A she-bear with three cubs was shot in the Baikal region, raised in a den, on the twentieth of October, on the first snow. Hunters were detained with prey, the case was transferred to the police. And it would have remained ordinary poaching, unnoticed by anyone (such cases are everywhere in Siberia and on the stream), if the investigation and documentation of the incident had not suddenly begun to slow down and it had not sounded that bear meat, like other meat of wild animals, was sent by plane to Moscow Lesnoy restaurant by businessman Emin Agalarov and singer Grigory Leps.
A she-bear with three cubs is certainly more than four animals. This is Shishkin's painting «Morning in a Pine Forest», fundamental for a Russian person, one of the brands of Russia, its image and part of our cultural or, as they say now, genetic code. Here — along with Pushkin and the song «Oh, frost, frost» — our roots, national identity, etc. And from it, from our idyll, a good, they say, dish comes out, can it, it turns out, just be killed and eaten? Lesnoy offers «fur-roasted bear meat with wild cherries and mashed potatoes.»
And all this — in the same Russia? Or is it something else?
Bear on the menu. Screenshot of the website of the Lesnoy restaurant
The restaurant refutes poaching deliveries and rightly notes that neither bear hunting nor game eating is prohibited by law in the Russian Federation.
The question, in fact, in one: was the killing of sleeping cubs ordered?
Facts and circumstances
According to information received by Novaya Gazeta first-hand, from people who initially participated in clarifying the details of the hunt for bear cubs (we don’t give names at their request), a “loaf” (UAZ) with a bear’s head, bear skins and paws, two bags of fat stopped by the traffic police in the Kachugsky district of the Irkutsk region. Joint police and hunting supervision raid. There were two people in the car. At the time of the inspection, they did not have any documents for the right to hunt, however, during the interview, they stated that there were licenses at the hunting site. And subsequently they presented two permits for hunting a bear in the fall of 2021 and two more for the spring of 2022 (bear hunting is prohibited from December 1 to March 20).
Since this happened, I repeat, at the end of October 2021 of the year, and the spring season of the year 2022, as you understand, has not yet arrived, and the hunting supervision and the police are presented with documents that are already closing it, they saw this as a criminal offense.
The age of the cubs also raised suspicions: if they are of the current year, it is forbidden to kill them. According to physiological signs, the dead were just like that, less than a year old. 10-month-old — if they were born in January, as is usually the case, and if the food supply allowed, the cubs look exactly the way the police saw them on the video and photos in the hunters' smartphones during the arrest. However, to confirm the age, an examination of the remains was required, but so far they cannot fully carry it out. Our sources talk about “braking from above”.
The version that it was a contract killing, that the shooters went to get bear meat on order, and this scheme has been working for a long time, is also not being investigated:
< p>ungulate meat and bear meat went both to Irkutsk restaurants and to Moscow. Bear paws — to the Chinese.
The version was born based on the correspondence found in the phone.
Until now, the place of production has not been established, which is strange — in October, when there is little snow, this should have been done. And to establish the details at the place of extraction of animals and their cutting. However, the versions that followed one after another: a) bags of skins and meat were found in the forest by chance; b) the she-bear got up from the den, and the hunters were forced to shoot for self-defense — criticism, according to the interviewed by Novaya hunters, does not stand up.
No less strange is the fact that the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the detention of the suspects and the initiation of a criminal case under the article “Illegal hunting” only a month later, on November 25. Moreover, it is said that everything happened in the Bayandaevsky district, meanwhile, in the raid were, in addition to representatives of the Kachug forestry, employees of the Kachug Ministry of Internal Affairs (whose inquiry department initiated the case) and the Ekhirit-Bulagatsky Ministry of Internal Affairs. Four bears involved in poaching were identified (all were placed under house arrest), the damage was 240 thousand rubles.
