| Vladimir Vasilievich Kvachkov | |
|---|---|
Kvachkov on the cover of his book Dangerous by his Loyalty to Russia, 2006. |
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| Born | August 5, 1948 Kraskino, Russia |
| Education | Ph.D in military science |
| Spouse | Nadezhda Kvachkova[1] |
| Children |
Anna Kvachkova, Kirill Kvachkov |
Vladimir Vasilievich Kvachkov (Russian: Владимир Васильевич Квачков; born 5 August 1948) is an ex-colonel of Russian Military Intelligence service GRU, author and politician. He came to prominence after he was arrested and charged with an attempt to murder Russian politician and businessman Anatoly Chubais. After three years of imprisonment he was acquitted by the court on 5 June 2008.
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Kvachkov was born to a family of a military officer in the urban-type settlement of Kraskino in Khasansky district, Primorsky Krai, Russian SFSR. He spent his childhood in the town of Ussuriysk there his father was transferred soon afterwards.[2][3]
He graduated a Suvorov Military School in 1966 and a Higher Military School in Kiev in 1970.[2][3] Kvachkov started his military service as a commander of a Spetsnaz platoon stationed in Pskov. Later he served in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and Transbaikal Military District.[2]
In 1978-1981 Kvachkov studied at the Frunze Military Academy that he graduated with distinctions.[2] He studied with the same group as Pavel Popovskikh, a military officer later charged and acquitted by court with the contract killing of journalist Dmitry Kholodov.[4]
In 1981 Kvachkov served in Leningrad Military District. In 1983 he was transferred to Afghanistan to lead a brigade of Spetznaz GRU during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The same year he was shell-shocked and had to undergo long medical treatment.[4]
In 1984-1986 Kvachkov served in Pskov, in 1986-1989 he was the Chief of the Staff of a brigade in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In 1989 he became the commander of the 15th GRU Spetznaz brigade located in the Turkestan Military District (since 1992 in Uzbekistan). He took part in military conflicts in Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh War, 1990) and in Tajikistan (Civil war in Tajikistan, 1992).[2][4]
In the beginning of 1990s Kvachkov was a military consultant of the movie Black Shark devoted to Black Shark helicopter pilots and Spetznaz GRU. In the movie he also played a second plane role of a Spetznaz Colonel.[2][4]
In 1994-1999 Kvachkov worked in GRU. In 1997 Kvachkov and Popovskikh (at that time the Chief of Military Intelligence of the Russian Airborne Troops) organized a scientific conference Special Operations and the Need to create the Special Forces branch of the Russian Army (Специальные операции и необходимость создания сил (войск) специального назначения в Вооруженных Силах Российской Федерации). Kvachkov and Popovskikh advocated making spetznaz an arm of service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The reform they proposed was not accepted.[4]
In 1998 Kvachkov retired from the active military service with the rank of colonel. He started to work as a Senior Researcher (старший научный сотрудник) of the Center for Military Strategic Research of Russian Defense Ministry (Центра военно-стратегических исследований Минобороны РФ). He worked on the theory and practice of the modern guerrilla war. The same year he received the Kandidat nauk (equivalent to Ph. D) for his dissertation "Развитие форм боевого применения сил и средств специальной разведки в современных условиях" (Using forces and methods of special intelligence in the modern time). He prepared a Doktor nauk dissertation also devoted to special forces.[4]
Rossiyskaya Gazeta asserts that during the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Kvachkov presented Slobodan Milošević with his plan of an "alternative war". Milošević praised the plan but decided not to escalate the conflict.[3] Rossiyskaya Gazeta also asserted that Kvachkov was the author of the plan to mine the corridor which Chechen fighters led by Shamil Basayev used to break from the siege of Grozny during the Second Chechen War. He received an order for the plan.[4]
On 19 March 2005 Kvachkov was arrested on charges that he was complicit in the attempt to assassinate the head of the RAO UES and politician Anatoly Chubais. The attempt took part two days earlier on 17 March. The armored car carrying Chubais was damaged by a remotely controlled Improvised explosive device. The damaged car was able to continue moving without stopping while the second car carrying Chubais's bodyguards was shot upon. Allegedly the assassins left the scene in the green Saab car registered to Kvachkov. While the first search of Kvachkov's home found nothing of interest the second search found firecracker[5] in Kvachkov's dacha. Kvachkov denied his involvement and refused to help the investigation.[4]
