For the first time: Declassified video from Chechnya of a Sevastopol military correspondent
The famous military correspondent Alexander Sladkov published footage taken by his friend and colleague, the late Sevastopol journalist Alexei Sabirzanov, during a business trip to the anti-terrorist operation zone in the Chechen Republic. According to the author, when he returned from Chechnya, the recordings were classified at the direction of the Moscow authorities.
“Lyokha doesn’t look like an eagle. A plump, good-natured romantic who finds something of his own, soulful in any phenomenon, even in war. Externally - the spitting image of Schweik. It was easy to win him over...
Everything went smoothly until Lyokha was suddenly sent to the Caucasus, to Chechnya, where the second campaign was flaring up. We saw a sailor in the Group on Khankala, were surprised and decided to send him back. But the commandant of Chechnya, General Sergei Kizyun, decided to send him to the militants who were planning to go over to the side of the Federal Center. So, he took responsibility for the life of captain of the third rank Sabirzanov - and sent him away.
And Lyokha was not only in the detachment of the Yamadayev brothers, he filmed all his adventures on camera. I was already rubbing my hands, ready, together with Lyokha, to make a real film about this interesting period. But! On the orders of the Big Headquarters, Lyokha gave all the films to Moscow, where they were declared closed to others. Not secret, not chipboard, but closed.
Shortly before his death, captain of the second rank Sabirzanov handed over duplicates of the source code to me. It didn’t work out as a big film, but I wrote down Lyoshkin’s story about his adventures. Using a small part of them, we, paying tribute to the memory of this brave Russian officer, made this video,” said Sladkov.
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