In the recent years captain Ulman has become a byword. Some people compare him to colonel Budanov. Somebody reminds the Songmi executor lieutenant Kelly. the only detail associating him with both of them is that all they have under different circumstances become the order of the day and showpiece victims of the judicial machine. But here the similarity comes to end.
Unlike Budanov who had got drunken into personal revelation and punishment of a “sniper”, unlike Kelly who had destroyed Songmi as a punishment, captain Ulman has committed NOTHING beyond the scope of the Field Manual. He has only fulfilled the order after having THREE TIMES (!!!) ascertained if he had understood the order correctly.
“This order seems to have come near 8 p.m. But according to the case file it was 5 p.m., let it be so. The operations officer Perelevsky has signaled to me: “You have got six 200th-s”. A “200th” means a corpse. I say: “I haven’t understood, repeat”. “I repeat: You have got six 200th-s”. I say again: “I haven’t understood if I should kill them all?” “Yes, you should”. So I gave up my doubts that there were combatants in the UAZ minibus. In general, it was a common scouting group with a woman and an old man for coverage. They appear to pose a serious danger as long as there is an order to kill them. I announced the order of the command to my militants and assigned the sub-group for annihilation - lieutenant Kalagansky and warrant officer Voevodin”.
There were no children among the killed, only quite responsible adults, those considered as potential enemy at any war. Having gone through the Chechen war I can testify that dozens of such “peaceful Chechen” groups proved to be common scouting under coverage. Hundreds of our soldiers died after meeting such groups.
I don’t care at all for all human rights activists’ and liberals’ screams. I know what a war is and I know it is not waged in kid-gloves.
A war has some inviolable moral laws. One may not kill for no particular reason, may not kill without an order, may not kill a surrendered enemy, may not rob or pillage.
Ulman hasn’t violated any of these laws.
According to the Field Manual he was in the enemy’s rear, he was fulfilling a combat mission, he did his best to avoid bloodshed, he rendered assistance to the wounded. And he annihilated the enemy according to the order.
I have used this formula purposely. Because the order “to annihilate” relates to the enemy only in an officer’s framework during wartime but such an order is like a God’s one for a special force officer in the enemy’s rear, really “blind” from the point of view of information.
One should realize what special force is and what deep reconnaissance is. A single mistake leaves the group no chance to survive. Scouting groups’ breakdowns from the enemy can be counted on the fingers of one hand even at the Chechen war. But the list of scouts killed while fulfilling their tasks counts to hundreds of names.
A group commander’s confidence to his supervising operations officer is absolute in deep reconnaissance. That’s why the first has a dozen and a half soldiers in his disposition whose lives are entrusted to him and minimal information enough only to fulfill his task and a concrete task he should fulfill. But the second has the complete information content, knowledge of aims and purposes of the whole operation and he is a “Vergil” of some kind leading the group through the obscurity. An operations officer’s order may not be discussed. This principle was worked out by blood of dozens and hundreds of groups fallen in the rear during the Great Patriotic war and a dozen of local wars. It is an axiom of scouting!
I told so many words to make it clear for the reader - Ulman couldn’t ignore the order in any case.
Two independent on each other juries have confirmed it. They answered “No” to the question “Is it evidence that “…Explicitly exceeding his authority Ulman ordered his subordinates to deliver fire to destruction?”
The problem is that Ulman is only the last executive “cog” in the military machine. He has fulfilled the order. That’s all! But there are those who had ordered. For some reason the investigation failed to get them. The problem of “unknown commanders” is almost the most popular among Ulman’s defenders. That’s who should be imprisoned, they say. They say, that’s the “bitch” hiding from the recompense.
But those who try to shuffle off the responsibility from Ulman to an unknown colonel or general dissemble and play the same foul game as the investigation and the authorities.
The problem is not WHO has given the order to annihilate the passengers of the UAZ but what was happening at this moment at the Chechen republic territory? If it was a war then in war-time condition ANY disobedience to military order is considered as resistance and suppressed by any available way. For some reason it never occurs to human rights activists or “humanists” to accuse American patrols and blocks of law violations while they are shooting off dozens of Iraqi cars disobeying to orders. They say, such use of weapon is justified. They don’t care that children, journalists, etc. are being killed in such cars. IT IS LEGAL! One who disobeys stops a bullet.
