Cossack babay where is now. Militia
Cossack Babai: “Do you want peace? Prepare for war! 39-year-old Alexander Mozhaev from Kuban Belorechensk is better known by his nickname - Cossack Babai. Colorful appearance, camouflage with St. George ribbons and yellow glasses on his face. In this form, the father of three children first appeared in Crimea, and when the peninsula was annexed to Russia, he went to Donbass along with a volunteer detachment of Cossacks. Photos of the bearded man immediately appeared on the Internet, he became a hero on the Internet, receiving the call sign - Babai. And the Ukrainian press immediately accused him of being the one who shot down one of the helicopters in Kramatorsk with a grenade launcher. Although the Cossack himself denies this. Even in the US State Department there are legends about him. Mrs. Psaki recognized in him the archetypal figure of a Russian saboteur. Since then, any powerfully built bearded man is a person directly related to Russia. A year ago, Babai returned to his native Belorechensk from Donbass. What awaited him was his wife, children, unemployment and a criminal case for threatening to kill. Alexander Mozhaev himself says that he did not attack anyone, and the case against him was fabricated. The Free Press correspondent met with the colorful Cossack and talked to him about life before and after Donbass, about his family and what Alexander Mozhaev is going to do next. “You know, in my native Belorechensk people recognize me on the street and take pictures with me. Many people come up and say thank you. For the fact that he was a volunteer in Crimea, that he defended Donbass from infidels, - Cossack Babai began the conversation. - They also ask whether we will go to the DPR again, and what awaits us next. What will happen next? And then peace awaits us... Babai falls silent for a minute and continues: - Peace in the near future. In order for it to come, we will need to fight a little more, that is, identify our enemies and punish them so that they no longer interfere with us. We need to discourage them from wanting to conquer Russia. The enemy is coming from the West. And he created a framework for himself and such a life that if Russia had closed with the Iron Curtain, then ISIS (a group banned in our country) would simply destroy all of Europe. The West itself created them and suffered from them. "SP": - Are you going to Donbass again? - I am planning a lot of things. We were going there at the beginning of 2015, but the trip was postponed for two weeks, then for a month, then for two or three months. During all this time, we began to recognize even more enemies. During this time, they began to open up more and show their true colors. So, when in the DPR, I won’t say for sure. “SP”: - In the summer, the media wrote that you cannot find a job in your hometown. What are you doing now? - We have a military-patriotic club, and I’m currently doing excavations. We learn from people what happened in their area during the war. Many old-timers remember that a plane crashed there, it sank there, and five families were shot there. Moreover, even eyewitnesses say this. True, they have already died, the kingdom of heaven to them. We recently found the plane, found out its number and crew. Until now, there was a monument to nameless pilots, but now they have names. And so, in general, we train and wait for one of our enemies to begin active hostilities. Then we will finally destroy them. While Alexander Mozhaev was fighting in the DPR, in Kuban they were filing a case against him. It has been going on since 2013. In September, he and a friend came to Vyselki to visit an Afghan veteran. We sat and drank for the meeting. Then someone started honking outside the window, Babai came out, and a fight broke out. The case eventually ended with a statement being filed against Mozhaev for attacking a car driver with a knife. And a criminal case was brought against the Cossack for threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. Although Alexander Mozhaev himself says that he did not attack anyone and his case was fabricated. “SP”: - How did it all end? - I ask Alexander Mozhaev. “I grew a beard while I was looking for the truth.” I was told that I would trip over my beard, but I would never find the truth. And I found it. This true truth had to prevail because I was innocent and I was framed. They feel like local kings there, I heard that they own the fields and have a lot of money, I believe that they paid all the authorities that were involved in the matter. To please both sides, the court had to give me a suspended sentence and impose a fine. And all this fell under the amnesty. “SP”: - It was once said that you would like to get involved in politics... - I would like to, but the politics turn out to be somewhat rosy. There is another side - life. There is black and there is white, there are no other colors there. For example, you cannot bend over backwards to another country in order to please it. We now need to build our political position so that the whole world understands that Russia is the strongest, most powerful, most economically and physically developed country. In order to explain this to them, we have already shown our tank. We insisted that they pay in our rubles for our energy resources. That is, they must buy rubles. If other countries buy rubles from us to buy our goods, the dollar and euro could depreciate in two seconds. The owner of the country, who cares about his people, just needs to say that our ruble is worth one gram of gold. And can you imagine what will happen on the market then? "SP": - What kind of owner of the country should be? - The leader of the country should take care of the well-being of the people, just as a father takes care of his family. He will not allow his children to starve, wear bad clothes, or lack anything. Such a leader will solve these problems. When he understands that every person is his child, and considers himself the owner of a big house, people will take care of him and their families... A person who has procreation will fight for his children, he will think about how They have to live on with what they have. And now, with these salaries and prices, a person cannot afford to have more children, because they need to be