To reduce claims and questions, the two who were in the stopped car were fired. Moreover, in hindsight, according to the interlocutors of Novaya Gazeta. In the photo from the case file provided by Novaya, it is clearly seen that the stopped UAZ (390995-04 with license plate number С217ВХ 138) has the emblem of the Federal State Institution (FGBU) Roslesinforg on the cab, on the driver's door. This is a vertically integrated structure, which, in turn, is part of the Rosleskhoz vertical. As stated on its website, this all-Russian organization specializes “in a comprehensive solution of forest accounting problems in the interests of the state. We provide a full range of services to forest complex enterprises to help the most efficient and balanced use of Russia's forest resources. In our activities, we are guided by the 3P principle: we will provide (information), prepare (documents) and carry out (work) for you.” Roslesinforg has been a federal forest surveyor since 2022.
Exactly the same «loaf» Roslesinforga in the Irkutsk forests. Photo: Pribaikallesproekt
“We do not expect someone to start solving complex forest problems for us. We act on our own, realizing our duty to nature, the state and society,” says Pavel Chashchin, director of Roslesinforg.
Indeed, these “loaves” serve the work of forest managers. The driver of the service UAZ, according to our sources, was Sergei Nikiforov on that flight, next to him was Mikhail Nichkov, employees of the Pribaikallesproekt. This is the Irkutsk branch of Roslesinforg, which is the manager, it includes the Yakut, Chita, Buryat branches. And this is one of the leading forest accounting organizations in Russia.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs speaks of four hunters, but, apparently, there were more participants in the action. The police, in order to justify the company's presence in the forest with a weapon and a car, presented the terms of reference «for the performance of work on forest inventory in a visual way, designing measures for the protection, protection and reproduction of forests, developing design documentation for a leased area on the territory of the Kachugsky forestry» (annex to the contract dated 05/21/2021), customer — Baikal Service LLC, contractor — Pribaykallesproekt.
According to Irkutsk public figures, the connection between these companies is long-standing and strong: sites are selected for felling (at the same time, few people call the Baikal Service company by its name, they only talk about «black loggers») and the taiga is first cleared of its inhabitants, which results in deliveries illegal game. It turns out to cash in on the process twice: both on the tree and on the accompanying poaching. In the arsenal — a dozen equipped «loaves». Public activists call it a «large-scale criminal scheme.» An interlocutor of Novaya Gazeta from local residents said: “Well, the cubs went to sleep with their mother. And the hunters knew exactly where they were going. The district is gangster, everyone keeps their lands and territories,
one of the locals sold the lair — this is absolutely clear.Russia, as it is reliably known, loves Moscow, especially chewing in the restaurants of the Agalarovs, passionately, so it seems that it does not feel sorry for bear meat: trichinosis — and the infection of bears with these parasites (and not only these, there are 18 species) is now almost universal — it is treated for a long time and difficult. Many — and this is only part of the joke — welcome such a business with sending bear meat by plane.
This, of course, is unfair. The fact that the taiga is sick, and the bears, respectively, that they are driven by construction sites, clearings, fires, that
totem animals of United Russia come out and devour in the outlying garbage dumps of Siberian cities and towns,
< p>the fault of business and officials from Moscow is great, but still it is not only their fault, the local people are better only because they have less strength and opportunities for sabotage.
Although, admittedly, Moscow is golden-domed, restaurant, bureaucratic — did everything to bring her bear meat.
In 2010, she banned winter hunting «on the den» (as hunters and hunters put it) and noted this as a great victory for humanism, comparing it with a ban fox hunting in England. However, here it turned out for sure: that hunt remained, and this one.
Screenshot of Lesnoy restaurant website
The calendar winter and the real one in Siberia are somewhat different. Moscow banned bear hunting from December 1 to March 20. From Moscow, of course, it’s better to know when someone sleeps, but the clubfoot in our country hibernates already in October. Well, in November. Yes, we are used to the fact that this is a common thing for Moscow: to establish uniform deadlines for, say, river floods, fire hazardous seasons, or uniform rules for the forest complex of Kalmykia and the Baikal region, but maybe this was specifically done so that bear meat was transported by plane? After all, if these are cubs, the risk of trichinosis is less.