Soon Kvachkov and two other Spetznaz troopers, Alexander Naydenov and Robert Yashin were detained under suspicion of involvement into the assassination. According to the version of the investigators, Vladimir Kvachkov, Naydenov and Yashin as well as Vladimir Kvachkov's son, Alexander Kvachkov and Ivan Mironov, son of former Minister for Media and Information, Boris Mironov conspired to assassinate Chubais. The version was mostly based on the words of a single witness, Igor Karvatko.[4]
In the spring 2006, the court hearings started. The accused maintained that the assassination was staged by Chubais himself. In November–December 2006 Karvatko changed his testimony accusing the investigators in undue pressure and threats. He said that he was abducted by militia soon after assassination attempt and tortured. He agreed to slander defendants after his kidnappers threatened to imprison his wife and showed him a forged protocol of the search in his apartment alleging there had been found illegal ammunition and narcotics. He also provided audio recordings of some of his conversations with militia officers pressuring him. But the judge refused to make an examination of this tape and to file it to the case. Right away after that Karvatko statement the jury panel was dismissed at the request of the prosecutor who stated the jury could no longer remain unbiased when they heard how Karvatko's testimony had been obtained. Only initial Karvatko's testimony had been considered valid by court.[6][7] While the lawyers of the plaintiff insisted that Karvatko was pressured by the suspects and their friends, Tatiana Mironova, mother of another suspect, Ivan Mironov, publicly accused investigators in torturing Karvatko. In December 2006 the court was restarted with the new jury. Finally, after three years of imprisonment Kvachkov, Naydenov and Yashin were acquitted by the court on 5 June 2008.[8][9]
After the acquittal of Kvachkov Chubais made statement telling that he has no doubts that Kvachkov was responsible for the assassination. On the other hand he believes that acquittal of the guilty is better than sentencing of innocent [10]
After the acquittal Kvachkov said: "now I have a chance to finish what I started" meaning his doctoral thesis,[11] but some media quoted it out of context. Still he maintained that he did not participate in the assassination and that it was staged by Chubais himself to divert attention from his business problems [12]
The case returned to court again after the prosecution's appeal. The new trial started on September 29, 2008. The next court session has been postponed until October 13 because only 6 out of 500 potential jurors arrived to court on the day the jury selection was scheduled to begin.[13]
On October 13, 2008 the case was sent by court back to the prosecution after the judge received Kvachkov's case and Ivan Mironov's case as two separate cases. The judge sent both cases back to the prosecutor so that they would be merged into one case.[14]
The trial on a new merged case began on November 23, 2009.[15] On 21 August 2010 the jury has found that there is not enough evidence presented in the persecutor case and acquitted all the defendants.[16]
On December 22 the Supreme Court rejected the prosecutor's appeal and confirmed jury verdict. The next day, Kvachkov's apartment was assaulted by FSB and he was arrested again on charges of rising an insurrection using crossbows. Such cases are processed without jury and secretly, so some media have speculated that the new sentence may not be as successful for defendant as the first one.[17][18] Kvachkov denies new charges and claims about the involvement of Chubais to his arrest. Chubais claimed that new charges are very serious and that Kvachkov is insane.[19][20]
On 2005-12-04, Kvachkov took 30% and won the second place in the byelections of the State Duma deputies at the North-East of Moscow. He lost to Sergey Shavrin from the United Russia.[4]
On 2006-03-12, Kvachkov stood for the State Duma again, now in the Medvedkovo district of Moscow. He was not registered as a candidate by the regional Electoral Commission despite him, Naydenov and Yashin keeping a hunger strike in their prison.[4]
Both times, Moscow organization of "Labour Russia" and Vanguard of Red Youth helped him with his election campaign.[21]
Kvachkov's cell mate at the Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility was former business oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.[22] According to Kvachkov Khodorkovsky is an exception among the oligarchs: "I have not found him intriguing against the state", said Kvachkov.[4]
Khodorkovsky also planned to participate in the Duma byelections for the same seat as Kvachkov.[23] His plan was based on the legal loophole: a convicted felon cannot vote or stand for a parliament, but if his case is lodged with the Court of Appeal he still has all the electoral rights. Unexpectedly it took only a couple of weeks to process Khodorkovsky's appeal, invalidating any of his electoral plans until the end of his sentence.