Хотів випробувати свій дух воїна! Інтерв'ю з колишнім злочинцем, який став солдатом російської армії
I address the Russians who are watching us. Interviews of your soldiers will not be shown on federal channels share this video among your friends and relatives, especially in Russian social networks, so that more people will know the truth about the war -What's your name? -Tihov Sergey Vladimirovich. -Date of birth? -1978 -We have 3 year difference, I was born in 1981. Where are you from and where do you live? -Nizhny Novgorod Region.
-Which village? -Lyakhovo. -Ryakhovo? -Lyakhovo, Lyakhovo. -Do you have a family? -No. -Do you have any children? -I have a son.
-How old is he? -He will turn 14 on the 1st of December. -When did you sign the contract? You're a contractor, right? -Yes, yes. -Did you go voluntarily? -Recruitment office called, I arrived and they said that, that and that. -You were called in, yes? -Yes. -When did you sign the contract? -At the end of April.
-How much money were you promised? -No idea. -What do you mean? You signed the contract. -According to the document we were to be paid about 180,000 - 200,000 rubles. -About 180,000 rubles? -It's how much it should be. -Which part of Ukraine did you invade? -I don't know. We were brought on a train, unloaded. I was in Motorized Rifle Regiment. -What's your function? -Gunner. -Gunner, yes? -BMP-1. Gunner on BMP-1.
-Did you know how to fight? -We were only shown how to. -Where did you fight? Which Ukrainian villages? -No idea which villages. We were put on BMPs after we unloaded from trolleys and we were immediately sent to the front. -What were your objectives? -Well, where we were, we had to stay in that village and hold it. -In which region of Ukraine were you? -Somewhere under Kharkiv. -Under Kharkiv, yes? That's Kharkiv axis.
When were you captured? -On the 2nd of October. -Under what circumstances were you captured? -We were directed into that village. There we already fell under shelling with casualties It was a massacre. And so for 2 days we were under fire. Then we stayed on duty. We lived in one private house. There was no money or any human being. -Did you personally enter that house? -Yes. We were told to do so. -Who told you? -A senior. He said "This house is free." -What do you mean free? It's a private house.
-Did you break the door open and enter? -No, the door was open already. -There were no people? -None. They left. Well, a few people lived in that village. After that I defended the watch, then I went to sleep in the basement. The rest of our men were inside the house.
We had a platoon. It wasn't full, just 10 people. I was supposed to be awaken at 4 AM, but no one did. I woke up with nobody else inside the house. They just left and forgot about me. -And then Armed Forces of Ukraine came? -Well, I lived for 2 more days in the village, I didn't know where to go and then Ukrainians came. -Ok. Before you signed the contract and invaded Ukraine, what did you do? -I worked.
-What was your job? -I worked for a brigade that did interiors like this paint. -Laborer? -No, like a tiler. Basically, I can do any type of renovation. There was work. -How much did you earn per month? -Around 45,000 to 50,000 rubles. -Either way, compared to the army's earning it's big money what you were promised. -Of course.
-So your whole life you worked on renovating. -No, I worked different jobs: sewing machine operator, car mechanic. -How were you contacted from recruitment office for mobilization? Have you asked? -I don't know. It could be my friends that gave them info about me. I was just called by the recruitment office and told to be there for discussion. -Have you ever been sentenced? -Me? -Yes. You have? For what? -Theft and drugs. -You sold the drugs or used them by yourself? -I transported them. -How long were you in the jail? -For 6 years with special regime.
-Special regime? That was a strict sentence, right? -It's not strict it's striped. -What does striped mean? -When your prison uniform is striped. -I don't really understand. -In short it's an indoor regime, like a prison. An hour and a half of free time outside and the rest of the time you spend inside your cell. -When were you jailed? -In 1998 or 1995. I was sentenced to 6 years. -So you were jailed from 1997 to 2003 or what? -From 1998 to 2004.