fed, put on shoes and clothed. Nowadays, instead of raising their children, many people work several jobs, and when they come home, they don’t have enough time for anything. For example, my father, God rest upon him, raised me to be kind, honest and fair. I also want to teach my children this. And if I were the government, I wouldn’t make promises. They say that life will get better in 2018. The question is, what’s stopping you from fixing it tomorrow? After all, tomorrow is also the future. It turns out they don't know how to do it. They just make promises to people. People live by these promises, but in the end, the people who promised are re-elected, and others are put in their place. Don't trust someone who says they can do something, believe someone who says they know how to do it. And he needs to do this. “SP”: - Many compare you with the epic hero, the same Ilya Muromets, who lay on the stove for thirty years and three years and stood up when he felt his high destiny. Were you also lying on the stove before the events in Ukraine? - No, I have had a sense of justice, kindness and love for the Motherland since birth. Still, the genes of the ancestors are present. The way I was born, that’s how I came in handy. “SP”: - Has Donbass changed you? When I returned, I met my friends, I behaved with them the same way as before. They tell me, wow, you made a splash all over the world. And I say, no, it’s all for the glory of the Lord. God created Adam and Eve in his own image and created the forbidden fruit. Whoever eats it is sinful. It turned out as if we plucked this fruit, but did not eat it and did not feel its taste and sin passed us by... And also, many people of the old school remained with their opinions, thoughts, traditions, way of life and they did not absorb into themselves all this foreign licentiousness and sinfulness. All this infuriates the West. We honor the traditions of our people, and the West cannot defeat us. It’s as if we have now awakened and realized that they are trying to enslave us, so we must gather our strength, intelligence, wisdom and fight back. Specific, tough. I would do this if I had a Cossack army, but I have nothing to feed it with.
Alexander Mozhaev, nicknamed “Babay,” who took part in the battles in eastern Ukraine on the side of the separatists, complained to Komsomolskaya Pravda about how difficult it was for him to live in his homeland.
Alexander Mozhaev, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, said that he was forced to leave Donbass and return to his family in the city of Belorechensk in the Krasnodar Territory.
“Last September I entered Donbass, and left before the New Year. We were asked to leave. They said, if you want to live, leave. So it was very dangerous to be there. They began to disperse the Cossacks, some were even kept in basements. Thank God I got through it! So we had to leave. About 15 people left with us,” he told reporters, saying that he would return to Donbass.
At the same time, “Babai” complained that he allegedly did not receive any money for his “service.”
“And I have a family, three children. I simply have nothing to support them,” the militant complains.
The publication notes that “Cossack Babai” was previously convicted of distributing cannabis and served nine years in prison, but was released after five years for good behavior. After one of the drunken fights, a case was opened against him for threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. The cases were supposedly closed, but Mozhaev complains that his criminal past prevents him from getting a job.
- 17. 12. 2015
The story of how an unremarkable resident of Belorechensk, Alexander Mozhaev, became the legendary Cossack Babai, one of the symbols of the war with Ukraine. Now he lives again in his hometown. The war has subsided, but not for him
The war in eastern Ukraine has its own rich epic. For the most part, it is born on the Internet and passed on by word of mouth, from page to page. Horrifying stories of torture, legends of heroic deeds, horrors of battle scenes. Every epic also has its legendary heroes, titanic personalities around whom all the main events unfold. And a special place in the pantheon of military demigods of Donbass is occupied by the figure of the Cossack Babai. He has his own public page on VKontakte for 13 thousand people and an incredible amount of fan art. Fans of Babai paint him as a pumped-up giant, a real hero. Songs are written about Babai: “Who are the Pindos-Japanese King Kong and Godzilla? Ugh! Russian Babai - that’s strength,” is reading rapper Drago is from Kharkov. There are thousands of memes with Babai’s brutal face circulating online, not to mention the legends associated with military exploits (he shot down a helicopter with his own grenade launcher, he is a GRU officer, etc.) But not much is known about the real person, the information is scarce and contradictory.
A man in a leather jacket is walking along the station square of Belorechensk. Underneath is a striped shirt with the collar jauntily unbuttoned, and a weighty cross can be seen on the neck. Having watched enough heroic fan art, I expected to see a camouflage giant, the real Hagrid, but Babai turned out to be a short, sturdy man, quite modest at first glance. Ordinary Alexander Mozhaev. We say hello and go “to headquarters.”
We walk along the corridor of the office center, Babai asks whether I am a patriot or not. He opens a small office. Opposite the door hangs the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, below it is the calendar of the public organization of veterans “Combat Brotherhood”. To the right, Jesus Christ looks down from a large red and white banner. The room is furnished with icons, flags, on the shelves there are all kinds of weapons - from rare daggers and grenades from the Second World War to modern optics, helmets and knives. There are a bunch of walkie-talkies on the table - they make an unpleasant grinding noise. Babai refuses to tell what kind of place this is, what they are doing here and where so many near-militaristic items come from. He says that this information could harm the common cause and is limited by the fact that the Cossack organization “Wolf Hundred” and “Combat Brotherhood” are based here, and walkie-talkies are needed for training.
