Evgeny Karas: The 7th Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs may be involved in the murder of Buzina

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The Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv extended the detention of those accused of murdering the writer Oles Buzina - Kyiv activists and ATO volunteers - Andrey Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk for another two months. Yevgeny Karas is called the third suspect in the case of the murder of the writer, although he was not officially suspected.

Yevgeny Karas during the Maidan was wanted for participation in riots

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, and then the director of the Communications Department of the ministry, Artem Shevchenko, wrote about the mysterious "third" on his Facebook page. Information about the detention of the third suspect was not confirmed, but Karas is sure that it is about him.

27-year-old Yevgeny Karas is one of the commandants of the Maidan times, an activist of the C14 nationalist association, a non-partisan (formerly a Svoboda member). From June to December 2014, he served in the Kyiv-2 battalion, in May he moved to another unit (the name is not specified), and now he is on the front line.

Karas believes that all the evidence against his acquaintances Andrei Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk, who were declared murderers, is a fake. Karas also believes that the accusers violated the presumption of innocence. According to Karas, a series of attacks on civil activists took place in Kyiv two years ago. Activists caught two alleged participants in the attacks near Medvedko's house, these people turned out to be employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After the scandal, the persecution of the activists stopped.

Denis Polishchuk during the court session

Photo : Facebook Olena Herasymiuk

Andrey Medvedko during the court session

Photo : Facebook Olena Herasymiuk

Karas claims that the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who hunted Kyiv activists before the Maidan, then followed them during the Maidan. Having sent Medvedko and Polishchuk to jail, they made another move in a long-standing vendetta. Yevgeny Karas spoke about this in an interview with Novosti Donbass.

Why did you decide that you are suspected of organizing the murder of Oles Buzina?

Officially, nothing is presented to me, but the investigators constantly "break through" me. There were many calls to the battalion. Friends are asked: "Where is Carp? What is Carp?" They would have arrested me, but they simply missed the moment when I left for the ATO zone.
Somewhere in February, acquaintances of journalists and politicians began to receive information that three organizations were going to be imprisoned in the Ministry of Internal Affairs under any pretext: "Revenge", "Black Committee", "C14" (to which I belong).

And I heard the version about the murder of Buzina in May - from an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whom we caught, and who told how they worked on the Maidan, and then stopped communicating. When we nevertheless managed to contact him, he explained that by continuing to meet with us, he could become a driver for the murder of Elderberry. At first I thought it was a joke, he was just intimidated. And when Medvedko was imprisoned, he realized that this is exactly the kind of work program the Ministry of Internal Affairs has, and they are fulfilling it.

Why did the aforementioned police officer speak frankly with you?

And he had no choice - he did not want us to give it to journalists. You could say we recruited him. Of course, his colleagues were worried about the information that he passed on - and when Medvedko was imprisoned, I realized that this fellow would have been included in this case (in the case of the murder of Buzina) if we had not stopped seeing each other. When Medvedko was detained, I was already in the ATO zone, and Avakov said that the third one would be detained just about, right now. And then, already in conversations with deputies ... Igor Lutsenko, in particular, and 3-4 other people's deputies told me: "Pascal considers you the third (meaning Deputy Interior Minister Vasily Paskal, whom the district court of appeal at the end of May allowed not to lustrate - note ed.).

Where were you on the day of Elder's murder?

From 16 to 20 April I was in Kyiv. 99 percent - that he was at home. Elderberry was killed around lunchtime, and I didn’t leave the house before three or four. You can pick up my telephone conversations and make sure, prove innocence.

Could Buzina be killed by your comrades, driven by false patriotic convictions, say, hatred for a pro-Russian writer?

Medvedko is a person from a new generation of activists, an experienced nationalist, a good manager, he is not corrupt, and he can do a lot of things.

It's strange to put so much effort into killing Elderberry. For what? And after all, there were two murders - first, Kalashnikov (“regionalist” Kalashnikov was also shot in Kyiv the day before - ed.), then Buzin - it seems that the group worked there. Actually, this is a dark one. And the police initially did not try to investigate, they decided to hang it on the radical nationalists.

