SERB is a rapid response squad of pro-Kremlin extremists. SERB traffic

Alexey Kulakov, who was previously called an activist of the radical SERB movement, explained how he ended up on the video recording of the attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny. According to him, he had an appointment at the business center, where the office of the Anti-Corruption Foundation is located. He told about this to Rain.

Earlier, "Novaya Gazeta" that Kulakov, who was recognized as a man who was nearby during the attack on Alexei Navalny, admitted that he was the person who was filming the attack. The publication noted that Kulakov first stated that he "heard" how "someone was doused with brilliant green" and declared the suspicions a "fake". However, then he admitted that it was he who was on the video, noting that he had come “just to shoot on camera”.

Kulakov explained to Rain that he was near the business center because he had a business meeting there.

“At about 5 pm I found myself where all this happened, I had a business meeting there. I walked, waited for a man. Tired, sat down.<…>While I was sitting, a huge car drove up, I don't even remember the brand, I remember the numbers near Moscow, black. And after a while a man came out, who later turned out to be Alexei Navalny, followed by two or three women, I don’t remember the exact number. When he approached the car, the car stood close to the exit from the building, at that moment the girls pulled back abruptly to the exit from the building. And a man slipped between Navalny and them, probably about 25 years old, because he is athletic and smart. He had dark clothes and a cap, ”said Kulakov.

Kulakov stressed that he did not see the very moment when Navalny was doused with brilliant green. He also added that he has many friends in the GCD and SERB movements, but he is not a member of these organizations, "because maybe he is not worthy."

He noted that he was ready to help ensure that the attack on Navalny was disclosed. “This is my civic duty. Any crime must be solved and the perpetrators must be punished, ”Kulakov said.

Earlier, Twitter user Mr Radmir identified the attacker on Navalny as a member of the SERB, Alexander Petrunko, who is known "as the man with the urine can" at the exhibition Jack Sturges. However, one of the SERB leaders, Gosha Tarasevich, told the radio station Moscow Says that Petrunko had been in Crimea for a long time.

As Leonid Volkov reported, four versions of the video footage of the attack on Navalny were uploaded to the REN TV server, and that one of them shows the face of the person who filmed the attack and, probably, was its participant, is not blurred. The videos capture the same moment - the alleged participant in the attack walks past Navalny, who has been splashed with green paint, and holds something in his hand, presumably a phone.

Attack on Navalny on April 27. On May 2, the oppositionist filed several complaints about the inaction of law enforcement agencies after the attack on him, as a result of which his eye lost 80% of his vision. He also found two more alleged participants in the attack on the video.

The SERB movement denies its participation in the attack on Alexei Navalny, who was splashed in the face of brilliant green on April 27. The politician was diagnosed with a chemical burn of the eye, he fears partial loss of vision. At the same time, earlier SERB activist Aleksey Kulakov admitted that he was filming the attack on Navalny.

He was recognized on the video recording of the Ren-TV channel. Although the faces of the attackers and filmmakers were retouched, for a second Kulakov's face turned out to be open. He told Novaya Gazeta that he was "invited to film the action" and that he "condemns" such actions. Navalny accuses the Kremlin of organizing the attack. What is known about the SERB movement?

Originally from the east of Ukraine

SERB is also known as the Russian Liberation Movement, formerly known as the South East Radical Block. The first news about him appeared after the participation of his activists in the storming of the Kharkiv regional administration in March 2014 as a response to the events on the Kiev Maidan.

SERB activists, whose number is estimated at several dozen people, supported the annexation of Crimea and advocated the creation of the "Kharkiv People's Republic" and "Novorossiya" by secession from Ukraine. The leader of the movement is Igor Beketov, a native of Dnepropetrovsk (better known in social networks under the pseudonym Gosha Tarasevich). In the summer of 2014, he and a number of other activists moved to Russia, fearing criminal prosecution by the Ukrainian authorities. In Russia, they are actively involved in the political life of the country.

SERB weapons: brilliant green, urine, feces

Since the fall of 2014, SERB members have switched from the Ukrainian agenda to the Russian one. They position themselves as patriots, fighters against the "Maidan" and "liberals." Their activity consists in regular attacks on opposition activists at rallies. Thus, at several anti-war rallies, they took away from the participants and tore up posters with slogans against Vladimir Putin. And in February 2015, for example, doused with feces members of the Solidarity movement.

In 2015, SERB activists smashed the memorial at the site of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, pelted Alexei Navalny with cakes and poured some "pungent-smelling liquid" on him. In 2016, one of the leaders of the movement, Alexander Petrunko, poured urine on photos of Jock Sturges at an exhibition in Moscow.

Context

It was Alexander Petrunko who was identified by social media users by his clothes as the man who doused Alexei Navalny with green paint on April 27. However, SERB leader Igor Beketov told Snob magazine that Petrunko had an alibi, and the movement was "framed by calling them to film the attack."

Police inaction and contacts with the authorities

Opposition representatives accuse the authorities of inaction. Their main complaint is that SERB activists are detained during protests and later released without criminal proceedings. Alexei Navalny said in his blog that the attacks on him are coordinated by the presidential administration: "They have consistently accurate data on my movements. The intelligence services supply them with data from the bases and surveillance data."

The day before the attack on Navalny, Igor Beketov published his photographs from the State Duma in Live Journal, where, according to him, he met with "some" leaders of the Duma factions and allegedly attended a meeting of the Duma committee. "The experience of SERB in confronting the Maidan in Russia was very, very attentively listened to by the deputies," Beketov said.