BabaiPhoto: Vlad Moiseev
A tall gray-haired man enters the room. His name is Alexey, he is also a Cossack, he took part in the Eastern Ukrainian conflict. Babai warns that Alexey will be present during our conversation, takes binoculars and peers for a long time at the landscape outside the window, like a real Gotham knight. But nothing is happening on the street - the station square is empty, pensioners are lazily discussing something on the benches, a woman is feeding pigeons - a real provincial idyll. Who Babai is looking for is a military secret.
Have you checked the documents? - the thorough Alexey asks from the threshold. He is there to oversee the interview and advise his friend on what to say and what not to say.
- Which ones do you need?
- Passport, journalist ID...
“Or maybe you came from Lvov,” says Babai in the tone of an ironic investigator.
- Tell me, do you wear an earring? - asks Alexey.
- I wore it a long time ago.
- What is this timed for?
- I played music in a group.
- What is the music?
- Rock.
The interview is dragging on. They ask me about what I do, where I worked, what kind of website “Such Things Are” is. A little later they delicately ask me if I am Jewish.
Cossack ancestry of BabaiPhoto: from personal archive
My parents were simple workers,” he continues. - Mom was a cleaner, I helped her from the age of 10, I carried buckets of water. We had three brothers in the family. The eldest was killed after the army, kingdom of heaven. He was beaten to death, there was a showdown here. My younger brother is with me when I’m not there, helping the family. We now live in the family house that our grandfather built. Everyone has already died: my mother, my father, my grandmother, my grandfather, the kingdom of heaven to them all. But the family continues, I have two sons, God bless them. And the eldest daughter. The last son was recently born.
Babai recalls the Soviet past with nostalgia. At school, he loved literature, physical education, fine arts and music, participated in amateur performances, and read poetry from the stage. After 9th grade I went to college and received a degree in electrical engineering. He began serving as an electrician in the air defense, but in two years he rose to the rank of platoon commander. Babai says that “hazing tripped over him” - he just had to beat one particularly annoying grandfather who forced him to clean the toilets. After this, justice triumphed in the platoon.
Babai’s entire story about himself is imbued with the idea of righteous suppression of aggression, the establishment of justice and Cossack messianism, be it about hazing or the separation of Crimea from Ukraine. He says that this is the lot of the Cossack - to protect Orthodoxy, the Tsar and everything good from everything bad. But Babai is not one of those who firmly believes in state institutions, “United Russia” and the fairness of the system. In his rhetoric, he is sometimes more radical than the most desperate oppositionists. But unlike them, his worldview is based on the idea that swindlers, thieves and agents of Western influence, like cancer, have seized power and are preventing the president from making the country happy and prosperous, but he almost single-handedly opposes them:
The people love their country. Because she is strong, powerful, rich. But he doesn't like his government. The president is a good person, he does what needs to be done. But next to him is parliament. They should not meddle in the sovereign's affairs. The president is a good person, he does what needs to be done. But parliament should not meddle in the sovereign’s affairs Because the majority of businessmen and oligarchs sit in parliament there, for whom the price of life is measured in money. Why is our country very rich, but look inside how people live? It should be much better. We have a lot of minerals, gas, oil, a lot of gold, a lot of everything. Why is everything in private hands? This shouldn't happen. The subsoil should be managed by statists. State.
Babai has been arguing for a long time that we should trade oil and gas for rubles, and equate one ruble to one gram of gold. Babai seems to have a whole political doctrine about how to make the country better. Alexey, sitting next to him, tries to calm his friend down, but nothing works. Babai wants Russia to “set its own prices for gas, food and electricity, and employees of state-owned enterprises receive 100 thousand a month.” And also stop inflation and increase in food prices. But he doesn’t really believe in the implementation of his ideas.
I want to do good, I seem to see everything, understand everything, but I can’t do it. Because it is not beneficial for the people, those who sit at the top. Because all their plans, everything can collapse. And their plans at the moment, as I see, are not very good. They are peacefully destroying our population...
Cossacks - Babai's ancestorsPhoto: from personal archive
After the army, Mozhaev became a Cossack. “Cossacked doesn’t mean bandied,” he explains. Young Babai was involved in forest protection through the registered Cossacks, building a cordon to combat illegal logging. He also worked part-time as a taxi driver - he was sometimes asked to come and force careless clients to pay for travel. And in 2005, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug trafficking. But he spent only 5 years, 1 month and 3 days behind bars.
In short, they set me up,” says Babai. - One person had to give me money. Well... He owed me for that... In short, he asked me to buy hemp, so I bought it. I say, bring me the change. And he brought me six boxes and change. And the change was marked.
- Well, that is, you have never sold cannabis?
- No no no.
- But did you use it?
“Well, you know,” he sighs. - When I was imprisoned, my grandmother, may she rest in heaven, asked on the phone why I was imprisoned. I say: “Grandma, for hemp.” She: “Oh, unchrist,” she says. When we were kids, we ate hemp seeds to survive. Let's eat and laugh. What do you want?” And I: “These are the laws, grandma.” I think this law needs to be removed.
