Hunting for a guerrilla. How the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs calculate Russian saboteurs driving down trains

In April, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is creating special police units equipped with armored vehicles to combat sabotage on railways. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the arson of railway equipment, the explosions of tracks and other actions have become a regular phenomenon in Russia. In September 2023 (that is, for 19 months of the war), the open sources of the “Solidarity Zone” counted 111 sabotage on the railway. One of the largest incidents of this kind was the explosion of a railway track in the Ryazan region in November 2023 – 19 cars derailed. The investigation had neither the name of the suspect nor the motive – only the trace of the bicycle tire, the silhouette in the cell and the photo report collected by fragmentary signs. Three weeks later, a policeman in the yard of an ordinary high-rise building stopped a man. This was the beginning of a high-profile case of “terrorism” against anarchist Ruslan Sidiki. According to the totality of charges, he faces from 15 to 30 years in prison or life imprisonment. According to the materials of his criminal case, The Insider recreated the history of this hunt – step by step, from one fuzzy frame to an accidental meeting at the entrance.

Hunting for a guerrilla. How the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs calculate Russian saboteurs driving down trains

In April, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is creating special police units equipped with armored vehicles to combat sabotage on railways. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the arson of railway equipment, the explosions of tracks and other actions have become a regular phenomenon in Russia. In September 2023 (that is, for 19 months of the war), the open sources of the “Solidarity Zone” counted 111 sabotage on the railway. One of the largest incidents of this kind was the explosion of a railway track in the Ryazan region in November 2023 – 19 cars derailed. The investigation had neither the name of the suspect nor the motive – only the trace of the bicycle tire, the silhouette in the cell and the photo report collected by fragmentary signs. Three weeks later, a policeman in the yard of an ordinary high-rise building stopped a man. This was the beginning of a high-profile case of “terrorism” against anarchist Ruslan Sidiki. According to the totality of charges, he faces from 15 to 30 years in prison or life imprisonment. According to the materials of his criminal case, The Insider recreated the history of this hunt – step by step, from one fuzzy frame to an accidental meeting at the entrance.
Content

Explosion at dawn and a camera in sock

It's a fuzzy silhouette. First leads

Search for a guerrilla. “No relevant information has been received”

The Wagner's Footprint. "Who's Drinking Who's Who's Dead"

"Explosive substances of normal power." Examination

“He’s definitely not a local one.” The guerrilla has a face

Accidental meeting. "I made a few mistakes"

Conclusion. “I don’t regret what I did”

Explosion at dawn and a camera in sock

November 11, 2023 at 7:10 am on the stretch between the stations “Fishnoe” and “Block Post 204 km” near Ryazan, 19 wagons of the freight train No. 2018 derailed. The train weighing 5154 tons was carrying apatite concentrate from the Murmansk region to Saratov. The train was managed by the trainist Dmitry Unshakov and his assistant Sergei Tarabukin.

“We were walking [at a speed] 54 km per hour,” later told the interrogation of Unshaks. – There was a strong cotton. In the cabin of the electric locomotive, where I was with my assistant, flew side windows, the front cracked. I saw the wires over the tracks come in the walker, so I immediately applied emergency braking. ”

While the assistant driver went to examine the composition, Unshakov reported the incident to the dispatcher. Returning, Tarabuchin reported on the situation – the cars derailed. Subsequently, he testified that the explosion was alone, the pressure in the braking system did not fall, he did not see strangers on the tracks.

At the site of the gathering – twisted sleepers, part of the rail is cut off, the fracture is uneven, as after the explosion. A funnel measuring about 4.5 by 3 meters. In the rubble stick out metal bars, around – shrapnel shrapnel, debris, torn mounts. The contact network has been damaged, there is no support. On both sides of the tracks are a forest belt.

Almost immediately, security forces arrived at the scene: the FSB, the police, the investigative committee, the center for combating extremism, Regardie, cynologists, the crew of the traffic police – in total more than 25 people. Later, the engineer-sapper OMON “Vyatic” arrived, who after inspecting the site of the explosion gave an opinion: more than 10 kg of explosives were used in TNT equivalent. The sapper found chips with insensophrex, batteries, the syringe body with powder, traces of white matter, as well as a black sock with a camera, fixed on a tree at a height of about five meters.

