Zhilin, Evgeny Vladimirovich

Early years

Evgeny Zhilin was born on January 6, 1976 in Kharkov in the family of a design engineer. Father - Zhilin Vladimir Timofeevich, b. 1950 Mother - Alexandra Borisovna, b. 1947 ^{[6] [7]}

In 1993 he entered the Kharkov University of Internal Affairs ^[8] at the Faculty of Economic Security with a degree in Law, which he graduated in 1997 ^[9] .

Law Enforcement Services Prior to Arrest

In 1997, he entered the service of an operative in the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (UMVDU) in the Kharkov region ^[7] .

In 2005, he was seconded to the Kharkiv Department of the Security Service of Ukraine , but was soon detained on charges of a criminal offense and placed in a pre-trial detention center ^[10] .

Arrest

From March 21, 2005 to December 20, 2007 he was in a pre-trial detention center in the city of Kharkov on charges of committing crimes under Art. 194 h. 2, 263 h. 1, 364 h. 3, 365 h. 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (intentional destruction of property in a dangerous way, illegal handling of explosive materials, abuse of power or official authority if it was accompanied by violence, the use of weapons or painful and insulting the personal dignity of the victim). According to investigators, Zhilin and another employee of the Kharkiv Organized Crime Control Department, Baryshev E.G., on October 26, 2004 planted an explosive device under the car of the then deputy of the Kharkiv city council Gennady Kernes ^{[7] [10]} . Also witnessed the poisoning of President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko . In 2007, Zhilin was acquitted and reinstated in his position and rank. According to Zhilin, the criminal record was canceled, and the period of stay in the pre-trial detention center was set off as an official record ^[11] .

Service Recovery

In 2008, he continued to serve in the Office for the Suppression of Organized Crime (Organized Crime Control Department) of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kharkiv region, from where he retired in 2010 after seniority ^[12] . Given the period of stay in the pre-trial detention center, which was credited for three years, and also the service in the Organized Crime Control Department, where the year of service counts as one and a half, Zhilin, according to him, retired at 34, having 27 years of service ^[11] .

He has a special rank of police captain ^[7] .

2010—2013

After retirement, he was actively engaged in social activities and business. In 2010, Oplot was created in Kharkov as a public organization, a year later the sports club of the same name arose. For several years, Zhilin also created the Oplot Charity Fund, the Oplot Law Company, the Oplot-Audit Audit Company and the Oplot-Info News Agency.

In 2012, he entered on a contractual basis at the Faculty of History of the Vasiliy Karazin Kharkiv National University (in June 2014 he was expelled ^[13] ).

Since 2012 - candidate of legal sciences ^[10] .

According to the journalist Stanislav Lodygin, who is engaged in criminal investigations for the Ukrainian publication “Argument”, the business that Zhilin was engaged in was specific and consisted of converting, cashing out and transporting cash. It is alleged that such activities could not be carried out without the approval of local authorities (including the same mayor of Kharkov, Gennady Kernes , with whom Zhilin had normal relations). It also provides evidence of preferences for competitors that Zhilin’s business received from law enforcement agencies. Lodygin, among other things, accused Zhilin of having links with local and Russian crime and Russian special services.

In April 2013, in connection with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from Nazi invaders, Zhilin held in Kiev at the monument to Nikolai Vatutin ^[14] an exhibition dedicated to the crimes of the OUN-UPA. Assuming a possible attack on the exhibition, he secured it with the help of 150 members of the Oplot Fight Club ^[15] . During discussions with representatives of Ukrainian nationalists and the Freedom party around the exhibition, he called People's Deputy Igor Miroshnichenko and other representatives of the Freedom Party to a duel in the cage for such competitions in the Oplot Corporation, inviting “supporters of the OUN-UPA” fight with “supporters of the Red Army” in order to determine who the truth is. Representatives of Ukrainian nationalists did not accept the challenge ^[16] .