Ataman of the Belorechensk district Cossack society of the Kuban Cossack army, Viktor Melnikov, sits in his office. He has a gaze and soft intonations. He has only held his post for a year and a half, but he has known Babai for a long time.
I have known Alexander since the late 90s. He is from the family, Mozhaev. Both on the mother's side and on the father's side. He was already a member of the Cossack society at a young age. First in the youth hundred before military service and after it he returned to our ranks. Until 2005, when troubles happened in his life, he was a member of the Cossack squad and was engaged in environmental activities.
Ataman Viktor MelnikovPhoto: Vlad Moiseev
Ataman Melnikov says that in his youth Babai was “hooligan, but manageable,” even when he drank, he did not make brawls, but on the contrary became docile. When asked how it happened that a conscientious Cossack was brought in for drug trafficking, the ataman shrugs: “They didn’t notice.”
I don’t know the details, but he has article 228. This is not a very good article. The district ataman then even said: “It would be better if he killed someone.” Such an article was fundamentally at odds with our worldview.
Ataman says that he was practically the only one who visited Babai from the entire regional Cossack society - few people liked the news that a drug dealer had appeared in the ranks of the Cossacks.
- Before he was imprisoned, there were rumors that he was involved in such things?
“There were rumors, but no one really watched him,” says Melnikov. - Of course, they told him: “Sasha, give me this very thing there...”
- So it turns out that he was still selling?
- It turns out that yes.
Despite the article, upon his return, the Cossacks accepted Babai as one of their own. Ataman Melnikov is convinced that he realized everything and corrected himself.
Alexander Mozhaev served his sentence in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, IK-11. He says that prison taught him a lot and changed him for the better.
It was God's providence. I participated in the construction of the prison temple from the very beginning. When we were filling the dome, a bucket fell on me from about seven meters away. Hit my head...
A prolonged meow is heard. Babai rummages through his pockets looking for his phone.
- This is from the war. Everyone there had such calls.
- And why?
- Well, a cat or a bell - is there a difference? You never know where it will work.
Babai continues:
- A full bucket fell and brought me to my knee. I feel my hand being taken away. They run up to me, take me by the elbows, and lead me to the medical unit. They stitched it up and said that the skull was not damaged. Only the scalp was slightly torn off. Well, after that, everything changed in my head. I began to think no longer about simple living-being.
At the competition of prison churches, Primorsko-Akhtarsky took first place, Babai was the first to be anointed and blessed by Bishop Isidor of Ekaterinodar.
After serving four years, Alexander applied for parole, but it was not granted. Mozhaev thought it was unfair - he had no violations, but they wrote him a bad reference.
- I returned angry and decided to write a letter to the president. Sent. He wrote that lawlessness was happening. That I have everything like this, that I have corrected myself, that I have written about the temple, about everything. Wrote: “Help me get justice.” And what do you think? The Presidential Affairs Department called from Rostov. And they say: quickly figure out this whole story.
BabaiPhoto: Vlad Moiseev
They tried to persuade Babai to renounce his appeal, but he did not. Then he was called to a psychologist to undergo a test. The result showed that prisoner Mozhaev was not just normal, but inclined to creativity and generally a wonderful person. Babai liked the description the computer gave him so much that he asked the psychologist for a pen with a piece of paper and copied it down as a keepsake. This document is still kept at his home.
The next attempt to get out on parole was successful.
After his release, Alexander returned to Belorechensk and got a job at the loading area. Got back together with his wife. But in 2013, the court, due to repeated administrative violations, decided to transfer Mozhaev under administrative supervision, prohibit him from being anywhere except home and work, and leaving the region.
In the same year, another trouble happened to Alexander - a new criminal case, this time for attempted murder. He tells the circumstances of what happened for a very long time - it turns out to be a real action movie. In short, he and his friends quarreled with representatives of the local Korean diaspora. One of them honked under the windows at night, Alexander asked not to disturb people’s rest. The Korean left, but returned with reinforcements. It all ended in a brawl, in which Mozhaev’s friend lost his front teeth. Alexander and his comrade were taken to a base owned by the Koreans. They were offered two options. The first is to apologize, the second is to call the police. The Koreans promised to write a statement that Babai came for the bow at night and was going to kill them - he had a pocket knife with him.
We chose the second option,” says Babai. - A car pulled up, I heard: “Hello, Major.” A policeman comes in and curses at us: “Why did you come here, are you swollen? Not in your area." I told him: “Are you swearing at us? Introduce yourself." He says: district police officer so-and-so. And I ask: “Now tell me, how much are they paying you for you to lash out at us like a mad dog?” He says "30 thousand a month." It turned out that these Koreans are local kings. Everyone has been paid, everyone owes them. A criminal case was opened against me.
Alexander began to search for the truth. He decided that he would not shave off his beard until he proved he was right. Babai says that he did not threaten to kill anyone, but that the case was fabricated. Those familiar with the circumstances of this story agree with Babai and say that the Koreans really turned out to be local bigwigs. Mozhaev wrote statements against the offenders, appealed to the investigative committee, went to the ataman of the Kuban Cossack army, to a military judge. The judge turned to the investigative committee with Alexander’s testimony; they had to wait. But he never saw the result. Because Crimea began.
