Journalists of the Slidstvo.Info project found out where and how Russian criminal generals live, who organised the executions and torture of Ukrainians in the territories occupied by the Russian army.
What is known about Russian executioner generals
The Russian FSB started a war against Ukraine long before the annexation of Crimea and the events in Donbas in 2014.
The journalists team of the Slidstvo.Info project has been collecting evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine since the beginning of the large-scale invasion.
Ukrainians who suffered from torture by Russian criminals say that they were subjected to the most brutal abuse by FSB employees.
The interrogation lasted for about six hours, during which I was forced to sign a piece of paper: "I, Baturyn Oleg Igorevych, undertake to cooperate with the federal authorities of the Russian Federation, Baturyn O. and signature," journalist from Nova Kakhovka Oleg Baturyn says.
In particular, the journalists mention the retired FSB lieutenant general Viktor Palagin, who was in charge of the FSB administration in Russian-occupied Crimea.
It was he who approved the mass arrests of Ukrainian activists and journalists, gave orders to persecute the Crimean Tatars and built power structures of the Russian Federation on the territory of the occupied peninsula.
A month after Palagin was appointed head of the FSB in Crimea, Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov and activists Gennadiy Afanasyev and Oleksandr Kolchenko were detained.
Crimean Tatars were severely persecuted, and activists Timur Shaimardanov and Seyran Zinedinov were detained.
Over the next several years, FSB officers conducted dozens of searches and mass arrests in the territory of occupied Crimea.
On November 14, 2018, Palagin changed his position, taking the post of deputy head of the board of the Russian energy company FSK "United Energetic System" [In Russian - Единая энергетическая система], which supplies electricity throughout Russia.
Journalists learned that the retired FSB general has two two-story houses in the village of Timonino near Moscow, one house with an area of about 263.4 m2 and the other - 117.2 m2.
What is known about other war criminals from the FSB
Next, the journalists mention FSB Colonel General Nikolai Yuryev, who heads the FSB's counter-intelligence department.
It was under his leadership that the FSB kidnapped residents of the Kyiv region during the partial occupation in the spring of 2022.
In particular, a mathematics teacher was abducted in this way, whom criminals from the FSB suspected of collaborating with the Ukrainian military because she spoke Ukrainian.
On March 25, three soldiers knocked on the gate and entered. A man in black enters, I understood that it was an FSB officer, and with him a man of up to ten... The man was put on his knees in the corridor. And Vika was in the kitchen... Then the child came out, dressed, and asked for socks. I took off her jacket, put on a black fur coat, gave her my Uggs... When she left the house, she hugged me, kissed me and asked me to say goodbye to my father, the mother of the captured Ukrainian woman, Kateryna says.
Journalists note that after a large-scale invasion in 2022, FSB representatives created special groups in the occupied territories of Ukraine to search for the Ukrainian underground.
They took away for everything that they did not like. Even for looking in the eyes, they could take away the documents and take them away. We tried not to go anywhere... There was a genocide, a real genocide, the residents of the part of the Kherson region liberated from the occupation say.
FSB officers paid particular attention to journalists and activists from the territories occupied at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
They looked at albums, photos, asked: "who is she, what does she do, where does she study, where is her daughter, where is her husband." There was no corner where they did not dig. The search was conducted by the military, and the FSB worker spoke with the parents, a journalist from Melitopol, which is occupied by the Russians says.
In particular, the FSB detained her father.
Yuryev probably got quite rich for planning similar operations and other crimes against civilians.
As is usually the case in Russian leadership circles, the colonel-general lives a wealthy life.
In particular, the journalists learned about elite real estate in Moscow and a fleet of expensive cars registered to Nikolay Yuryev's daughter.
He also has at least ten plots of land in the Moscow Region registered to him, his daughter, and probably his wife, Tamara Yuryeva.
The plots of land in the Yuryev family are pretty small. For example, a plot of 50 acres in the Novo-Daryino country settlement is registered to Tamara Yuryeva.
Yuryev's daughter has an 18-acre plot in the "Polyana" horticultural society recorded. Today, it can be composed of approximately 40 thousand dollars.
Among the war criminals of the FSB, journalists also mention the head of the 1st counter-intelligence service of the FSB, Lieutenant General Vladislav Menshchikov, whose structure includes the department headed by Yuryev.
From 1983 to 1995, he worked in the state security services, and then he was the general director of one of the largest Russian defence enterprises, OJSC Concern PPO Almaz-Antey. This enterprise manufactures anti-aircraft missile systems, including "Buk", C300, and C400. Russia actively uses this weapon in the war against Ukraine.
In 2015, Vladimir Putin appointed Menshchikov as the head of the 1st counter-intelligence service of the FSB of Russia.
This service is known for specialising in the planning and organising intelligence and sabotage-terrorist operations on Ukraine's territory.
According to Svitlana Zalizetska, a journalist from Melitopol, even before the full-scale invasion, FSB representatives were in the city and held public discussions with residents.
And even before the war, in the same building, in the business center of Yevgeny Balytskyi, our Gauleiter, they gathered "Yevgeny Balytskyi's people", gathered the elders of the houses, and the "quarters", those who worked on the elections. And a representative from Crimea, from the FSB was brought to such meetings. And he told them about life. That is, they were preparing, the journalist notes.
Among the divisions of this service is the Center for Information Security or the 18th Center of the FSB. Most of the cyber attacks on Ukraine from the Russian Federation are his work.
Vladyslav Menshikov heads this entire structure and, at the same time, lives his best life in the suburbs of Moscow.
According to the information obtained by Slidstvo.Info, Menshikov and his family own at least 16 plots of land in the Moscow Region, seven houses and one apartment.
A small town can turn out if you collect all of Menshikov's real estate. His estates range in size from 68 to almost 1,000 m2—and land plots — from three to nearly 60 hectares.
Today, the most significant plot of Menshikov can be worth $2.2 million. And the total cost of his cottage complex is almost 6 million dollars.
Meanwhile, Menshchykov's subordinates, who do not have much land and real estate, mock the Ukrainians, beating out confessions about what they did not do.
A whirlwind seized me, dragged me to the second floor and into the last office. He took me there, handcuffed me to the battery near the window and put me on a chair. And so I stayed there for three days. FSB officers came every morning, interrogated him... He began to beat him, first punched him on the head from above, then several times on the face, on the right and left, several blows on the nose. And he said: "If you keep quiet, I'll come in 10 minutes, I'll finish you off," a journalist from Nova Kakhovka Oleksandr Gunko says.