And here, after all, the Russian special services could be involved. Elderberry in Russia was a frequent guest, and for them it was - yes, noticeable: Oles Buzina himself disappeared from the air! And in Ukraine they forgot about him. And therefore this murder is beneficial only to Russia. But the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine did not consider this version at all. Now Putin's Russia is absolutely satisfied, and Avakov did a good job - how "well" everything was investigated.

The experience of falsification, planting evidence - the Ministry of Internal Affairs has a million. In the "case of Medvedko and Polishchuk" there is an adjustment. Inconvenient witnesses are thrown out of the case. And the apotheosis is traces of DNA. Traces of Medvedko were found on 2 masks, and there were no traces of Polishchuk at all. No traces of them were found in the car either.

And yet you did not answer - could your comrades kill Buzina for ideological reasons? How well do you know Andrey Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk?

I don't know Polishchuk very well - I saw him at public actions, maybe - at the birthday party of one of my mutual friends. I know Medvedko very well, for five years already. And I think that he could not decide to take such a step - to kill someone. Moreover, during this period. When he concentrated on officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He believed that it was possible and necessary to work not with the help of terror, but to do it more effectively by influencing society.

Andrei wanted to engage in serious lustration of officials, he collected information on the Maidan - facts about those employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who abducted the Maidanists. And I collected quite a lot.

Could Medvedko threaten the Ministry of Internal Affairs with this information he collected?

He has already begun to threaten (interfere) with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Literally in the week when he was “packed”, an appeal meeting was to be held on the lustration of Pascal.
He drew the attention of deputies and journalists to this issue (to the personality of Pascal). Previously, he was in the Kyiv-2 battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but he specifically quit to do just that.

But this is in May. And where was he after all in April, when Oles Buzina was killed?

As far as I know, Medvedko went to sector M, to sector C, he was a sniper's assistant... At that time, he no longer fought, but he visited the ATO regularly. Traveled to a friend.

Could be in Kyiv?

Theoretically, yes, and I don't know where he was on the day of Elder's murder, but I think that both Elder's murder and Medvedko's landing are useful to Putin. Remove experienced nationalists who can work with their brains. And therefore, they didn’t even raise the issue of bail on him - they want to put him in jail.

I do not remember that Medvedko showed any special joy or interest in these events (the murders of Oleg Kalashnikov, Oles Buzina). At the level of domestic malicious jokes there were some statements, no more.

The level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not high, they have not been doing anything since the time of Yanukovych, except for the persecution of activists. One of the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told us that when they adopted the new Code of Criminal Procedure, they focused on political activists, and generally launched work on crime. They had a good base - both compromising evidence and personal data. And when the opportunity arose for someone to throw off a resonant case, they immediately took up their base in order to close the “tail” and get even.
And since what year and on what occasion have you personally been in the police base?

I think, somewhere since 2008 ... We then actively took part in actions. Fight against illegal construction. And when the student Igor Indil was killed, they organized a march in his support.

The first case against me was fabricated in February 2013. Then Minister Zakharchenko dragged everyone for interrogations, if only to make me "the organizer of the attempt on the life of a statesman." And it meant that we threw snowballs.

BP had a rally and about 5 deputies threw snowballs. I don’t know which of them specifically “I wanted to kill”, but according to the version of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I led a group of people who threw snowballs. I was there, I performed, but I did not rush. I'm not on the video where deputies are thrown with snowballs. The situation, in a word, is similar to today's: I did not throw snowballs, so they decided to make me the organizer of the assassination attempt. On April 16, I was in Kyiv, which means that I should be cast as the organizer of the murder of Buzina.

When it was with snowballs, we greatly interfered with Popov (Alexander Popov, who acted as mayor - ed.) with our opposition to developers, we beat his reputation. And, as we were told in the prosecutor's office, there is an order for our landing from Popov. Popov personally asked Yanukovych to shut down our group of activists.