Ataman Viktor Melnikov sits on a long bench. On it the sentences of the Cossack court of honor are carried out. Basically, Cossacks receive punishment for drunken brawls. They are whipped.
If you turn the bench over, you can find a list of everyone who received punishment with the date the sentence was carried out and the number of lashes. The first on the list is senior officer A.I. Mozhaev. He received five lashes on September 25, 2012. On October 17 of the same year, a friend of the senior constable Mozhaev, centurion E.E. Ponomarev, received five lashes. On November 26, 2012, Sh. V. Dermenzhi received three lashes. It was these Cossacks who would later form the “Wolf Hundred” and go first to Crimea, and then to Donbass.
Alexander went to Crimea not as a Cossack of the Kuban Cossack Army, but as a volunteer, says the ataman. “The bulk left on February 27, our Cossacks were protecting public order in Sevastopol. And he was under recognizance not to leave the place. We took this into account, and he was not included in the district order and went as a volunteer. Evgeny Ponomarev was also with him - they didn’t take him either. He was a Cossack warrior of a professional Cossack squad. The order was: Cossack vigilantes remain in place and ensure public order. On March 6, Ponomarev resigned from the squad and went there together with Mozhaev. On the one hand, they violated the order of the army and acted incorrectly. On the other hand, a sense of patriotism... Winners are not judged. Is there anything positive about their participation there? Crimea is ours - this is already a thing.
Babay at the entrance to the City Council building in KramatorskPhoto: Anton Kruglov/RIA Novosti
I came to the police to check in and said: I’m leaving for Crimea. And they tell me that they won’t let me go anywhere. Me: “Who are you to me? I just came, informed them that I was leaving there on the orders of the ataman and that’s all. I don’t have to ask you for permission, whether it’s possible or not. When I come back, we’ll continue to talk,” says Babai.
On March 11, he was supposed to go to a neighboring district to familiarize himself with the criminal case and sign it. But no changes occurred in him, despite all Mozhaev’s attempts to prove his innocence.
On March 8, Babai was already in Crimea. He could have been detained at the border because he had an outstanding car loan, a written undertaking not to leave the place, and administrative supervision, but he got there without any problems. Some sources claim that he crossed the border using his younger brother’s passport. At that time, many volunteers moved to Crimea, and then to Donbass: some in a fit of patriotic feeling, some fleeing from loans, alimony or prosecution, some hoping to earn money or fame.
Couldn't you have waited three days to look at the case first? - I ask.
- Then my case would go to court, and I would already be waiting for trial. But I haven’t yet waited for the answer from the Investigative Committee, which the military judge addressed. I didn't need my case to go to trial so quickly.
- Did you understand that you were violating the terms of your recognizance not to leave?
- Of course, I understood. I understood that I could be imprisoned. What do they mean, a man who was on parole. Just think, he'll sit still.
- Is this why you left for Crimea?
- No. I left for Crimea for a different reason. Because we need to protect... The opportunity has arisen to unite the fraternal people with the fraternal people. A Cossack must first fight, and not sit on his ass in prison and watch his comrades die. A Cossack must first fight, and not sit on his ass in prison and watch his comrades die Even if I had been sitting at that moment, I would have asked to go from there to help fight. I, one might say, postponed all this for an indefinite period of time. Because if I had not delayed it, everything would simply have ended with me going to prison. My second son would not have been born, and when the first one was born, I would still be sitting.
- Is that why you went straight to the East of Ukraine after Crimea?
- We know what is happening in Ukraine itself, in Kyiv. Maidan, killing civilians and police. And here I am sitting in Crimea. They ask me: “Why aren’t you going home? I say: “Look: you have now joined Russia, everything is fine with you. And what will happen to the rest, our Russian people who remained there? Our Orthodox, our Slavs. How? Will they become like and relearn how to live as the West tells them? We need to bring the others back too, we need to help them return, since they can’t do it themselves.” That man looked at me and said: “Yes, that’s right.”
In April 2014, Babai, his friend Evgeniy Ponomarev (call sign Dingo) and other Cossacks formed the Wolf Hundred combat unit and headed to eastern Ukraine. Babai says they wanted to continue to annex Russian-speaking territories into Russia. And they moved to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. It was there that Babai gained fame. Firstly, at first he was mistaken for a Russian GRU officer, because in a photograph from the time of the Russian-Georgian conflict, someone saw a bearded man who looked a lot like Babai. This became a sensation - Russian special services are fighting in Donbass, Babai’s photo spread across the world media. Later, journalist Simon Ostrovsky found a “GRU officer” and refuted this story: in 2008, Babai was in prison in Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Secondly, Babai’s promotion was indirectly facilitated by Igor Girkin’s dislike of the media. And Babai was loved by photographers for his colorful appearance. He was eloquent and had enough status to comment.