According to journalist Stanislav Lodygin, Zhilin was related to skirmishes in the center of Kiev that occurred on May 18, 2013. On this day, the opposition planned an action "Get up, Ukraine!" The Party of Regions , for its part, organized the anti-fascist march “To Europe without the Fascists” ^[17] , to which numerous young athletic people representing the “Young Regions” brought to Kiev were involved. After the rally, a group of “athletes” attacked the rally of the Freedom party, and at the same time two correspondents were shot and filmed what was happening ^[18] . One of the attackers was subsequently identified as Vadim Titushko from the White Church ^[19] . After his trial, the word “ aunts ”, formed from his last name, became a collective term in Ukraine for young people who are secretly used as instigators and mercenaries to organize forceful provocations, brawls, and other actions using physical force.

He opposed the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union and for maintaining economic relations with Russia ^[20] .

Activities during the Euromaidan period

Literally from the first days of the protests in Kiev, Zhilin took a very tough anti-Maidan position ^[21] . He organized and sent to Kiev groups of his athletes - members of fighting clubs to participate in anti-Maidan actions. Publicly called for harsh treatment of radical activists who use violence and carry out attacks on the rule of law. He declared that his organization would demand from the Ukrainian authorities to disperse the Maidan, as well as to seek the punishment of those guilty, who block and seize buildings, block traffic in the center of Kiev ^{[22] [23]} .

In December 2013, branches of the Oplot organization were established in a number of regions of Ukraine ^[24] . The head of the Donetsk branch, Alexander Zakharchenko, subsequently, in the spring of 2014, became one of the active organizers of armed resistance to the new Ukrainian authorities in the Donetsk region . As Zhilin himself later said, “this is the person who fully shared the state’s structure with me. The right person and the right man. This person actually personified me ” ^[25] .

On January 11, Oplot members tried to prevent the Euro-Maidan Forum from being held in Kharkov ^[26] .

January 17, 2014, the day after the adoption of the so-called “ January 16 laws ” by the Rada, together with members of the Oplot organization, held an action in Kiev to block the cars of Avtomaydan participants, after which he held a press conference where he said that the Maidan should be " to pieces ”, and promised in two weeks to return with his supporters and take apart the barricades on Independence Square ^{[27] [28] [29] [30]} .

In late January - early February, together with his organization Oplot, he took an active part in the formation of self-defense units in the southeastern regions of Ukraine ^[31] . He coordinated the protection of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration against alleged attempts to seize it by visiting supporters of Euromaidan. On February 1, he supported the creation of the All-Ukrainian Public Union “Ukrainian Front” , which was proclaimed at an extraordinary congress of primary party organizations of the Party of Regions , in which his movement became a full member of the “people's guard” ^[23] .

After the change of power in Ukraine

On February 22, Zhilin took part in the Kharkov Congress of Deputies of all levels in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, the city of Sevastopol and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, at which he urged the present deputies of the South-East in all settlements to urgently create people's squads and arm them to fight extremists ^{[ 32]} . In fact, however, these calls did not receive official support ^[8] : President Viktor Yanukovych did not arrive at the congress, and Kharkiv leaders Gennady Kernes and Mikhail Dobkin departed in an unknown direction immediately after the congress, and upon returning, expressed their readiness to cooperate with the new Ukrainian authorities ^{[ 21]} .

On February 24, Arsen Avakov , appointed by the Verkhovna Rada as acting Minister of the Interior, stated that criminal proceedings had been launched against Yevgeny Zhilin ^{[33] [34]} . Two days later, Avakov said that Zhilin left Ukraine allegedly on February 21 ^[35] .

Meanwhile, in Kharkov in late February – March 2014, Oplot activists continued to actively oppose the supporters of Euromaidan ^{[21] [36] [37]} , and after the protests against the new government were suppressed in early April, a number of members “ Bastion ”joined the protesters in the Donetsk region and entered the armed groups that arose there ^{[38] [39]} .

