In October 1994, in the small Arkhangelsk town of Velsk, a second grader, Ira Krasheninina, was brutally murdered.

Local detectives did not manage to solve the crime in hot pursuit, and officers of the Criminal Investigation Department from Arkhangelsk came to their aid.

It was they who drew attention to a simple village guy, a pupil of an orphanage with a criminal past, Sergei Mikhailov.

On the day of the murder, the young man came to Velsk.

There was no evidence against him.

But he was placed in an isolation ward and tortured to extract a confession.

As a result, Mikhailov was sentenced to capital punishment.

A moratorium on the death penalty saved him from being shot.

The real criminal was caught in 1996, but Mikhailov, despite this, was only able to be released in 2001.

Later, the courts found out the details of the torture that was applied to Mikhailov.

But no one was punished for this arbitrariness.

Difficult childhood

- Sergei, tell us about your childhood.

- I was born in 1973 in Velsk.

I have never seen my father, not even in a photograph.

And I ended up in the orphanage after my mother was deprived of parental rights.

Then there were such kindergartens that you could stay there for five days, and then the children were taken away for the weekend.

Well, a couple of times she didn't.

I can't say she was drinking or anything.

On the contrary, she took care of me, I was her favorite child, although after me she gave birth to three more from different men.

I lasted the longest in the family - up to five years, the rest of the children took custody from her much earlier.

I know that two sisters died.

One, I think, was helped, she did not do very good things, I warned her that it would not end well, and so it happened.

- Was it hard in the orphanage?

- At first I was in a boarding school in Novodvinsk, after that I ended up in Velsk, I studied for a year and went to a technical school here.

From the age of 14, we essentially grew up on our own.

Maybe the educators did not see any abilities in us and did not pull us already.

Although I drew well and played well on the pioneer horn, I was fond of balalaika, woodcarving, classical wrestling, boxing, but in the end it all came to naught.

  • Velsk.

    House of Sergei Mikhailov

  • © RT / Anatoly Karavaev

Then he went to Arkhangelsk to study further, and there he contacted a criminal company.

Stalls were robbed, fur hats were removed from people in public toilets, there was such a "fashion" in the 1980s.

Then I returned and lived with my grandmother in Malaya Lipovka - a village nearby.

- As I understand it, did you have a criminal record back in the orphanage period?

- Yes, I took off the guy's jacket, which I liked.

At that time, I did not understand anything in life, I did not think that I needed to work - I saw it, wanted the same one and took it away.

Then, of course, I was very frightened.

But in the end they were given two years probation.

I remember the words of the lawyer who said that it was my happiness that I did not beat him, otherwise I would have sat down.

"The commander was afraid that we would start looting"

- Then there was the army?

- Yes, as the convicted person was sent to a construction battalion, he served in Sergiev Posad near Moscow.

- No serious incidents?

- There, almost immediately, the story also turned out.

The beginning of the 1990s, the times in the army were hungry, the food was very poor.

Well, here we are with the guys and "took" empty country houses.

Eight was successful, on the ninth we ran into neighbors who saw us and detained us.

I tried to escape, they caught up with me and beat me severely with sticks - well, it was my own fault in every sense, what to say.

Then he added one in the unit and dragged me with a completely swollen face to the “lip”.

The "grandfathers" there, of course, were all in shock from me.

They wanted to send me to a disciplinary battalion, but in the end the command offered me to resolve the issue with the victim myself, they didn't know about other dachas, only this one.

They took the money that was there from my account and sent me to the owner of that dacha.

We talked to him normally, well, he realized that I went for it more out of hunger, he even invited me into the house, poured borscht, fed me!

We sat with him, and in the end he signed a waiver of claims, but did not even take the money. 

- Stroybat in the 1990s, and even then, was considered the toughest unit in terms of bullying.

Surely, and you faced this?

- Believe it or not, we didn't have that at all in our unit.

80% of those convicted were convicted, so we all lived not according to the army, but according to prison concepts, like in a camp.

We had our own beholder.

And there, as you put yourself, so you will.

If you immediately began to wash the floors, then you will not be six months, until the next replenishment, but the entire service life.

Therefore, by the way, we did not suppress the riots during the events of 1993 near the White House.

- And should have?

- Well, yes, two "Urals" with shields and clubs came to us somehow, they were supposed to distribute them and send them to Moscow.

But the unit commander refused, said that the majority were convicted, and he was not ready to risk letting us out into the city.

