The letter sent to the federal authorities concerning the exchange of Andrei Babitsky bears the signature of field commander Usa Khadzhiev. I spent two days trying to find out who this was. SUCH A FIELD COMMANDER DOES NOT EXIST. Only a rank-and-file militant with that name was found, but his influence on the decision to release three Russian prisoners of war is zero.

Who then were the Chechen participants in the video show, so reminiscent of the famous scenes from the film "Dead Season"? Who was hiding behind those masks? Why did we hear not a word from them? We only saw the theatrical embraces of the "masks" with Andrei, which, according to the creators of the story, were meant to prove to everyone who watched them: they gave up our man, they gave up a militant.

This is what, as a person who has been involved in investigations for twenty years, troubled me first and foremost.

But now—to the second point: from mundane logic to political logic. What kind of person was a Russian citizen working for Radio Liberty supposed to appear to the country as? (And how many Russian citizens are currently working for foreign companies? I'm not even talking about those, including high-ranking officials and their family members, who have millions in foreign banks. That's another story.) What kind of person... I'm trying to find a definition... I found it: "a literary Vlasovite."

In the TV news, high-ranking Russian politicians appear one after another. Defense Minister Sergeev: "I would exchange a hundred Babitskys for three of our soldiers." Interior Minister Rushailo: "He asked to go back to his own—so they let him go." First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Manilov: "Where he came from—there he went." And finally, this is what acting President Vladimir Putin answered when asked how he would have acted in Babitsky's place (this was on Friday, at a semi-closed briefing for journalists): "As a true patriot, I would not have agreed to this exchange."

Yes, you democrats...

I don't vouch for the exact wording, but I vouch for the meaning: Babitsky is something like Basayev, only smaller...

But I will quote Andrei Babitsky's own letter (here it is before me) verbatim:

"Wishing to assist the Presidential Commission for the Release of Forcibly Detained Military Personnel, I agree to participate in my exchange for Russian servicemen through the mediation of field commander Turpalaali Atgeriev. I wish to emphasize that I have not the slightest doubt in my own innocence, and therefore my decision is dictated solely by the desire to assist in the release of prisoners of war. I undertake, for my part, understanding the humane purpose of the commission's work and fully sharing its goals, to in no way undertake actions that would discredit its reputation. I am confident that Turpalaali Atgeriev will not undertake such actions in his proposals and will be guided by humanitarian considerations."

I reread Andrei's letter again and again and suddenly, for the first time, I notice a detail I had overlooked: the date marked on this letter.

January 21st!

He was detained on the 16th. For several days, nothing was heard of him. That is, on the day this letter was written, he was still being held at the filtration point (he was only transferred to the pre-trial detention center on the 26th).

Oh my God!

There was no international scandal yet. The acting president had not yet intervened, the special investigator for particularly important cases of the Prosecutor General's Office had not yet been dispatched, and the Prosecutor General himself had not yet moved. There was no absurd accusation of stealing an icon worth ten rubles yet!

That is, nothing had happened yet, but the operation was already prepared. An operation in which Andrei Babitsky was assigned his own role.

All this time they lied to us, accusing journalist Babitsky of collaborating with terrorists, dragging his name through the mud. Perhaps an international scandal was also needed for Chechen leaders to understand: such an exchange for three young soldiers would be equivalent.

And then—unknown Chechens in masks and—a path into the unknown, to the jeers of those who set him on that path.

I don't know who spoke to Andrei Babitsky at the filtration point and how, I cannot imagine what Andrei himself felt when he wrote this statement to the Presidential Commission for the Release of Forcibly Detained Military Personnel (this statement was never received by the commission), and Andrei and I never crossed paths in either peaceful or military assignments.