RIC probes arrest, beating of Russian man on Ukrainian border
MOSCOW. July 8 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee (RIC) has launched a criminal inquiry into an assault on a Russian man by Ukrainian troops on the border in the Luhansk region, RIC spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax on Tuesday.
According to the inquiry, on June 19 Artyom Mikhailenko, who was travelling to Luhansk from Russia's Rostov region, "was stopped by people wearing military uniforms with the chevrons of the Ukrainian Dnepr special-forces unit" at a checkpoint near the village of Shirokiy in Ukraine's Luhansk region.
"Having conducted the inspection and found in the man's cell phone pictures showing him holding a firearm, the men in uniform arrested Mikhailenko and placed him in an isolated reinforced facility located on the grounds of the checkpoint, stole his money and cell phone. Later, six men wearing Ukrainian army uniform arrived at the checkpoint. They beat up the victim, tied him up and moved into a hangar in an unidentified location in the Ukrainian territory, which was not designed for keeping arrested individuals in custody. He was being held there until June 27," Markin said.
"Meanwhile, those present who spoke Ukrainian with a western Ukrainian accent (dialect), used systemic tortures and death threats with the aim to obtain some confession about Mikhailenko's ostensible cooperation with the Russian armed forces," the RIC spokesman said.
"Having finally realized that he was not a military person after all, the kidnappers drove Mikhailenko into the woods 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian city of Belovodsk, fastened him to a tree and vanished. The victim was able to set himself free, hail a vehicle and get back home in the Rostov region," the RIC spokesman said.
The RIC Investigative Directorate for the Southern Federal District has opened a criminal case under Articles 117 and 126 (torture and kidnapping) of the Russian Criminal Code.
A set of investigative and operative measures are in place to find out all the circumstances surrounding these crimes, Markin said.
He said Mikhailenko has already been questioned and the facial composites of his tormentors and kidnappers will be ready soon. Measures will be taken as part of the criminal inquiry to identify these individuals and bring them to account.
"Actually, this case is probably a very eloquent example of what today's Ukrainian militants are, how dashing and bold they really are, but only in fighting unarmed and defenseless civilians. Regrettably, this case is just one of many in a catalogue of provocations staged almost on a daily basis by Ukrainian nationalists on the border with Russia, apparently, in a hope that Russia will take similar retaliatory measures," Markin said.