I was afraid that we would start looting there, and it is still unknown which side we will take - Yeltsin or his opponents.

During that period, for two months, they did not let us out of the unit at all.

Although besides the convicts, there were also ordinary guys, but with all sorts of problems - one had a heartache, the other stuttered very badly, could not even say: "Rota, at attention."

The other had one leg shorter than the other, they put him farther away in the formation so that he would not be conspicuous, he could not really march.

- How were they taken into the army?

I don’t know, maybe that was the time.

Only residents of Krasnodar were discharged from us, because in the very first month they began to indulge in drugs, they found grass somewhere, and they were screened out.

After being drafted on the road from Velsk to Moscow, the people actively fled.

I remember, I still did not understand - where are they running, why?

On the contrary, I wanted to serve, twist the tails of the cows in Malaya Lipovka, or what?

And there, as in a boarding school, with full support - they will feed them and teach them how to live.

After the army, I got a job in a village as a watchman on a cattle yard on a collective farm.

But then we did not pay money at all, they lent bread on record, and everyone dragged where he could.

I had access to compound feed.

  • Sergei Mikhailov with his grandmother as a child

  • © RT

Brutal murder

- Was it fatal for you that on the day of the murder, October 4, 1994, you happened to be in Velsk?

- Yes, I went to the doctor.

I grazed cattle in the village, slept on the ground and chilled my back.

I went and came back.

A month later, they came for me.

I was shocked and bewildered why the OMON squad was thrown at me.

And in Velsk, the Arkhangelsk operas were already working, they were sent, because a lot of time had passed since the murder, and ours could not find anyone.

They ask: "Where was I on such and such a number?"

He said that he came to the hospital, and also went to see a friend.

And they ask, and at such and such a time where was he?

I was walking down the street, I say, then the rain was still drizzling so fine.

Who did you go with? 

Yes, one walked.

Well, that's all.

So, they say, it was you who killed.

These are now cameras, billing systems, but then there was none of this.

- So you didn't have an alibi?

- Did not have.

But there was a witness who saw a guy in a denim jacket and black trousers near the murder scene at about the same time.

Then there was such a fashion, and I also walked like that.

They decided, since everything coincides, then it’s me.

At first I thought it was a mistake, I denied it.

But when I was beaten for the first time, I realized that everything was serious.

- No matter how dashing the 1990s were then, this is clearly not enough to convict a person of murder.

What else did they have on their hands?

- The offender dropped a bunch of keys at the scene of the murder.

One key was specially selected for the pigsty in our collective farm.

Although I was guarding the barn, this is a completely different building.

And the lock there is such that any swindler will open it with a teaspoon.

- And what about the rest of the keys?

- I told them about it - one came up, okay, and the rest from what?

And they say that I, apparently, specially wore them, like a thief, in order to pick up strangers under the locks.

I was initially detained for 15 days for allegedly being rude to the district police officer.

This Vanya has known me since childhood, made excuses later that he did not know that I was facing a "watchtower", he said, he was forced.

I didn't even see him then, how could I get nasty on him?

They just needed an excuse to get recognition out of me.

And on the second day after the arrest, beatings began.

The inmates with whom I was for 15 days were all amazed that they would take me away in the evenings and bring me with a broken face.

- How did it all happen?

- One sits nearby, asks questions, it is wrong, in their opinion, you answer - immediately a blow with a fist.

And the second gave such a hard slap in the face. 

- Was there a lawyer during these interrogations?

- What kind of lawyer are you?

I was, as it were, under administrative arrest, that's all.  

- And in the end, serving 15 days for an alleged insult to a district police officer, you suddenly, for no reason at all, wrote a confession under the firing squad?

- Well, yes.

The last straw was the moment when one of the operas grabbed and started the chainsaw.

He was very drunk, swore and yelled that he would cut off my hand if I did not stop misleading the investigation.

After that, I was already broken.

Although then he refused again, and again confessed after the beatings.

I hoped that at the trial it would be possible to somehow prove my innocence, I thought that there would be some kind of expertise.

- And what did they show?

- Nothing.

At the scene of the murder, only fibers from pants were found, no biological traces, no fingerprints.

I already understood that in any case they would "close it", all the more information about the capture of the maniac had already gone upstairs, there were already reports in the media that they had caught the killer.

They also dragged me into compound feed, when I was waiting for the death penalty, they brought a piece of paper that they gave him three years.