Babay at the new checkpoint of Donbass militia fighters on the Rostov-Kharkov highway, not far from Slavyansk.Photo: Mikhail Pochuev/TASS
I had no idea what would happen next,” Babai says that all the events that followed Crimea were unpredictable, and only at the beginning were subject to some kind of logic, “Girkin gave the order that we all go to the end, we can’t return alive. Anyone who does not follow orders will be shot.
Babai says practically nothing about his relationship with Girkin, citing the fact that they were little acquainted:
“Relations with Girkin were built on the principle of “hello and goodbye,” says Babai. - As I understand it, Girkin wanted us to go with him to Donetsk. This was impossible to do. We held two cities - Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. The battles took place there. Girkin had to gather all the armed forces of the DPR, LPR, Novorossiya, restore order along the border so that it would be open, so that we would receive weapons, uniforms, and food. But they didn’t do all this. The troops were in Donetsk, and there were Ukrainian mercenaries along the borders. They cut off our food supply. With normal headquarters and management, it would now be possible to be in Lvov.
Evgeniy Ponomarev's pass for travel through the territory of the DPRPhoto: Vlad Moiseev
Then it seemed crazy to me that so much blood was shed, and the cities were abandoned and retreated,” says Alexey about leaving Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. - Today I look at it a little differently. The goals were achieved, Ukraine did not join NATO, did not join the EU. She froze. If we moved on, it would all be in ruins. Ukrainians will squabble until they remember whose children they are. Donbass is a weight on Ukraine’s leg, with which it will not go anywhere.
- Don’t you think this is some kind of cynical weight? At the cost of war, a large number of victims, killed children, which you talk about.
- No, I don’t think so. I understand all this, Dostoevsky, a child’s tear. I have three sons, I understand that. Brzezinski said that Russia cannot exist without Ukraine. If Ukraine is in NATO, then American “Patriots” and everything else will be stationed near Belgorod. A population of 40 million will turn into a real army, they will be trained, armed and paid.
“And they will revive fascism there,” Babai adds.
- And how many of these tears will there be later? - Alexey asks rhetorically.
“Cossacks, of course, are very different. Only, as I already wrote, for some reason the “Cossack units” are all, as if selected on the battlefield, turning into “Makhnovist gangs”, loudly screaming in the rear about their “Cossack military spirit”, but stubbornly avoiding real battles in any way difficult situation,” this is how Igor Girkin commented on the departure of Babai and other Cossacks after the surrender of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. He simply called them deserters. Babai claims that the main reason for the Wolf Pack’s departure from the firing positions was disagreement with Girkin’s decisions and the desire to act independently. In official video messages, Babai stated that he did not desert anywhere, but left to recruit volunteers after Girkin’s order to leave the city. A source well acquainted with the situation in Donbass suggests that the main reason for Babai’s retreat to Crimea was not so much a desire for some kind of autonomy or cowardly desertion, but rather “understanding” - they already realized then that resolving issues about the fate of the East of Ukraine was moving out of their competence warlords into the area of political settlement, and resisting this is life-threatening. The fates of field commanders from the LPR who were killed in peacetime, who did not show a sufficient level of “understanding” and compliance, confirm this hypothesis.
Babay at a concert in Kramatorsk a couple of months before the city surrendered to Ukrainian troops
And here we are. In a small office hung with the flags of the DPR and Russia. Walkie-talkies creak, someone periodically glances through binoculars, helmets gather dust on the shelves. More enterprising activists of the “Russian Spring” took important positions and achieved success. And Babai collects money through Komsomolskaya Pravda, because there is nothing to send his children to school.
- Why didn’t you eventually take some leadership position in the DPR? - I ask.
- Hm. You could be left without a head in that lair. - Babai answers.
- Don’t you have the feeling that you were just dumped?
- Yes, of course there is. Why do they need patriots there when they have money pouring in? They need money and power. The drainage began from Kramatorsk itself.
Alexei and Babai are convinced that the war is not over, and they are simply waiting for the moment to take up arms again. It seems they have nothing special to do in peaceful Belorechensk. And it seems to me that they are internally not at all opposed to the war returning.
The entire time we were talking, Pasha sat quietly on the sofa. He is from Donetsk, fought in the militia, but became disillusioned and moved to Russia.
The internal situation there is quite interesting,” Pasha joins the conversation, “Comrade Zakharchenko simply gave instructions for the destruction of the Donetsk Cossacks, they were disarmed. Because the Cossacks did not allow fraud to be carried out.
Zakharchenko is Akhmetov’s protégé. A simple explanation,” Babai says sharply.
That's not even the main thing. So they received this power, territory, enormous help from Russia. And this syndrome worked - profit while there is an opportunity. When all these schemes began, the Minsk agreements, everyone who really wanted the best for Donbass, who fought and was on the front line - 90 percent left for Russia. Because they saw that what they fought for was simply twisted and returned to its place. The cops returned to their previous positions - the same bribe takers, the prosecutor's office employees returned to their previous positions. In Mariupol they received valuable instructions from the Ukrop people and returned to work supposedly for the DPR, but you yourself understand who they will work for there. Obviously not to the benefit of the DPR.
