gang which is<br />
closely connected with the Russian<br />
and local authorities, and ask for<br />
their approval regarding the purpose<br />
of the business trip at the same time.<br />
This is stated in some detail in the report<br />
of the Investigation Control Centre<br />
(ICC) on Khodorkovsky’s Facebook<br />
page: “Orhan Dzhemal, Alexander<br />
Rastorguev, and Kirill Radchenko<br />
came to the CAR on tourist<br />
visas and were not accredited with the<br />
Russian embassy and consulate. This<br />
was due to the object of the investigation<br />
being Wagner’s PMC. If the hypothesis<br />
of the investigation team<br />
was correct and Wagner’s PMC acted<br />
in the CAR as a mercenary combat<br />
force with the unofficial support of<br />
the Russian authorities, contacting<br />
the Russian diplomatic bodies would<br />
have made the investigation meaningless.”<br />
End quote.<br />
I would like to deal separately<br />
with no less idiotic advice to hire local<br />
guards. What guards? Local gangsters?<br />
Or members of the local security<br />
forces, who are likely to be connected<br />
with Wagner’s PMC? Or should the<br />
journalists have brought with them a<br />
platoon of armed fighters from Russia?<br />
Khodorkovsky answered in his<br />
blog those who directly or indirectly<br />
blame him for the deaths of the journalists:<br />
“As for security, it would<br />
have been strange, on my part, to impose<br />
my solution of this problem on<br />
professional war reporters with a<br />
great deal of experience. They were<br />
among the best specialists in Russia.<br />
All they needed was discussed directly<br />
with the editor-in-chief, and the resources<br />
needed were provided.”<br />
ment in the investigation during<br />
which the journalists were killed. “My<br />
personal involvement in the Russian<br />
Mercenaries project was limited to<br />
funding it. The project was developed<br />
by a group of professional investigative<br />
journalists and presented to me by<br />
the editor-in-chief of the ICC. I consider<br />
it important, because in this<br />
country, the government often likes to<br />
conceal its illicit affairs by referring to<br />
‘private individuals.’ In Russia, mercenary<br />
activity is not regulated by law<br />
and non-transparent, and it is a criminal<br />
offense as well. However, top leaders<br />
of the state are not ashamed to<br />
speak approvingly about this practice,<br />
which makes the situation particularly<br />
dangerous. From now on, my involvement<br />
in the investigation will be<br />
much deeper.” End quote.<br />
“Those who are born to crawl cannot<br />
fly.” People who have served the<br />
regime and lied all their lives cannot<br />
understand those who seek the truth.<br />
In particular, the truth about the<br />
regime’s crimes. I have no questions<br />
to ask of the employees of the VGTRK,<br />
Russia 1 TV channel, NTV, Komsomolskaya<br />
Pravda, and other Putinist<br />
media. I have one wish to convey to<br />
them, though: do not call Dzhemal,<br />
Radchenko, and Rastorguev your colleagues.<br />
It is very disgusting to hear.