In Ukraine, Oplot was declared a terrorist organization ^[21] . The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine further attributed to Oplot and directly to Zhilin involvement in the armed actions that took place in Kharkov and the Kharkiv Region in 2014-2015. The most famous such action was the terrorist attack committed on February 22, 2015 in Kharkov. During the investigation, SBU officers detained three residents of the region who turned out to be members of the Oplot organization. One of them gave a confession and said that the attack was organized by order from Russia and that he was promised a reward of $ 10 thousand for his organization ^[40]

Activities in the DPR

Oplot activists who moved to the territory of the Donetsk region took part in violent actions that took place during protests of the local population against the new Ukrainian authorities . In April 2014, several members of the Oplot fighting club were identified by journalists of the Ukrainian Policy publication among the militants involved in the seizure of administrative buildings in the cities of Donetsk region ^[38] .

On April 16, 2014, a group of activists armed with machine guns and rifles, led by Zhilin and Alexander Zakharchenko, occupied the city council building in Donetsk ^{[25] [41] [42] [43]} . As Zhilin later said, “ Then everyone captured something, everyone hoped that it would be like in Crimea: we turn to Russia and everything will be fine. "Hold" was almost the only public organization that had a power block at that time. And we seized the building of the city administration and defended it so that no one would rob ” ^[25] .

At the end of May 2014, the fighters of the Donetsk "Oplot" secured the residence of Rinat Akhmetov in Donetsk ^[44] . Later, directly in Donetsk, they controlled the building of the Donetsk City Council ^[45] , the offices of the regional television channels Donbass and Union ^[46] .

In June 2014, it became known about the formation of a battalion on the basis of the Donetsk "Oplot", which was included in the structure of the armed groups of the DPR.

As Zhilin claimed in the fall of 2014, it was he who, during the summer, was actively lobbying his organization, the Donetsk Stronghold in Moscow and Zakharchenko himself: “ I convinced everyone that this is the person who really needs Donetsk. I said that with all the splendor of Alexander Boroday, a citizen of Russia, a resident of Moscow, cannot be the prime minister in Donetsk. It is not right. I said that the most ideal candidate is Zakharchenko. I convinced ” ^[25] .

At the end of August 2014, the Oplot website published information on the appointment of Zhilin as a senior economic adviser to the self-proclaimed DPR ^[22] .

Activities in Russia

According to the newspaper. Ru ”, Evgeny Zhilin began his social and commercial activities in Russia in 2014 immediately after leaving Ukraine. In June 2014, he registered the Oplot interregional sports and patriotic public organization in Moscow, collecting humanitarian aid for the DPR in Russia.

In August 2015, he became the founder of another "Bastion", which specialized in sports activities - teaching children martial arts. Exactly a month before his death, in August 2016, Zhilin registered with his business partners from the Moscow Region two enterprises - Oplot LLC and Rus LLC, with the help of which he apparently intended to legalize his security activities in Russia ^[47] .

February 26, 2014 and. about. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleg Makhnitsky announced the opening of criminal proceedings under Art. 260 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (creation of illegal armed groups). According to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov , Yevgeny Zhilin was put on the wanted list ^[22] .

On April 3, 2014, Arsen Avakov said at a press conference that the Oplot organization was involved in the beatings and abductions of Euromaidan activists. In addition to the tasks of burning cars, “they were given the functions of abducting and beating activists,” Avakov said ^[48] . At the same time, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (GPU) announced four citizens of suspicion of an attack on Euromaidan activists and their abduction in January 2014. According to the investigation, the suspects were involved in the commission of these actions by the head of Oplot Evgeny Zhilin ^[49] .

In March 2015, the prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region, during financial and economic monitoring of the activities of communal enterprises of the Kharkiv city council, conducted with the SBU regional department, established the fact of Yevgeny Zhilin's participation in the assignment of fictitious firms over 1 billion hryvnias from 2012 to 2014, including among 100 million hryvnias of the municipal enterprises of Kharkov. The prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region began criminal proceedings on the fact of aiding in the appropriation of funds of the territorial community, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons (part 5 of article 27, part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), as part of the criminal proceedings, the leader of Oplot was declared wanted ^[22] .