The SERB (South East Radical Block) movement was founded in Dnepropetrovsk in the spring of 2014, after the change of government in Ukraine.

The first mention of the "South-East Bloc" in social networks appeared in March 2014, the founders announced their participation in the assault on the Kharkiv regional administration. The movement adhered to an anti-Maidan ideology (demand for elements of federalization, support for the Crimean referendum, negative attitude towards Euromaidan and its participants, protests against the use of the army in eastern Ukraine, a call to boycott the May presidential elections and create a "South-Eastern Ukrainian Republic", support for Novorossiya).

At that moment, the movement had 300 supporters and as many sympathizers in Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Krivoy Rog, the leading role in it was played by actor Igor Beketov (pseudonym Gosha Tarasevich).

At the end of the summer of 2014, SERB activists moved from Ukraine to Russia, arguing with fears for their safety and the initiation of a criminal case against Tarasevich by the SBU (according to him, the movement continues to operate in Ukraine after that). In the winter of 2014-2015, the movement switched to internal Russian political life, fighting against Russian oppositionists under the slogan of preventing the Russian Maidan.

A number of activists of the movement were detained by the police without initiating criminal cases, Tarasevich was not affected by this fate (although during one of the actions he hit a policeman). In September 2016, Tarasevich was beaten by unknown assailants. SERB's existence, according to its leader, was funded by its members.

At that time, it advocated the granting of autonomy to the southeastern regions of the country. The movement moved to Russia in September 2014, changing the name of the word “radical” to “Russian”. According to the leader of the movement, Igor Beketov (known as Gosha Tarasevich), this happened "because the Security Service of Ukraine fabricated a criminal case against me for treason."

After the move, activists of the movement, according to them, are trying to "be useful to Russia, Novorossiya, Ukrainian brothers who do not want to be under the ukrofascists." SERB members from time to time attack civil activists: in May 2015 they poured green paint on participants in the antiwar picket of the Solidarity movement, in August of the same year they attacked Solidarity activists with their fists, in October - on activist Vladimir Ionov who was standing in a solitary picket ...

According to Znak.com, Alexander Petrunko, who allegedly attacked Navalny, grew up in an orphanage in the city of Rostov-on-Don, worked for a short time as a freelance criminal intelligence officer, and participated in the seizure of the Kharkiv administration building in 2014 on the side of the separatists.

The leader of the SERB movement, Igor Beketov, told Meduza that the movement had nothing to do with the attack on the opposition leader. “Someone called me and [SERB activist identified on the video] Aleksey [Kulakov] and offered to come to the FBK office so that a video report could be filmed. I didn't have a camera, Alexey took it with him. I was late, and Alexei later told me that he arrived at 17:00, played around there, nothing happened, and he was going to leave - and suddenly everything happened. He only saw that the man was running away, ”Beketov says.

According to him, Petrunko could not have been the attacker, since he allegedly went to Crimea on the eve of the holidays. At the same time, Beketov notes that there is a certain similarity between the attacker and Petrunko. “Someone cleverly framed our movement and, at the same time, promoted Navalny,” Beketov said, stressing that SERB activists are not hiding after “holding actions”.

Image copyright TWITTER / KIRA_YARMYSH

One of them - Alexei Kulakov - agreed to speak with the BBC Russian Service and confirmed that he was indeed at the site where Navalny was attacked, but at the same time stated that he was not involved in the attack itself and condemned what had happened.

A video recording of the April 27 attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny was published by the REN TV channel. On it were smeared over the faces of a man who poured green paint on the politician, and another person, apparently filming everything on camera.

Later it turned out that four versions of the attack video were uploaded to the channel's server, one of which did not hide the face of the second person.

Twitter users identified him as Alexei Kulakov and called him an activist of the radical SERB movement. He himself introduced himself as an independent blogger. Kulakov confirmed that it was he in the video, but said that he was not involved in the attack on Navalny.

In a conversation with the BBC, he declined to explain exactly how he ended up in the area at the time of the attack. He also stated that he did not film the attack on the phone, but simply held it in his hands.

"Well, there, you never know where I ended up. You still tell me that I was lit up somewhere when Kennedy was killed, let's hang on me too. Are you an investigator or a prosecutor or something?" - said Kulakov. Earlier, in a conversation with Novaya Gazeta, he said that he "came there just to take pictures."

Image copyright Yuri Smiyuk / TASS

Kulakov also said that he strongly condemns what had happened, although one of the employees of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny has already found a comment, left by a person with a video on Facebook some time ago, where it was said, in particular, "we are preparing a bucket of green stuff personally for [...] Navalny."

In a conversation with the BBC Russian Service, Kulakov said that he did not consider his comment to be a threat and did not call for real violence against Navalny. The fact that Navalny was subsequently doused with brilliant green in front of his eyes, he called a coincidence.

In the person who directly carried out the attack, users also found a resemblance to one of the SERB activists, but he did not respond to a letter from the BBC Russian Service. Kulakov, however, said that he did not see the face of the attacker, he also could not recall the indicated SERB activist.

The SERB leader, in turn, said that the person who is considered to be the perpetrator of the attack has already been "a long time ago in Crimea." He denies any involvement of the movement in the attack on Navalny.

Another attack on Navalny took place on April 27. The attacker, without saying a word, poured green paint on the politician after speaking at a forum in Moscow.

According to the politician himself, he was diagnosed with a chemical burn of the eye, he can go completely blind in one eye.

SERB activists have repeatedly destroyed at the scene of the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.