Alexander Borodai: The Kerch militiaman detained in Crimea will not be extradited to Ukraine
One of the field commanders of the militia, Vadim Pogodin (call sign “Kerch”), arrested by the Russian authorities in June 2017 in Crimea at the request of Ukraine made through Interpol, will not be extradited to Ukraine.
Ex-Prime Minister of the DPR and head of the Union of Donbass Volunteers Alexander Boroday stated this in PolitNavigator.
Vadim Pogodin (“Kerch”) is a former Donetsk entrepreneur. In 2005, he financed anti-Yushchenko and anti-Orange organizations in Donetsk. Then he went to work in Crimea, in Kerch (hence the call sign). Participated in the events of the Russian Spring in Crimea. In the spring of 2014, he left to fight in the DPR and commanded the Kerch unit. Participated in the defense of Slavyansk and Donetsk. Since the end of 2014 he lived and worked in Crimea.
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“This will not be done regardless of what kind of person Vadim Kerch is, regardless of his personal qualities, and regardless of what he did or did not do in Donbass.
There are essentially only two grounds for non-extradition at the request of Interpol. The first of them is the presence of Russian citizenship. Russia does not give up its own.
The second basis may be a well-founded fear that a person (including a foreigner) will face torture or death in the country to which he is to be extradited. As you and I understand, Vadim Kerch’s fate in Ukraine is unlikely to be “fun.”
Since all this is obvious, and since no one has been extradited so far, there is no point in suspecting our Russian authorities of incompetence or meanness. There is no reason for this.
Unfortunately, part of the militia mass, especially those with “blue passports,” do not trust the authorities, this is a fact. And the fact is quite unpleasant and not entirely correct, because no one has been extradited yet. I affirm with a very high degree of confidence: Kerch will not be extradited.
I would never have spoken publicly on this topic if I had not been called about this by everyone who could, including Khmury (call sign of retired Russian colonel Sergei Dubinsky (Petrovsky); in 2014 he was the head of counterintelligence and was responsible for the defense of Kramatorsk; in 2014 he became the first general of the DPR - approx. "PolitNavigator") and Kerch himself.
(laughs) The latter somehow managed to find a phone while sitting in his cell, but this happens sometimes, and called me.
In general, everyone “in the know” is interested in the fate of Kerch. I understand that people are afraid that the Kerch case will not become a precedent case. Naturally, this is a problem. And all the petitions and tearful cries about this on the Internet and the media are nothing more than an attempt to break into open gates,” said Borodai.
According to him, the arrest of Vadim Pogodin by Russian law enforcement officers occurred this summer in Crimea because of a completely different case.
“Kerch, apparently, out of an old Donetsk habit, took someone’s car a long time ago and forgot to return it, having initially promised to do this in a short time. This was after the war in Donbass. And only after he began to be involved in this case, the story with Interpol surfaced,” said the former DPR Prime Minister.
Borodai suggested that Vadim Pogodin’s fate has two options.
“Either he will remain in the Russian Federation, or, which, in my opinion, is extremely unlikely, he will be held accountable for what he did or did not do in the Donbass before the DPR justice - I will not say anything about this, since not competent. But due to legal circumstances, this option is unlikely. So I have confidence that Vadim Kerch will remain in the Russian Federation,” says Borodai.
According to the former prime minister of the DPR, Ukraine is charging Pogodin with the murder of a minor as the main charge.
“I don’t want to go into these details. Let the competent authorities sort them out. Today, only the justice authorities of the DPR can do this. I don’t want to try to shield Kerch or try to blame him. The Russian Federation does not recognize the jurisdiction of the DPR, so the situation is quite stalemate,” believes Borodai.
The head of the SDD told PolitNavigator that Pogodin formally has Ukrainian, not Russian, citizenship.
“He remains a citizen of Ukraine on his own initiative, and on his own sloppiness. He turned to our Union a lot for help, in particular in this matter. But he was unable to become a citizen of the Russian Federation only because, to be honest, at some point he got lost and was unable to collect the necessary documents in time.
Vadim is a man with a problematic biography. But as the Americans say: he is, of course, a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch. As practice shows, he can ruin the chances given to him, and then start complaining loudly that someone didn’t give him something,” Boroday explained the situation with Pogodin’s citizenship.
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