In September 2015, the SBU blocked several bank accounts of Zhilin. It was reported that in total more than 1.75 million hryvnias were blocked in the accounts of Zhilin’s relatives in banking institutions ^[2] .

On January 28, 2016, the Pechersky District Court of Kiev arrested Yevgeny Zhilin in absentia ^[50] . He was accused of “violent counteraction to the mass actions of Euromaidan activists”, as well as “illegal kidnapping of a person by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, which was accompanied by causing physical suffering to the victim” ^[51] .

On August 26, 2016, the Military Prosecutor's Office of the anti-terrorist operation forces called Zhilin for interrogation as a suspect in financing terrorist organizations ^[2] .

Since 2015, it has been registered in the Russian Federation. He was killed on September 19, 2016 at the Veterok restaurant in the village of Gorki-2 near Moscow ^[52] . The killer shot Zhilin and seriously wounded his companion Andrei Kozar ^{[53] [54] [55]} , after which he left in a car with a driver parked near the establishment ^[56] . Investigators of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Moscow Region found that the leader of the Oplot party, Yevgeny Zhilin, was shot dead by a killer from Ukraine Nikolai Didkovsky. The court at the request of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Moscow Region issued a decision on the arrest of Didkovsky in absentia. He is put on the international wanted list ^[57] .

The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under Articles 105 (murder) and 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (arms trafficking) ^[58] . The versions of the murder voiced by the investigation are “commercial activities” and “personal hostile relationships” ^[59] . The motivation for the crime is the struggle for the distribution of funds received from the sale of coal mined in the DPR / LPR ^[60] . According to another version, the causes of the murder should be sought in the activities of Zhilin as part of the team of the Kharkov mayor Kernes ^[61] . There is also a version with the revenge of Avakov, who, with the help of Russian criminals, cracked down on the old enemy. ^[62]

He was married, raised three daughters. According to Ukrainian media reports, the family lived in Russia after a change of power in Ukraine ^[6] .

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• Tertyshnaya Y. Evgeny Zhilin: “I am convinced that I must give part of the money that comes to me to other people” // Status Quo: news agency. - Kharkov, 2012, August 6. Archived March 16, 2014.
• Evgeny Zhilin: People would not die for a tyrant. And they died for Stalin. An exclusive interview with the head of Oplot online edition of the Verb. // Verb: Ukrainian online edition. - 2013, March 5. Archived February 22, 2014.
• The leader of the Stronghold passed as a suspect in the case of undermining a businessman // LIGABіznesіnform . - 2014, January 17.
• The leader of the Oplot told how he was jailed for undermining a Kernes car. After three years in a pre-trial detention center, the case against Zhilin was closed. // TSN : television channel. - February 7, 2014.
• Nayem M. Leader of the Kharkiv Oplot Evgeny Zhilin: I don’t like the pressure on my president, it offends me (Russian) // Ukrainian Truth : News Agency. - February 6, 2014.
• Bobok S. Evgeny Zhilin: you can break off one arm, one leg, knock out one eye during the detention - and you won’t have anything for it (Russian) // Kommersant Ukraine : daily newspaper. - February 8, 2014.
• Andrey Dmitriev. Evgeny Zhilin: I know my rights - and I will use them (Russian) // Ukrainian Truth. - February 13, 2014. Archived on September 27, 2016.
• Evgeny Zhilin: "Today's radical in Ukraine is a monkey with a baton." Interview of the leader of the Kharkiv public organization Oplot, Yevgeny Zhilin, to the chief editor of Pravda Severo-Zapad Ilya Azovsky (rus.) // Pravda Severo-Zapad. - March 9, 2014.
• The program "Hang up". In the studio, guest Evgeny Zhilin, head of the Oplot militia unit (neopr.) . Says Moscow (September 8, 2014). Date of treatment September 22, 2016.
• Official site of the Oplot movement (neopr.) . Date of treatment February 2, 2014.