- How was the trial?

- Quickly.

They took me in November 1994, and already in April 1995 they shot me.

The girl's parents said at the trial that such a person should not live.

Then absolutely everyone was against me.

The bride left, even my grandmother then said, they say, he has done a business, granddaughter, - answer.

And the uncle, with whom I stayed when I came to Velsk, after my arrest took his daughter, my cousin, to the gynecologist - suddenly I raped her too. 

On death row

- What did you say in the last word, remember?

- I declared that it was not my fault.

He asked not to condemn the innocent, apologized to the child's parents, said that I did not kill your child.

I asked them for forgiveness that it happened, said that I was just forced.

And by the way, I told the judge then that there will be more murders.

I didn't kill, which means that a real maniac is at large and is unlikely to stop.

He snapped back that the court knows better what and how.

Well, in the end it turned out that I was right.

- During the trial, was there an understanding of what threatens you?

- Then it still seemed that this was some kind of terrible dream, life was so joking with me.

Realization came later, when I arrived on death row in Arkhangelsk, when they put on a striped robe.

Then it was covered in full, it became sad that I had not left anything in this world. 

- And when the judge read out the verdict, there was already an inner understanding of what exactly the execution could give, or was it a surprise?

- But why?

The convoy there told me that if you confess, they will give me 15 years, and if not, they will be shot.

Although I was still hoping for a "killer whale" - a cassation appeal.

But everything was left in force.

I wrote it wrong.

I talked about my life there, but it was necessary to be more competently legally.

A few days after the verdict, they were taken to the Arkhangelsk pre-trial detention center, to the death row.

There in the block there were only 15 people like me, sentenced to death.

- How did you sit there?

You were still a completely inexperienced prisoner at that time.

- The camera is tiny at all, without a window.

There is one photo from there - when the journalists began to come to me, they somehow persuaded me to allow it to be taken.

  • Sergei Mikhailov on death row in the Arkhangelsk pre-trial detention center

  • © RT

Books were saved, there were many different ones, and I read a lot.

They even gave books so that the torn sheets could be burned and the chifir could be boiled.

There were no outlets, and the chifir had to be cooked somehow.

The librarian knew that the books would be burned anyway, so she gave out that literature for the chifir, which was not particularly a pity.

- Where did the matches come from?

- All the pre-trial detention center collected "common fund" for us, and the deputy chief of the prison delivered to us - for each of them 10 packs of cigarettes and a packet of tea a month.

After all, the administration understood that if we, “death row prisoners,” and some of them had 4-5 trips, were also deprived of chifir or smoke, they themselves would be worse off.

People will start to brawl, why do they need these problems?

Therefore, for the entire period I did not suffer much in this regard, so that something was missing.

- That is, the authorities were adequate?

- Yes, absolutely.

On New Year's Eve, the head of the pre-trial detention center Hrachya Khamoyan himself brought a spruce twig to each "suicide bomber" and congratulated them: "Happy New Year, guys."

He sincerely wanted everything to be fine, so that we would not be shot.

In general, I can only say good things about Khamoyan.

- Psychologically, how hard was it there?

- Back then, suicide bombers were not allowed to walk, and from April 1995 to the summer of 1997 I did not see any sunlight at all.

Every 10 days we were taken to the bathhouse.

And thanks to the clear periodicity, we ourselves counted the days on a piece of paper, kept a calendar so as not to get confused with the dates.

And if suddenly the steps outside the door are not on the tenth day, then immediately thoughts - well, everything, your turn.

And at night I generally listened to any movement and rustle, because they can follow you.

This expectation of death was already so pressing that at times I did not want to live.

Once I decided not to wait for these steps outside the door, all the more I realized that I had been sitting for a long time and, in theory, should soon be used up.

But the suicide attempt was unsuccessful.

- What do you mean "have been sitting for a long time"?

“People were on death row in Arkhangelsk for a year or a year and a half until they were shot.

And at that moment I had been sitting for more than a year and was in constant expectation.

Miraculously, they didn't have time to execute me before the moratorium.

- Do you remember at least something bright from that time?

- I believed in God.

Father came to us about once a year, and I hit him twice.

He gave the Bible, many then let them on hand-rolled - thin sheets, suitable.

But I couldn't do that, I'd better make it out of a newspaper.

We had one funny case on this topic.