“I saw that the lens was sticking out of the sock. It was a video camera, but had signs of mining. To neutralize the device, we decided to cut down the part of the tree where it hung, but did not have time – the camera exploded and caught fire. It was a self-destructive device, and probably triggered the target sensor,” the sapper later testified.

Service dogs were involved in the area to inspect the area. One of them began from the site where the cars derailed, walked along the railway tracks, past the tree with a camera and went into the forest. There the dog went to the gravel road, crossed the paths, turned to the countryside – and this trace ended.

A cynologist with a second dog examined the area, relay cabinets, signal blocks – no traces of explosives, no characteristic odors were found.

In parallel with the inspection of the place of explosion, the investigators bypassed the surroundings. On the road in the direction of Rybny they found traces of a bicycle tire leading to the cottage partnership “Combuilder”. On the side of the roadside street in Ryazan is another distinct trace of the tread, going towards the forest belt. Opposite one of the buildings on this street is a path to the tracks. Later, investigators found a place on it with obvious signs of “plunge” (covering) – accepted leaves on the site one by two meters. Then for the first time there was a version of the cyclist.

The official damage from the explosion amounted to more than 800 thousand rubles to the shipper and more than 30 million – Russian Railways. The investigation qualified the incident as a terrorist attack. According to the security forces, an improvised explosive device worked.

The search for those involved in the incident began.
It’s a fuzzy silhouette. First leads

The next day, November 12, investigators began to interview those who could at least see something. Among the first is the crew of the traffic police, which the night before patrolled the Industrial street near the site of the explosion. The inspector recalled: between half of the third and three o’clock in the same direction with them was riding a man on a bicycle. He did not remember the faces, brands of bicycles or clothes of the cyclist. But it was the first lead.

Investigators bypassed the enterprises along the street of Prilezoleskodar – looking for cameras aimed at the road. On the facade of the plant “Isopaipe” found several cameras, some of which were directed directly to the roadway.

The first find – the camera recorded, as at 07:14 am, after the explosion, on the edge of the road at high speed drove a man in camouflage clothes with a black backpack behind his back. The direction is from Ryazan to the fish.

On the same day, the security forces seized video recordings from the enterprises “Astplastic”, “EMZ” and “Elcon”. On the cameras “Astplast” at 06:33 in the morning in the frame there was a silhouette of a cyclist who was driving in the same direction. The face is hidden, in the frame he is only eight seconds left.

On the recordings from the cameras of “Elcona” – another appearance: 06:51 am, the same silhouette, the same direction of movement.

On the video from the plant “EMZ” useful information was not useful: the cameras were turned inside the premises or installed too far from the road.

Now the investigation had three leads – three videos with the same cyclist. No faces, no voices, only direction, clothes, backpack, route. From that moment began attempts to “sew” the route – from the frame to the frame, from the street to the forest belt.
Search for a guerrilla. “No relevant information has been received”

Having videotapes with a cyclist on their hands, the security forces began to work “to the touch”. The name is unknown, the route is torn, no traces – no prints, no phone signal. Investigators began to work out all possible options in search of new clues.

In Ryazan, stores with names like “Brother”, “Russian fishing”, “Legioner” were checked – those that sell dry fuel, army equipment, radio parts. One by one, the sellers answered: they did not sell anything similar, did not see, do not remember. The same goes for in network traffic lights, in army departments, in household chemicals stores.

The police even worked out the purchase of an uplifting voltage converter – an electronic part that can be used to assemble detonators in improvised explosive devices. But there is a dead end: the buyer was an engineer who is engaged in developments in the defense sector. His management confirmed that the device was purchased for official purposes.

Next is rented housing. At this stage, the investigation most likely proceeded from the simplest: a person could be a visitor. Arrived – made a blown – left. Checked ads on “Avito”, called realtors, collected lists of apartments in daily rent. Watched the hostels and even garages. We talked with the chairmen of garage cooperatives, with tenants of high-rise buildings, with management companies – nothing.

Nearby settlements were also checked. Investigators inspected the territory of the garden partnership “Combuilder” – there, according to one version, a cyclist could leave after the explosion. In the SNT registered 381 plots, of which more than a hundred were abandoned. Only six families live permanently. All of them stated that outsiders had not been seen and no one came to them.

Went around the empty plots, examined the abandoned cottages, checked whether someone could leave the bike there. Didn’t find anything.