And in the spring of 2013, they switched to acts of intimidation. Attacks began with brass knuckles in the porches on activists of all patriotic organizations - already on the defenders of Gostiny Dvor, and on C14, and on Svobodovites, and on football fans - there were 25 attacks. And it was not criminals who attacked, but employees of the special detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When we caught them in the yard of Medvedko - in May 2013, we found a concealed police radio and a hidden video camera in their possession. They documented all the attacks and submitted reports to someone.

But after we caught them and posted the video on YouTube, the attacks stopped. Those that we caught - they were representatives of the 7th department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (criminal intelligence).

Was there an investigation into these facts? Did the victims make statements?

No investigation was carried out. Those who were caught - they were not even fired. Although there were moderate and severe injuries. They also waited for me under the house, but they mixed me up and attacked my brother. They broke my brother's skull bones, they said: "Don't go to the actions anymore . " He underwent surgery, and then recovered and even then began to walk (he used to be apolitical).

Some of the victims were detained back in 2006; they had not been participants in political actions for a long time, but fell under the system of fan terror. There was one attack on a guy who was just a musician, but walked through the base as a nationalist - a victim of the Ministry of Internal Affairs statistics, one might say. So - there the entire leadership of the district came to him to persuade the musician's family not to write a statement. He was listed in the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as a detained participant in the UPA march, he fell under the distribution by accident.

And the investigation into the snowballs continued, and "on the run" were not those who attacked the activists, but activists. And then I realized that they would either kill me or put me in jail. And then the Maidan began, and these - from the 7th department - watched the Maidanists, watched Igor Lutsenko, Tanya Chornovol, Alexander Danilyuk ... This 7th department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was involved in arsons during the Maidan and abductions. He should deal with serious gangs, but he really destroys activists. They themselves say that they were only watching. But maybe they killed people on the Maidan. What according to Gongadze their "outdoor" ended - everyone knows that.

I read that Medvedko, Polishchuk and you were followed even before Elderberry was murdered. When did you notice the "outdoor"?

I can't prove that this is surveillance. But back in December, when I returned home, I began to notice. There were incidents in January. Strange stories - either the alarm goes off, or our activist Sergei Bondar's neighbors noticed that someone was fumbling under the bottom of the car. They might say it's paranoia. Yes, we ourselves thought in the winter that it was the separatists who were watching us. I don’t remember that I noticed that I was being followed in April, but when we met with former employees of the 7th department, it definitely was. Surveillance was so obvious that we tried to film these "tramplers", so they slept. It was in February. And the real terror began after we launched a campaign for the resignation of Pascal.

The surveillance story resembles the "Nemtsov case" - it turns out that if Medvedko had killed Buzina, it would have happened in front of the employees of this department - the police officers were either witnesses to the murder, or witnesses to the alibi ...

In general, it now seems to me that this Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs could work on Buzina. And at the same time deal with old enemies.

The police have not been updated since the flight of Yanukovych - both at the level of leadership and at the level of operatives from the 7th department. Everyone remained in their places. And today, the Maidan authorities are already defended by the police of Yanukovych.

That is, do you consider those who watched you to be involved in the murder of Elderberry?

Some special services could be involved here. And the 7th department, and one of Pascal's people - because he gathers the most odious people around him. There may also be the Donetsk Ministry of Internal Affairs, which supplied its people to the Maidan to work (I know for sure that the Donetsk "seven" worked for Kyiv activists). UBOP officers may be involved here, and Crimean cops may also be involved. These are all the people who worked for the activists under Yanyk, they continue to work even now.

Please clarify what does the word "work" mean in this context?

We have collected facts on "sevens". About the kidnappings of people from the Maidan, who were later found dead. And about the cars burned during the Maidan. And this is one of the reasons - why we are being "wet" now. They understand that we are at the finish line. But they worked with Medvedko and Polishchuk a little inefficiently. Because this process cannot be stopped. We shared information with people's deputies, and not only.

Are you implying that you have information that could cost your life?