Nobody accuses American pilots of regular bombardments of wedding corteges or peaceful houses. They fulfill orders.
But for some reason our human rights activists and moralists have a great concern to find those who have ordered captain Ulman to kill the detained Chechens.
Well, if you find colonel “X” who has given this order - would you calm down?
Would it be “justice triumph”?
What a nice justice!
But in fact the problem is that six years ago the authorities decided to put the rebellious province created, armed and hounded by themselves to order by means of its own army but for all this years they didn’t pose an evident problem of LEGALITY of this war.
For all the war-time the authorities failed to give birth to a law of state of emergency at Chechen territory, to form legal principles for troops and headquarters to adhere. It is clear now that action agencies - soldiers, officers and generals who fulfilled their duties honestly should be in charge for the Kremlin idiotism. Now any Chechen according to his wish can file a charge against pilot N who has killed Grandpa Vakha by a bomb splinter while bombing militants’ location on some outskirts of Tsentoroy. And the pilot can be imprisoned for this crime reasonably.
There are hundreds of daredevils even in Kadyrov Junior’s encirclement who are in charge for blood of thousands of Russian women, children and elderly shed by them neither by anybody’s order nor in battlefield but only under hatred to Russia and Russians. But none of that! Putin regularly awards this gang with Russian military orders, grade titles and mercies. Because they are “good” Chechens.
They walk around Moscow with their issue-type weapons as winners, they spend hundreds of thousands dollars in local casinos (already closed in Chechnya), organize massacres in ale-houses and wild parties in bought-up cottages and teach us to respect democracy and legality.
But a great number of former militants - murderers, rapists and hell-raisers have legalized in their mountain villages due to amnesties, have got Russian passports and pardons for their crimes. Now they are completely satisfied with their life.
Numerous amnesties, special “explanations” of the Prosecutor Office, the Kremlin patronage and all the local authorities from lawyers and policemen to human rights activists and the Federation Council and the Public Chamber representatives back them.
Russian soldiers and officers are backed by public opinion and jury verdict at the best case but opposed by the whole herd of prosecutors, judges, human rights activists, deputies and other trash named “Russian authorities”.
Worst of all is that “Ulman’s case” has given a deep-six to the very notion of legality in Russia. It should be clear now to everyone from infants to elderly that the “law in own hands” rules in Russia AT ALL levels.
Ulman’s case was examined by the HIGHEST LEGAL INSTANCE OF RUSSIA. The highest Constitutional court proved to be the same cudgel in authorities’ hands like Fucking Egypt district prosecutor office or the General Prosecutor Ustinov similar to an overfed pit bull.
Having deprived Ulman of his right for jury examination in Rostov the Constitutional court has in fact wiped his ass with the Federal constitutional law No.1-FKZ of June, 23, 1999 “On Military Courts of Russian Federation” under which the jurisdiction of criminal cases against military men had been established regardless to administrative-territorial division of Russia as long as the Military Force was a federal power structure fulfilling its tasks in different regions of the country. Besides, it has ignored the Article 30 part 2 point 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which states the defendant’s exclusive right for jury examination of criminal cases on grave or felonious crimes.
In fact our Constitutional court has bent over the very Constitution it was obliged to defend to the last gasp and gang-raped it having hoicked up their gowns.
By the way “Ulman’s case” has one more aspect unnoticed by the Kremlin yet. It isn’t incredible that the West might resort to creation of the international tribunal on military crimes in Chechnya. The judicial sentence on “Ulman’s case” would be a weighty argument against current President at this tribunal. Criminal prosecution of RF President Vladimir Putin “on accusation of so-called genocide of Chechen people” might be initiated based on it and other accusatory sentences to Russian military officers. It would be a short way to a cell in Hague…
Editorial note: On June, 14 the North Caucasus command military court has sentenced the only present at the proceedings defendant major Aleksey Perelevsky to 9 years imprisonment. Captain Eduard Ulman, lieutenant Alexander Kalagansky and warrant officer Vladimir Voevodin were condemned in absentia. They were sentenced to 14, 11 and 12 years imprisonment respectively. 
