Vasily Buryakov was remembered as an inadequate, self-confident person with delusions of persecution
Details of the biography of Vasily Buryakov, accused of attacking police officers in the Shchelkovo urban district of the Moscow region on April 7, have been revealed. Judging by the stories of family and friends, the alleged killer, detained today in the Tver region, was a real monster.
“An absolutely inadequate person, paranoid,” those who knew him personally said something like this about Buryakov. But you shouldn’t call him crazy: Buryakov was calculating, cold-blooded and very harsh in his judgments. The act he committed did not surprise those who crossed paths with the villain in life.
Buryakov was born into an unusual family. His father and mother sailed together on an ocean liner: the man worked there as a cook, the woman as an accountant, so it was an office romance. Buryakov's father is almost 20 years older than his mother. But at the same time, she was very afraid of losing him — as soon as Vasily was one year old, the woman returned to work, leaving the baby in the care of his grandparents. Later, another son was born in this marriage.
Vasily graduated from college in the Istra urban district with a degree in car mechanics. He served in military service as a signalman, and in 2009 he even took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square. It was then that he acquired skills in handling weapons. And after returning, he got a job in one of the security forces. However, Buryakov did not work there for long — it was inconvenient for him to go to work in Moscow every morning. And Buryakov moved to a civilian structure — as a signalman for a gas company, whose office was located not far from home.
The future killer met his first wife in 2016 on the Internet. The acquaintance was rapid: first date in February, introduction to my mother in March, living together and renting an apartment in April. Having signed, the newlyweds settled with Buryakov’s family: Vasily at that time had loans, and he did not want to spend money on rent.
The marriage fell apart quite quickly. Perhaps largely due to the complex relationship between Buryakov and his relatives. Relatives recall that everyone in the family literally hated their grandmother—only her younger brother spoke warmly about her. Vasily had an extremely cool relationship with his father. On the contrary, he tried to please his mother, and in the event of any success in life, he tried to share his successes with her. The morals in this family are also evidenced by the fact that everyone had their own refrigerator, and a relative was forbidden to “enter” someone else’s territory.
Relatives speak of Buryakov as an extremely private person. He had no friends. “They either got drunk or smoked, why should I communicate with them,” he explained. As a rule, when he came home, he would “dive” into the computer and could “hang out” there until 4 o’clock in the morning. The man was generally very interested in the IT field, repeatedly visited sites where weapons were discussed, and loved to play World of Tanks.
Buryakov's life philosophy was simple and unpretentious. “Everyone around is morons, everyone is a fool, and I’m the only smart one,” — this is how he spoke about those around him. He extended his negative attitude to law enforcement officers, calling them “narrow-minded creatures.” By the way, such statements were not always empty boasting. Once in Istra, a girl was hit, and law enforcement officers for some time could not identify the culprit of the accident. Based on posts on social networks, Buryakov figured out where the car could have disappeared to, and with such accuracy that surprised policemen then called him and asked: Are you from our system?
Buryakov has repeatedly said that he really loves the American model of society — insofar as it concerns the freedom to carry and use weapons. “It’s cool that you can shoot to kill,” he shared his opinion. His love for America was expressed in other ways. In his game accounts he had the nickname “Guantanamo” (the name of the prison for prisoners of war in the United States), and he chose the CIA emblem as his symbol.
Why did Buryakov push people away? The main reason is said to be his unmotivated aggression. “If he saw an animal on the road, he could increase the gas to run over it. If he was not given enough change in a store, he would cause a scandal on the entire sales floor. Vasily also got terribly angry when he saw physically handicapped people — very fat or disabled. I could swear at them for no reason,” says one of the women who knew Buryakov well.
Vasily combined his hatred of people with quite ordinary human dreams. He has said more than once that he wants to have a wife and children by the age of 30. Buryakov more than once described how big their house would be and what gates it would have. But when he was asked to do something to achieve a goal, the man usually laughed it off: “Am I a fool? You need it, you work.”
True, at the end of the 10s, things suddenly went uphill for Buryakov. Of course, he didn’t have enough for a house with a gate, but he bought a new motorcycle (the same one that was followed after the murder) and signed up for an elite fitness club in Istra. Even then, those who knew him joked: Vasya doesn’t smoke or drink, which means he’s selling something, hinting at illegal drugs.
“Inflated, inadequate self-esteem,” is the verdict of Buryakov’s few acquaintances. And persecution mania. On social networks, Vasily always performed under fictitious names, changed his dates of birth and accounts. When his wife left him, he started a real hunt for her — for a month and a half the woman had to walk, clutching a gas canister in her hand and shying away from her own shadow.
How did Buryakov live in the last months before meeting the police in a forest near Moscow? The drug trafficking version is still considered prevalent. Perhaps the operative and assistant district police officer from Losino-Petrovsky really did not appreciate the danger. That’s why we went “to the job” without weapons, using an ordinary car. Most likely, in order to expose the drug dealer, law enforcement officers tried to pretend to be buyers. But they ran into an ambush.
Why did Buryakov flee to the city of Bely, Tver Region? After all, after his divorce from his ex-wife (she was from there), nothing connected him with this small regional center. Vasily himself answered this question — however, in his own spirit. “Nobody knows me here, it’s easy to get lost here,” he once said. There is not enough logic in these words: just in small towns, where everything is in plain sight, a stranger is immediately visible. Perhaps, with hindsight, Buryakov understood this. On previous visits to Bely, to visit his wife’s relatives, he always dressed in rags and looked like a homeless person. “There’s no one here to dress up for,” he snapped in response to the complaints. Obviously, the accused murderer was sure that this time such a masquerade would save him from persecution.