One "suicide bomber" came to us, in general he did not stay long with us, on a "killer whale", apparently, his death sentence was commuted.

He decided to confess somehow and summoned the priest to him.

He comes, in a cassock, everything is as it should be, the "feeding trough" opens in the cell door - that's how you asked, the priest came to you.

And this guy looked out the window and immediately began to curse this priest, send him to hell.

It turned out that this was a disguised opera - he had already seen him on the second floor of the pre-trial detention center.

In general, the performance did not work out, and the "father" did not hear any secret confessions.

- For some time you sat with the maniac Yusupov, who loved to talk about his crimes.

But sitting in "solitary confinement" is also torture for many, it is very difficult without communication.

What was easier for you personally? 

- Better alone.

When you constantly hear all these wild bloody details, which I did not even ask him about, it is very difficult.

Well, I would have been like him, but I’m a normal person, I didn’t touch anyone, it was unbearable for me to listen to all this - I was afraid to go crazy.

As a result, I had to hit him a couple of times so that I would not get it.

- Did someone visit you in prison?

- Nobody went or wrote.

Everyone turned away from me.

Later, when the case went towards acquittal, they found out about me, then the public figures came, and the lawyer appeared.

- During the time that you were on death row, how many people were shot?

- With me alone.

We had such a Valera, on his conscience six corpses.

When they took him out, I heard how they gave him some kind of injection, but they didn't get into a vein, he swore there.

Finally, before his death, they gave me some fruit to eat.

He said goodbye to us loudly, we with him - well, that's all, we took us away.

Nobody else was shot.

The majority, like me, thanks to Yeltsin's moratorium, the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment.

  • Sergei Mikhailov looks at a photograph of his children

  • © RT / Anatoly Karavaev

Long road to freedom

- What saved you is that the police managed to catch a real criminal, but this only happened after another murder and rape of another eight-year-old girl in November 1996.

Moreover, in almost the same place in Velsk.

- Yes, then Vaschenko also came from Arkhangelsk, at first it seemed like they took the wrong one again, but in the end they sorted it out.

I have one acquaintance, and this killer, Alexander Kozlov, was from their company.

He himself is such a person, inconspicuous, gray.

They talked to him because he had money, and so, he sometimes told them about these murders, about children.

They did not believe him, but at some point they realized that he was not lying and went to the police.

Kozlov is a real maniac and pedophile.

He had several more unsuccessful attempts to attack children.

And the same bunch of keys found at the scene of Ira's murder turned out to be from his apartment and the apartment of his grandmother.

They also found the girl's diary, which he took for himself immediately after the murder.

- Did he admit everything himself, or did they also "help"?

- Myself.

And when he remembered and started talking about "my" murder, the Arkhangelsk cops directly told him: "Shut up, he is already imprisoned for that murder."

I was told this by the Welsh operas later, who initially considered me innocent.

Because of this, then two people from the police were even fired.

- For what exactly?

- They believed that since a real killer was found, then it turns out that I should be released and acquitted.

It is clear that the Arkhangelsk people, who may have received some titles for my capture, did not like such conversations. 

- What happened to this Kozlov in the end?

- He was given only 15 years for the rape and murder of two girls.

Later, I met him in person at the zone, in appearance and you would not say that he could have done such a thing.

- That is, he was already in prison for the murder of Ira, and you were still in prison for the same crime? 

- Yes.

Kozlov, by the way, served the entire term and got out.

Friends told me that he was told that it was better not to stay in Velsk, he left for another area and had already arrived there with some woman from Oryol, he seemed to have met her by correspondence, I don’t know for sure.

About a year passed, and he raped a girl of three and a half years, but at least he did not kill.

For this they gave him 12 years.

- There are no words.

Why was he then given only 15 years?

- And what was it like for me to realize all this, can you imagine?

I was shot for one child, whom I did not touch with a finger, and this one was given only 15 years for two rapes and murders, for these unsuccessful attempts.

I don't know why, but when I found out about such a period, I immediately remembered that conversation I had with the guards: if you confess, they will be given 15 years, no, they will be shot.

Козлов же явку с повинной сразу оформил, всё рассказал, видимо, это ему и зачли. А он потом по новой начал. 

— Несмотря на то, что Козлов дал показания, вас не спешили оправдывать и выпускать. Уже когда вы сидели, вдруг появился ещё один эпизод. Якобы ещё до ареста вы в Малой Липовке изнасиловали трёх малолетних сестёр. 