And here we are. Pasha has moved and is trying to get a work permit, but so far there are problems with this. He says that he has Russian roots, and even as a citizen of Ukraine, he always considered himself Russian.
In short, everyone has phantom pain,” concludes Alexey.
Babai was credited with participating in the war. He came under amnesty for the 70th anniversary of the Victory, completely got even with all his problems and is clean before the law. But he didn't shave his beard. Because what is Babai without a beard?
Grave of Evgeniy Ponomarev, Babai's friendPhoto: Vlad Moiseev
On August 27, 2014, a new grave appeared at the Belorechensk city cemetery. A year later, a small gray monument was erected on it. “Dingo” was written on it in large letters - this was the call sign from the war. Evgeniy Ponomarev, Babai’s friend, with whom he went to war together, is buried here.
Thank you for reading to the end!
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39 year old Alexandra Mozhaeva from Kuban Belorechensk they are better known by his nickname - Cossack Babai. Colorful appearance, camouflage with St. George ribbons and yellow glasses on his face. In this form, the father of three children first appeared in Crimea, and when the peninsula was annexed to Russia, he went to Donbass along with a volunteer detachment of Cossacks. Photos of the bearded man immediately appeared on the Internet, he became a hero on the Internet, receiving the call sign - Babai. And the Ukrainian press immediately accused him of being the one who shot down one of the helicopters in Kramatorsk with a grenade launcher. Although the Cossack himself denies this. Even in the US State Department there are legends about him. Mistress Psaki I recognized in him the archetypal figure of a Russian saboteur. Since then, any powerfully built bearded man is a person directly related to Russia.
A year ago, Babai returned to his native Belorechensk from Donbass. What awaited him was his wife, children, unemployment and a criminal case for threatening to kill. Alexander Mozhaev himself says that he did not attack anyone, and the case against him was fabricated.
The Free Press correspondent met with the colorful Cossack and talked with him about life before and after Donbass, about his family and about what Alexander Mozhaev is going to do next.
— You know, in my native Belorechensk they recognize me on the street and take pictures with me. Many people come up and say thank you. Because he was a volunteer in Crimea, because he defended Donbass from infidels,” Cossack Babai began the conversation. “They also ask whether we will go to the DPR again, and what awaits us next. What will happen next? And then the world awaits us...
Babai pauses for a minute and continues:
- Peace in the near future. In order for it to come, we will need to fight a little more, that is, identify our enemies and punish them so that they no longer interfere with us. We need to discourage them from wanting to conquer Russia. The enemy is coming from the West. And he created a framework for himself and such a life that if Russia had closed with the Iron Curtain, then ISIS (a group banned in our country) would simply destroy all of Europe. The West itself created them and suffered from them.
“SP”: — Are you going to Donbass again?
— I plan a lot of things. We were going there at the beginning of 2015, but the trip kept getting postponed for two weeks, then for a month, then for two or three months. During all this time, we began to recognize even more enemies. During this time, they began to open up more and show their true colors. So I won’t say exactly when in the DPR.
“SP”: — In the summer, the media wrote that you could not find a job in your hometown. What are you doing now?
— We have a military-patriotic club, and I’m currently doing excavations. We learn from people what happened in their area during the war. Many old-timers remember that a plane crashed there, it sank there, and five families were shot there. Moreover, even eyewitnesses say this. True, they have already died, the kingdom of heaven to them. We recently found the plane, found out its number and crew. Until now, there was a monument to nameless pilots, but now they have names. And so, in general, we train and wait for one of our enemies to begin active hostilities. Then we will finally destroy them.
While Alexander Mozhaev was fighting in the DPR, a case was being filed against him in Kuban. It has been going on since 2013. In September, he and a friend came to Vyselki to visit an Afghan veteran. We sat and drank for the meeting. Then someone started honking outside the window, Babai came out, and a fight broke out. The case eventually ended with a statement being filed against Mozhaev for attacking a car driver with a knife. And a criminal case was brought against the Cossack for threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. Although Alexander Mozhaev himself says that he did not attack anyone and his case was fabricated.
"SP": - How did it all end? — I ask Alexander Mozhaev .
— I grew a beard while searching for the truth. I was told that I would trip over my beard, but I would never find the truth. And I found it. This true truth had to prevail because I was innocent and I was framed. They feel like local kings there, I heard that they own the fields and have a lot of money, I believe that they paid all the authorities that were involved in the matter. To please both sides, the court had to give me a suspended sentence and impose a fine. And all this came under amnesty.
“SP”: — It was once said that you would like to get involved in politics...
— I would like to, but the policy turns out to be somewhat rosy. There is another side - life. There is black and there is white, there are no other colors there. For example, you cannot bend over backwards to another country in order to please it. We now need to build our political position so that the whole world understands that Russia is the strongest, most powerful, most economically and physically developed country. In order to explain this to them, we have already shown our tank. We insisted that they pay in our rubles for our energy resources. That is, they must buy rubles. If other countries buy rubles from us to buy our goods, the dollar and euro could depreciate in two seconds. The owner of the country, who cares about his people, just needs to say that our ruble is worth one gram of gold. Can you imagine what will happen on the market then?