-Where did you transport the drugs? -I was just asked to bring over a sachet to a man, I didn't know what was inside, on my way the traffic police stopped me and searched my vehicle, and that's how I got caught. -Were you given 6 years for drugs or theft? How many criminal articles were there? -There was 158th article, which I was conditionally given, in aggregate a year had passed, 2 years was given to me under the 158th article. Then when I got caught with drugs they connected it all and gave me 6 years and I was marked as especially dangerous recidivist. So when they applied very strict laws against drugs they were very afraid that I could do it again. -We have a story similar to that. The POW's name was Sergei, maybe you know him. I don't remember where he's from. He told us how he was visited by recruitment office
he told them he's an alcoholic. He was visited by a woman who's Head of the village council and she said "Go to the war." when he was being taken in June or something. And so they showed him a small pack with powder inside, then police came. They threatened him like "You either go to war or we're framing you for this drug."
Did you have anything similar? -No. -So you were just mobilized? -No, I was just offered to go there and there. There was no pressuring. -You joined voluntarily, right? -Yes. -What was your motive for going to the war? -I don't really know. I guess to experience and see what war is like. -Was it interesting? -Very. And to write off my spirit. -Spirit of what?
-Spirit of a warrior. -Spirit of a warrior? -You consider yourself a warrior? -It was just interesting. -Occupying foreign territory is pride, isn't it? -I don't care about occupying, I wanted to test myself. -Couldn't you test yourself differently anywhere in Russia? Only in Ukraine? -Where in Russia? There aren't any wars there.
-Could you not challenge your spirit in another way in Russia? Or was the challenge to kill Ukrainians? -Well, that's not the matter? -What's the matter then? -I don't know how to explain. -Then explain. -I just don't know how to explain it. I wanted to test myself somehow. Experience what war is like and the meaning of it. -And what's the meaning of war? -It's meaningless. It's not a war of people, it's a war of new technologies. -Yeah? Do Russians have them? -Probably very few.
-Very few. Ukrainians have more of it? -Yes. I looked up in the skies there are drones flying, meanwhile I haven't seen much from our side. All those Soviet heat visions. They said it costs lots of money, I checked and said that it's not true. Of course it's all European standards.
You could say drones buzzed above us day and night. But we don't have such equipment. And Ukrainian mortarmen fire with higher precision. And they fire overall better, because they have good equipment, ours such equipment you could only count on fingers. At least such equipment wasn't anywhere near us. We were like sparrows. We just ran, no point. -Did you test yourself? -Yes.
-Is there a spirit yet? -Yes, I understood everything. -What is your spirit? -There's nothing to do here and I shouldn't have invaded. -Why? -I didn't know. -Before that you didn't know either? -Not really. -It was just mysterious. -Do you consider yourself a civilized person? Is Russian a civilized person? -Not all Russians.
-As a nation, do you think Russians are civilized? -Who knows. It's a normal civilization. -How is it civilized? -People are different. -I'm asking you personally. You consider yourself a civilized individual in 21st century to invade Ukraine and kill Ukrainians to test your spirit in a war?
-I don't know, it seems antediluvian, like in films. -Antediluvian? So you have antediluvian thinking. -Perhaps. -Tell me, where else, in 21st century, do countries test spirits of other governments? Occupy territories? -Americans occupy everything, too. -Where did they occupy? Name me the countries. -They occupied Iraq, for example. -Occupied Iraq?
-Yes. -Seriously? Iraq is occupied by Americans? They probably held referendums there and everything else. -No. -When did they occupy it? -I don't know, when there was war. -There are Americans in Iraq? -No, but they were there before. -So they were carrying out an operation there. -Yes.
-Did Russians occupy Ukrainian territories? -They occupied something. -So where did the Americans occupy Iraq? What territory did Americans take in Iraq? -I just don't know. I haven't researched in details. -Have you read any open books? -I have read books... -Was there time for them? -I read history books. -Okay, what do they say? -I haven't read about Iraq. In history, lands were being conquered. -When?
-Earlier than everyone. Some lands. -It was back then, but who else in 21st century conquers territories except Russia? -I don't even know, does Russia need Ukraine at all? -You invaded, so yes. -Russia doesn't need Ukraine. -She doesn't? Then why did Russians invade? -I don't know about that.