— С сёстрами было так. Их всего четыре сестры, у них сломался магнитофон, и старшая попросила одну из младших сестёр-тройняшек, им было лет 9—10, отнести ко мне починить. Все знали, что ко мне можно обратиться с этим. Я припаял динамик, отдал, и она ушла. Потом второй динамик сломался, попросила вторую сестру сходить ко мне. А по версии следствия, я всех трёх сестёр по очереди и изнасиловал.

Мама их в тот момент была где-то в санатории, дома был один папа, и он с милицией согласился на эту сделку, как-то они его убедили, ну и девчонок этих.

— Зачем им это надо было?

— Очернить меня, чтобы не выглядел таким белым и пушистым. К тому времени было ясно, что это не я убивал. Про меня уже много писала иностранная пресса, очень многим это не нравилось. И им надо было лицо сохранить, показать, что не такой я хороший, вот, мол, вы его защищаете, а он детей насиловал.

  • Фрагмент старой тюремной робы Сергея Михайлова, в которой он недолго отбывал пожизненное заключение
  • © RT / Анатолий Караваев

А я что, из камеры смертников сам туда, на Запад, обращался, что ли? Они сами про меня узнали и стали писать о моём деле.

Когда я ещё сидел, мне один из следователей, который должен был меня освободить, сказал, что провели повторную экспертизу сестёр и выяснили, что никакого изнасилования не было, и что судмедэксперт в Вельске продала меня за две бутылки водки, дав милиционерам нужное заключение о насилии.

Мама девочек тоже делала экспертизу, когда им было уже лет 14 уже — она показала, что они ещё девственницы. Она потом со мной виделась, плакала, уверяла, что если бы она была дома, такого оговора никогда бы не произошло.

— Как в итоге удалось выйти на волю?

— Несмотря на поимку Козлова, только третий по счёту следователь, он был уже не из нашей, а из Вологодской области, добился того, что моё дело было пересмотрено. Два первых устанавливали мою невиновность, но прокуратура Архангельской области в Генпрокуратуру эти материалы не отправляла, и всё стопорилось. А через Вологду, наконец, получилось.

Помню, когда ко мне пришёл первый из них, Карманов, он сказал: «Всё Серёга, ты невиновен, мы поймали настоящего убийцу, ты через два-три месяца выйдешь на свободу». У меня потом в камере истерика была, я рыдал и говорить не мог. Хотя поначалу, конечно, я его в штыки принял, думал, хотят на меня ещё кого-то «повесить».

— В это трудно поверить, но с момента поимки Козлова до вашего освобождения прошло около пяти лет.

— Да, пока ждал свободы, мне смертную казнь успели заменить на пожизненное заключение и отправить в колонию особого режима, где и встречал Козлова. В колонии, кстати, было намного хуже, чем в камере смертников: условия жёстче, постоянные побои без повода, питание похуже. Я там просидел восемь месяцев, и порой казалось, что меня специально в петлю загоняют.

В итоге освободился только летом 2001 года. По эпизоду с липовым изнасилованием сестёр Генпрокуратура приговор почему-то не опротестовывала, и мне по нему дали срок. А так как я уже на тот момент отсидел около семи лет, то формально выпустили по УДО.

Кстати, ещё когда я сидел, и шло разбирательство, почему меня посадили по ошибке, приводили на очную ставку следователя Ващенко. Помню, я так разволновался, что сам их попросил прикрепить меня к стулу, чтобы я не кинулся на него. А он сидел спокойно, говорил, что пальцем меня не трогал. В итоге дослужился до генерала, кажется. Никого из архангельских оперов к ответственности не привлекли.

Потеря жены и детей

— Как сложилась ваша жизнь после освобождения?

— Я понимал тогда, что мне нужна семья, я без неё пропаду — эта мысль крепко сидела. Сначала поехал в деревню к тёте Миле, матери Сергея Юрочко, она жила тут неподалёку. Я с ним познакомился в СИЗО в Архангельске, его и Женю Медникова те же самые опера под руководством Ващенко вместе с зэками из пресс-хат так обработали, что они взяли на себя убийство маленькой девочки из их же семьи.

В итоге двум дали «вышку», ещё одному 15 лет, так мама этой девочки больше всех ходила и просила за них, добивалась их оправдания. В итоге добилась, их тоже оправдали, тоже нашумевшая история была.