And the hunter can justify himself for killing cubs in only one way: when he kills them “on the den”. The facets of humanism in Moscow, Irkutsk and in the Kachuga thicket are obviously different, and I would not rush to answer the question of where humanism is the most humane.
Novaya Gazeta asked Pavel Zhovtyuk, a well-known Irkutsk hunter, for a comment, previously the deputy head of the regional wildlife protection service (in many respects he formed it, supervised the wildlife sanctuaries), now he heads the scientific department of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Reserved Baikal Region” (unites under his management four specially protected natural territories, including the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve and the Pribaikalsky National Park, which have been included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage since 1996):
— As for ethics and booth hunting. Hunting wild animals cannot be humane in principle. But hunting in a den is perhaps the most reliable way to hunt a large and dangerous predator, where you can exclude the escape of a wounded animal and reduce the torment of the beast to a minimum.
The ban on hunting a bear in a den in Siberia is the greatest stupidity that we, unfortunately, did not manage to prevent.
Its numbers are high, permits are expensive, hunting is difficult, there are few bear dogs, the risk is high, they get little (even taking into account illegal hunting), there are no enemies in nature. In my opinion, nothing threatens the brown bear in the near future, and the tragic cases of attacks on humans will increase. » alt=»» />
Pavel Zhovtyuk. Photo from the archive
Yes, such hunting is regulated by terms, and, in principle, if there are permits, if the bear lay in the den before December 1, it can be obtained. But there is one point, if we move on to a specific Kachuga incident: this is an indiscriminate way of hunting. The hunter cannot know if there are cubs in the den. Therefore, for many — a taboo. Previously, if this happened and cubs appeared from the den, they were also hunted, they were still suicide bombers, and permits for their shooting were issued after the fact — such an order was allowed.
The case, as far as I know, is not closed. According to information from colleagues from the hunting supervision, the case is ordinary, we have many such poachers. The fact was revealed during a joint raid with the police, and since there were signs of a criminal case, he was transferred under supervision to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to the district, where they are now doing this. And yet it cannot be said that poachers will be imputed.
Causes and effects
And about the most important thing in this story. For Irkutsk, I repeat, if it were not for intervention from above, the incident would not have become news. What happened before the deceleration of the case is commonplace. It is aggravated by the way the local authorities traditionally rot the defenders of nature — I'm not talking about the greens, not about social environmentalists, not about humanists suddenly born in our harsh expanses, not about «zooshish», but about state inspectors of hunting supervision. And about how one part of the state machine presses the other. Let me remind you that the Baikal region is two-thirds of illegal logging throughout Russia, this is shadow money comparable to the budget of the entire country. And it is not surprising that those who interfere with business on natural resources are removed. It is surprising that they continue to interfere.
At the end of November, the Irkutsk Governor Kobzev signed a decree on the re-establishment (in fact, resuscitation) of the service for the protection and use of wildlife objects, from February 1, the service was supposed to guard cubs, red deer, elk and other Baikal fauna, but did not stop.
Alexander Kayankin, state inspector in the field of environmental protection of the Federal State Budgetary Institution «Zapovednoe Pribaikalye», is one of those hunting experts whose words can be trusted one hundred percent. Here's what he said to Novaya:
— Over the past 20 years in the Irkutsk region, hunting supervision has been reformed for the fourth time. There was a hunting department, in 2004–2005 its functions were transferred to a completely outside Rosselkhoznadzor. As always with us, with such reorganizations, they select personnel who can then work out the appointment, and professionals are thrown overboard. Further, reason temporarily prevailed, an independent service for the protection of the animal world arose. When we got to our feet, the foresters did not like it, Minister Sheverda wanted to crush us, and by the decision of the governor, the service was transferred to the Ministry of Forestry Complex (MLK). Again, specialists — through a sieve, and to put it bluntly — through a meat grinder, got rid of those who understand something and are committed to the cause. Or they just forgot about them.