-Do you support Putin? -Not in everything. -In what aspect do you support him? -Recently, he began building better roads. I don't support him for the war decision. And why do we even need this, like Donetsk and Belgorod. People just lived peacefully, why even start a war? -I'm sitting here and watching you, forgive me, in front of me is an ex-prisoner dude who did renovations and invaded my country to test his spirit on my people. -Isn't it stupid? It's not? So everything is normal.
What would you do in a prison cell to an idiot who doesn't behave himself well? -Where I was there there weren't such inmates. -There weren't any rebellious ones? Sure, sure. Then why did an imp come to another country without following any rules here, including international ones? -What do you mean I don't follow rules? -Rules are observed by international laws and so on. People live by rules, right? -Yes. -Do countries have borders?
And here is some ex-prisoner imp who wants to test his spirit. He is breaking all laws and conventions. -We have a commander for that. -So what? An inmate is always for himself, each one has his own head. He has to think alone to survive. In a prison you have to think to survive, right? -It's basic, yes.
There may be prison mentors or not, but you must think for yourself, right? I don't know what it's like, only from what I read and saw. So why are you blaming the commanders here? -I mean who else sends us here? -Do you not have the ability to think? To test your spirit, voluntarily, you personally wanted it? Not the commander? Trying to test your spirit for 170k, right? Killing people in other country. -The war here goes on not between people, but soldiers. -Are you serious? There's war between the militaries, right! But normal people die and normal buildings get destroyed. And here you just saw it, yes? So? What are your impressions in a warrior's spirit? -Not so good impressions.
-Not so good? Do you want to say something to Ukrainians? -I do. -Say it. -It's a big suffering for the civilians. It happens that people die for nothing. -Because of the likes of you? -Yes.
Because of the soldiers who are at war. -They're defending their country. -Soldiers defend, but civilians die. -Why do civilians suffer? From whom? Why did this happen? -I don't know. -You don't know. Who decided to test their spirit in another country? -People. -But you came here. Who's to blame for this war? -I don't know.
-You don't know? Who attacked Ukraine? -A Special Operation was initiated, but I don't know why it was initiated. -You don't know, yes? -I don't know the reasons. Because Luhansk and Donetsk were being shelled? Maybe something like that. -You don't care, do you? People suffer from the likes of you and you don't even know how or why it all started.
-Obviously because of land, perhaps. -What land? -Luhansk and Donetsk. -And? What's the problem? -You know how you'd be told as an imp: you're barking up the wrong tree. Would they say that because you came here? To test your spirit? Did you test it? -Yes? -And? -Everything's fine. -Do you have a spirit now? -Spirit? -In what aspect? That you came here to kill Ukrainians? To the war? -No I just observed the war, that's it. -What next? You observed, and? -Nothing good came out of it.
-What did your personal observation of war give you? -Nothing, only lots of suffering. -Suffering of civilians, right? -Yes. Civilians are dying here. -Ukrainians are dying because of Russians. -I agree. -Do you want to address Putin? -Why address him? -You don't want to? He's your president whom you support.
-I said that I don't support him in everything. -Do you want to say anything to Russians? -I want to tell them that this war needs to stop, it's non-spontaneous. -Non-spontaneous? -It's a massacre, I don't know why this war had started. Maybe it's because of money. It's profitable for someone and not for the others. Ukraine isn't happy with this at all. -Ukraine is defending herself from the imps like you. -It's self-explanatory, she has to defend herself, she's fighting for her lands. -She's defending her own lands. -I agree. I would also defend if we were invaded.
-At one point of time Ukrainians will say that grandfathers were at war with Russians. And they fought well, very well. And kicked them all out. I was surprised by how deep the Russians decided to go and almost in a moment they're standing close to their borders. -Yes, Ukrainians will tell their grandchildren how they were driving rushists out of their country, who didn't want to let them live. I don't know if you agree with it.
Big films will be made about this. About heroism of Ukrainian people.
2022-11-09 14:12