The details of Medvedko's detention are interesting here. The car in which Andrei Medvedko was driving was shot. It has about 20 bullet holes. Some of the detainees fired into the air, but we managed to find out that it was good to destroy Medvedko during the arrest. But those who delayed, they sabotaged the order.

There was an order to kill, you think?

Yes, I believe that there was an order to "resolve all issues" by killing during detention.

Moreover, the car in which Medvedko was driving was someone else's, he was driving in someone else's car with its owner, and they threatened the life of an outsider when they fired on the passenger side. If the whole group had fired, they would have killed for sure. But those who detained him, they imitated the execution of the order - the luggage compartment and the back seat were riddled.
Medvedko had in his hands a list of Kyiv apartments where cops live in the places of people who died or went missing. The scheme according to which they work: both the Organized Crime Control Department and the "seven" - are looking for an apartment where a lonely person lives, then he goes missing and a policeman settles in the apartment. In Kyiv, there are such special cop cemeteries with unofficial burials of unfortunate apartment owners who had no relatives.Medvedko had a list of such apartments in his hands. Medvedko encroached on the Cop's holy of holies - apartments in Kyiv, which were their business.

When we went to war, rumors continued to come: "The cops won't forgive you, the cops have a grudge against you." I waved it off (it can't be, Maidan won), and now they laugh at me - soldiers, volunteers, counterintelligence workers, my friend from the SBU: "Ah, the organizer of the murder of Buzina, how, how, they heard."

They tell me not to do stupid things. It was the Facebook minister who did something stupid when he said about the "third detainee." And later, Artem Shevchenko threw out a bogus tale that "the third detainee was released." But in fact, they robbed several apartments under the guise of "detaining the killers of Elderberry" and did not figure out that I was already in the ATO. Yanukovych sewed an "assassination attempt with a snowball" on me, and Yanukovych's under-illustrated cops are molding the organizer of the murder.

From the author: the version expressed by Karas about the possible involvement of the 7th department (the so-called police intelligence department) in the murder of Buzina does not seem so absurd, if we remember that this department was directly related to the murder of Georgy Gongadze, helped to hide from responsibility to General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexei Pukach, and was also mentioned in connection with the strange suicide of ex-Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Kravchenko.
The 7th department carries out "covert" (secret) surveillance in the conduct of operational-search activities. The physical elimination of criminal authorities is associated with the work of this department during the tenure of Yuri Kravchenko.

Recall that on April 16, at about 13.30 in Kyiv, in the courtyard of his own house, the infamous publicist Oles Buzina was killed. At that time, there was a live broadcast of Vladimir Putin in Moscow, who immediately commented on the incident in his favor: in Ukraine, they are cracking down on dissidents. Eyewitnesses of the crime reported two men who, having shot the writer, fled in a car with foreign numbers. The police said that Oles Buzina, according to preliminary data, was shot with a TT pistol. Then the gun was called the "Nagant" revolver. Weapon not found.

On June 18, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov announced the disclosure of the murder and named the names of two detainees - 25-year-old Andriy Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk. As the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Artem Shevchenko reported on Facebook, there was also a third detainee in the case of the murder of a publicist who was released.

The detainees are activists of the C14 nationalist association. Medvedko served in the battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Kyiv 2", Polishchuk - commanded a platoon in the 54th reconnaissance brigade.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs considers the data of genetic examinations of the car and clothes of the killers and the materials of covert surveillance conducted by operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in relation to the suspects as weighty evidence.

According to Artem Shevchenko, the data of DNA examinations, together with the testimony of several witnesses and an analysis of telephone traffic, gave reason to suspect Medvedko and Polishchuk. But, according to people's deputy and Kyiv activist Igor Lutsenko, no traces of Polishchuk and Medvedko were found in the car in which, according to the investigation, the killers moved.

According to the lawyer of the detainees, Sergei Voichenko, an employee of the MAF, where the killers bought coffee, described men 10 years older than the suspects (about 40 years old), who spoke to each other using criminal jargon.

Interviewed by Tatyana Zarovnaya

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