< p>Alexander Kayankin. Photo: Vladimir Bogatyr
Andrey Kuznetsov, Alexander Kondratov, Pavel Zhovtyuk, Sergey Petrov — these names say a lot to professionals, there was no place for them. Under the MLK, the remnants of the service worked, of course, through a stump-deck, and now they decided to recreate it — solely thanks to public outrage and the efforts of the environmental prosecutor's office. To form a new body — only now not «for the protection and use of the animal world», as the service was called before 2018, but «objects of the animal world». From February 1, he was supposed to earn, but did not earn. The main documents have not been approved, there is a struggle for the portfolio of the head: everyone is torn — both officials and former policemen. They do not consider only people with a specialized education, hunters.
And since January 1, the MLK has already stopped overseeing the protection of the animal world, and now, during this pause, lawlessness is happening in the forest. This is no secret to anyone, social networks are full of advertisements and announcements about buying wild animal meat for restaurants, this business is developed and developing further, and quite freely, there are no checks.
Yes, there is a rule that you cannot hunt a she-bear with cubs of the current year of birth, this also applies to prey in the den. But this type of hunting is generally extremely unethical, inhumane — also because you don’t know who is there. If there is a bear, then her cubs are doomed to death, left without a mother. And people go to the prey of all. For biologists-hunters, as a rule, this is in principle unacceptable, only hunting on a bait. My father taught me this way, this is how I grew up with it, this is how I am in the profession.
Well, now what kind of hunters? Everything that moves is fired on.
A very important circumstance: according to the poachers, they found bags with skins and meat in the forest, but the video clearly shows the forehead — the entrance to the lair. And next to it, poles are piled up — they are used to catch a bear in a den. They wake up the animal and cover its forehead to keep the animal at the exit from the den for some time.
In addition, the videos and photos clearly show both dogs — assistants in berlozh hunting — and rifled semi-automatic weapons. So to say that people accidentally stumbled upon bags of meat is at least naive.
And another version — about a bear rising from the den — is just as meaningful. If a she-bear with her cubs has gone into hibernation, she will not rise until spring.
Things like this happen everywhere, in every district.
The fact that hunting supervision has always been subordinate to someone here, and all these reforms, muddying the waters and attracting the wrong people who are needed, weakened it. In a short gap until 2018, the material base was strengthened, but as soon as they passed under the MLK, all the equipment was forced to be transferred to the foresters. So what? Imagine: heads of forestries were caught poaching on our own former equipment.
Forest supervision feels like aces in the taiga, and many cases of poaching are associated with these figures:
by definition, they are more often in the forest, they have more opportunities. For the regional authorities, forestry means taxes. Well, we interfere with everyone, the government perceives us as a white crow. And when the Tucolon scandal arose, which led to the arrest of Minister Sheverda, we were reduced without hesitation. Zhovtyuk was expelled — we have been working with him since 1999. Even earlier, in 2012, I was detained by a high-ranking poacher, and, as he promised, I did not have time to return from the forest, as I lost my job.
And the story of Andrey Grafeev, probably the best state inspector, regional game manager (Angara region)? We have known each other since 1999. How many times his house was burned — his, and his father's, and his office (three times), and his car — both personal and official! They hit me with a car (also more than once) — I was in the hospital. They threatened to kill both his parents and his family. Property (however, he did not acquire much), cattle were destroyed, burned.
The situation is difficult in the family. And no measures from the state either to protect him or to search for criminals, no one has been punished. He was thrown out of work, fired and never accepted anywhere else, a former policeman took his place. And the story of state inspector Krasikov? If it weren’t for the public, the guy would have been eaten.
Explanations from Vladimir Bogatyr, deputy director of the Zapovednoe Pribaikalye, head of the Tofalar reserve:
— Zhovtyuk and Kayankin were “grown” by the Soviet hunting supervision, remained irreconcilable fauna fighters. This is a hard inner core, accurate knowledge. They lived their lives flawlessly in the profession, but turned out to be objectionable, now managers are placed everywhere. Only we were able to employ them in the «Reserved Baikal region».
Vladimir Bogatyr. From the archive