“SP”: - What should the owner of the country be like?
— The leader of the country must take care of the well-being of the people, just as a father takes care of his family. He will not allow his children to starve, wear bad clothes, or lack anything. Such a leader will solve these problems. When he understands that every person is his child, and considers himself the owner of a big house, people will take care of him and their families... A person who has procreation will fight for his children, he will think about how They have to live on with what they have. And now, with these salaries and prices, a person cannot afford to have more children, because they need to be fed, put on shoes and clothed. Nowadays, instead of raising their children, many people work several jobs, and when they come home, they don’t have enough time for anything. For example, my father, God rest upon him, raised me to be kind, honest and fair. I also want to teach my children this.
And if I were the government, I wouldn’t make promises. They say that life will get better in 2018. The question is, what’s stopping you from fixing it tomorrow? After all, tomorrow is also the future. It turns out they don't know how to do it. They just make promises to people. People live by these promises, but in the end, the people who promised are re-elected, and others are put in their place. Don't trust someone who says they can do something, believe someone who says they know how to do it. And he needs to do it.
“SP”: — Many compare you with the epic hero, the same Ilya Muromets, who lay on the stove for thirty years and three years and got up when he felt his high destiny. Were you also lying on the stove before the events in Ukraine?
- No, I have had a sense of justice, kindness and love for the Motherland since birth. Still, the genes of the ancestors are present. The way he was born, the way he was useful.
“SP”: — Has Donbass changed you?
When I returned and met my acquaintances, I behaved with them the same way as before. They tell me, wow, you made a splash all over the world. And I say, no, it’s all for the glory of the Lord. God created Adam and Eve in his own image and created the forbidden fruit. Whoever eats it is sinful. It turned out as if we plucked this fruit, but did not eat it and did not feel its taste, and sin passed us by...
And yet, many people of the old school have remained with their opinions, thoughts, traditions, way of life, and they in no way absorb all this foreign promiscuity and sinfulness. All this infuriates the West. We honor the traditions of our people, and the West cannot defeat us. It’s as if we have now awakened and realized that they are trying to enslave us, so we must gather our strength, intelligence, wisdom and fight back. Specific, tough. I would do this if I had a Cossack army, but I have nothing to feed it with.
The notorious member of the Girkin-Strelkov detachment, known by the nickname Babai, returned to Russia after fighting in eastern Ukraine and is begging. He also doesn't shave off his beard yet, because it's his calling card. The unfortunate hero has nothing more, he has a beard, but no more money.
The militant himself spoke about this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Nickname Babai 38-year-old Alexander Mozhaev from Belorechensk, Krasnodar Territory: he walked in the Donbass in camouflage with St. George ribbons, often posed with a machine gun at the ready, wearing a kubanka and sunglasses. He willingly gave interviews and talked about how he would drive the “Jewish Banderaites” all the way to Lvov.
Babai was in the Donbass for several months, but from there he had to flee along with the rest of the Russian Cossacks.
Now he is at home in his native Belorechka, but he cannot get a job. So he turned through his friends with a request to help him, if not with money, at least with food and clothing.
Yes, my family now has a difficult financial situation,” Babai himself confirmed to Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Last September I entered Donbass, and left before the New Year. We were asked to leave. They said, if you want to live, leave. So it was very dangerous to be there. And I have a family, three children. I simply have nothing to support them with.
The leader of the terrorists, Igor Strelkov-Girkin, spoke about the desertion of a large group of “Cossacks,” including Alexander Mozhaev’s version. The “Cossacks” left the ranks of the militia after leaving Kramatorsk (this happened on July 5, 2014). “At first they refused to carry out the order and go to Donetsk, and then suddenly they all broke down at once and “were found: already at the very border,” - .
Babai has three children and the family lives exclusively on child benefits.
Babai was previously convicted of distributing cannabis. For this he was sentenced to nine years in prison, but after five years he was released for good behavior. The remaining four years were placed on probation.
A trial is currently underway in the second case - the beating of a person in the fall of 2013. The next meeting is in early August.
All searches have been lifted from me. There have already been two trials in Belorechka, and I was granted an amnesty. But in Vyselki there will be a trial on August 5,” says the brave lad. - I often have to go there and give testimony. I don’t believe that I will be acquitted - everything has been seized and paid for a long time ago, although I am not guilty of anything. But they can give a condition. I need to resolve all legal issues now. And until I have achieved the truth, I cannot even shave off my beard. I promised myself that I would get rid of her only when I dealt with the courts.
While the colorful Cossack is wandering around the courts and looking for a job that would take him, the Mozhaevs have accumulated significant debts for gas.
The militant declares that he still intends to return to fight in Donbass, but there is no order as to when.
While the “Cossack” was in the Donbass, many scandalous and anecdotal situations were associated with him. For example, he.
"Belarusian partisan"
