Igor Bezler

Lieutenant Colonel Igor Bezler
Nickname(s)	"Bes" (Demon)
Born	(1965-12-30) 30 December 1965 Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Soviet Union  Russia[1]
Service/branch	Donbass People's Militia
Rank	Major General of the "Donetsk People's Republic"
Battles/wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan Donbass War
Awards	Order of the Red Star

Igor Nikolayevich Bezler (Russian: Игорь Николаевич Безлер; born 1965, Simferopol,^[2] Crimean Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is one of the pro-Russian leaders whose group controlled the local police department in Horlivka.^[3] He thus participates in the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine and is said to have also participated in the 2014 Crimean crisis.

Biography

Bezler's father, Nikolai Bezler, was ethnic German (original spelling of his surname in German - Besler), his mother was ethnic Ukrainian, but he considers himself Russian.^[4] It is also known that many of his relatives, Russian Germans of Crimea were oppressed in Soviet period and moved from Crimea to Kazakhstan.

In 1994-97 Bezler studied at the Dzerzhinsky Military Academy.^[5][6]

The Security Service of Ukraine claims that until 2002 he served in detachments of the Russian General Staff GRU retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.^[7] In 2002 Bezler moved to Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian officials, in February 2014 he was contacted by agents of the Russian General Staff GRU. Complying with their instructions, Bezler supposedly moved to Crimea where he participated in number of violent events connected with taking over of military installations and government facilities. In April 2014, as a member of a diversion group, Bezler helped take over the SBU (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny) headquarters in Donetsk Oblast and the MVS district department in Horlivka.^[8]

On April 14, 2014, a YouTube video showed a man claiming to be a lieutenant colonel of the Russian army addressing police officers^[9] at the pro-Russian-held Horlivka police station^[10] and naming a new police chief.^[9]

The man was subsequently identified as Bezler. Ukraine accused him and Igor Strelkov of orchestrating the killing of Horlivka deputy Volodymyr Ivanovych Rybak.^[11][12] Bezler denies his involvement.^[13]

MH17 involvement

On July 17, 2014, 2 minutes before the crash of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 MH17, Bezler received a phone call from an informant called "Naimanets" ^[14] suggesting that a "high flying bird" was heading his way. At 4:40 p.m. Kyiv time, 20 minutes after the crash of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 MH17, Bezler reports to a person identified by Ukraine’s SBU as Vasili Geranin, a colonel in the main intelligence department of the general headquarters of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, regarding the shooting down of a plane.^[15] Bezler has said that the talk had really taken place but that he had talked about a Ukrainian attack aircraft shot down by the militia a day before the Malaysian airliner crash.^[16]

Shaun Walker, a reporter for The Guardian, claims that Bezler "is regarded as something of a loose cannon, even by other rebels, who speak about him in hushed tones." When Walker interviewed Bezler with the hope of asking him about the MH17 crash, Bezler reportedly bragged that he summarily executes some of the combatants he captures: "Those who are fighting with the Ukrainian army, we keep as prisoners. Those who are fighting with volunteer battalions, we question them and then shoot them on the spot. Why should we show any pity to them?... You should see what they have done to my people. They chop off their heads and shit in the helmets! They are fascists! So why should we stand on ceremony with them? Questioning, an execution, that’s it. I will hang those fuckers from lampposts!". According to Walker, when Bezler saw the journalists recording this conversation, he ordered, "Burn their notebooks! Seize their electronics! Search everything for compromising material and then destroy it! If you find anything, execute them as spies!... Don’t think for one minute I will hesitate to have you shot."^[17]

Post MH17

In November Bezler has disappeared from public sight in Donbass and speculations about his death was circulated by some Ukrainian media (including a version that he was assassinated by Russian special services). LNR representatives admitted "he left Donbass" but rejected the claims about his death as fake.^[18] A video appeared on YouTube by end of November in which Bezler appeared, explaining he's alive and stayin in Poltava Oblast (Ukraine).^[19]

On December 19, 2014, Bezler was placed on the Specially Designated Nationals List by the U.S Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).^[20] This placement prohibits U.S. persons from undertaking any business with him without first obtaining a license from OFAC.

References

External links

• SBU searches for the Russian Lt Colonel who was taking over militia in Horlivka. Ukrayinska Pravda. April 18, 2014
• Ukraine claims Russian military, intelligence behind eastern unrest. Fox News. April 21, 2014