Вот полгода где-то у неё побыл, откормился немного, пришёл в себя, потом вернулся в Вельск. Был страх, конечно, я же там для многих маньяк-убийца, но вроде нормально. Через несколько недель после приезда познакомился с Любой, будущей женой. 

— Чем зарабатывали на жизнь после тюрьмы?

— Начал с грузчика. Когда столько лет лет сидишь в камере без работы, тяжело поначалу физическим трудом заниматься. Но привык постепенно, был кладовщиком, потом отучился на кочегара, стал работать им. Это не так просто, как кажется — угли накидал лопатой и всё, тут умение нужно. Поработал пару лет, мастер видит, что я не пью, нормально всё делаю — и меня отправили учиться на газовое оборудование. Потом был период — вагоны разгружал, платили там хорошо. Потом была своя мастерская по окнам, делал москитные сетки. Сейчас мебель делаю, работаю по заказам.

— Как сложилась ваша семейная жизнь?

— Печально. После рождения второго сына жена сгорела от рака груди и умерла. А детей у меня забрали.

— Как так?

— Долгая история, но так получилось, что они оказались на руках у её сестры. Когда жена уже сильно болела, я уехал на заработки в Благовещенск. Надо было оставить на кого-то детей. Сестра жены согласилась приглядеть, если я оформлю на неё опекунство. Выбора не было, и пришлось пойти на это. А когда Любы не стало, вдруг оказалось, что всё, я как бы от них отказался таким образом. 

— Пытались за них бороться?

— Да, но мне в опеке старшая у них, хорошая тётка в принципе, прямо сказала: «Серёга, мы тебе не можем их вернуть».

— Почему?

— По её словам, так как я совсем один и у меня вообще не осталось никаких родственников. Был бы хоть кто-то за плечами, может быть, вернули. Ну и добавила, что вдобавок я ещё в тюрьме был, поэтому они детей мне просто не могут отдать. А когда было в суде разбирательство, то судья, читая мою биографию, говорит, что, мол, судимый.

Я ему говорю, что я же оправдан был. А он мне: «Ну вы же там были?».

Я и не знал даже, что ответить на это. Прав на детей меня окончательно лишили. Хотя у меня и дом был свой уже, и все условия, а у сестры жены даже собственного жилья не было, мыкалась долго потом по съёмным квартирам. Дети так и живут с ней в Вельске, старшему уже почти 18 лет, поддерживаю с ними отношения.

— С криминалом завязали?

— Поначалу прошлое периодически догоняло, дружки приезжали часто, но люди видят — у меня семья, ребёнок, и потихоньку как бы всё это блатное отошло в сторону, к счастью. Когда жена умерла, я ушёл в сильный запой. Долг по алиментам образовался в 17 тысяч рублей, и я тогда сам попросил приставов, чтобы меня оформили за неуплату и отправили ненадолго в колонию-поселение прийти в себя как-то. Почитал Библию, заглянул в себя, и в голове как-то прочистилось.

— Вы много лет не общались со СМИ, хотя раньше о вас говорили во всём мире. Все про вас забыли?

— Последний раз в середине 2000-х был на ток-шоу у Андрея Малахова в Москве. Поехали с женой. Помню, тогда ещё мэром был Юрий Лужков, и он там в студии был и лично обещал нам, у меня уже тогда первенец был, однокомнатную квартиру в столице. Мол, если вас там в Вельске как-то обижают, то мы поможем. Вот до сих пор всё жду.

— За незаконное уголовное преследование положена серьёзная компенсация, в вашем случае, по идее, она должна была быть очень значительной.

— Мне ничего не выплатили.

  • Сергей Михайлов у себя дома
  • © RT / Анатолий Караваев

— Но почему? Неужели этот вопрос не поднимался?

- I went up, but they made it clear to me that since you applied abroad, told something there, then nothing will happen to you.

And after that program at Malakhov's, two came to me in Velsk, I don't even know where they were from, and explained in a popular way that if I appear on the blue screen again, there will be big troubles and they will "close" me again.

Of course, I told such things that up there we hardly liked it.

Then, of course, I was very scared for my family.

And I finally realized that if I keep leaning out, demanding something, then there may be problems.

I didn’t believe in justice then, nor now - this is not Moscow, who should I turn to, if anything?

But then there was fear for my wife and child, and now I am no longer afraid - there is nothing to lose and no one to lose.