Separately noted the citizens of Ukraine. People who were forced to leave the occupied territories and placed in the PVR “Kolos” and “Sazhnevo” took DNA samples – saliva and blood. Also, genetic material was taken from military from local units. “The territory is under control. Pro promptly significant information was not received,” the police reported in reports.

This was not the first sabotage in the region. In the summer of 2023, unknown persons attacked the Dyagilevo military airfield with the help of drones. Then no one was detained, the investigation did not have a single lead, and the case came to an impasse. They didn’t want the failure story to happen again.
The Wagner’s Footprint. “Who’s Drinking Who’s Who’s Dead”

Former Wagner PMC fighters living in the Ryazan region also checked for involvement in the sabotage. Suspicions did not arise from scratch: it was November 2023, it was only a few months after the rebellion of Prigozhin, and the theme of the “Wagnerites” who returned from the front and whose loyalty caused doubts in power remained relevant.

In the materials appeared the names: Timur Mingazov, Kirill Petrov, Artem Khozhainov. The security forces studied the places of residence, social networks and communications of all three. One – allegedly in rehabilitation after injury, the other has not appeared at home for a long time, the third, according to relatives, sits or works at the construction site. Everyone has combat experience, a criminal record. But none of the three were near the explosion on November 11.

“All that was able to establish is who rents an apartment from whom, who died, who drinks from whom,” reads one of the reports.
“Explosive substances of normal power.” Examination

For examination, a specialist in a retired subversive case was connected, in the past – a scout-saboteur of the KGB of the USSR. He got acquainted with the materials of the case and gave his conclusion: there were two explosive devices located at a distance of about 6 meters from each other. This approach, according to the expert, is used to guarantee the descent of the line-up. For the explosion, explosives of normal power were used, namely TNTs, at least 500 grams.

The consequences of the explosion on the railway in the Ryazan region

The former saboteur noted that before the installation, probably, reconnaissance of the area was carried out, and the device itself was collected in advance, in conditions where cleanliness was observed, this was indicated by the accuracy of the assembly.

It became clear from the conclusion that the suspect had technical skills, understood the design of the railway track and did not act spontaneously – the guerrilla had a clear plan.

It became clear from the conclusion that the suspect had technical skills, understood the design of the railway track and acted not spontaneously

A few days later, since the beginning of the search, the investigation still moved almost blindly. The cyclist remained a shadow without a face and a name. On November 16, another video appeared.
“He’s definitely not a local one.” The guerrilla has a face

Cameras from private houses on the streets of Sadovaya and Postal in the village of Perekal recorded a newly appeared cyclist. In the frame – the same silhouette, the same rhythm of movement, the same direction: from Ryazan to the direction of Fish. On two records with an interval of seven minutes, he crosses the frame and disappears behind the turn.

It’s not a coincidence. Four videos are all in the same direction.

At the same time, investigators interviewed the saleswoman from the village of Markovo Olga Doronina. She remembered that an unfamiliar man came to one of her shifts shortly before the bombing. According to her, he was dressed in a camouflage jacket for several sizes larger, behind his back was a voluminous backpack. The cap was stretched almost to the eyebrows, the face was thin, closer to the triangular, with bristles, eyes are light.

“He asked if there was a part-time job in Markovo. Then there is a monastery nearby. I replied that there was a pussy in Poshuchpo, and explained how to get there. Then he thanked and left. I haven’t seen him again. He’s definitely not local,” Doronin told investigators.

On the basis of her words, a photo was compiled. Will accept a little: the face is ordinary, the look is not remembered, nothing bright. This is the first image of the suspect. The investigators have a guide.
Accidental meeting. “I made a few mistakes”

Creating a photo project did not yield quick results. Investigators continued to bypass – now with an orientation on the hands. Quarter outside the neighborhood, house behind the house. Questions on duty, short conversations in the entrances, who lives where, who came when. Nothing remarkable. No one was waiting for a sharp turn – just worked out the address for the address, the house behind the house.

International Street is closer to the outskirts of Ryazan. Dense multi-storey building, private sector and fields nearby. The area from where you can leave and not get on the cameras. Or vice versa – to hide without arousing suspicion.

It was on this street on November 29, during the next apartment bypass, the policeman stopped a man who left the entrance of house No. 13A. He compared his face to a photo robot and urged him to go to department No. 4 in Ryazan – for a conversation. He agreed.

Geography of the search for Ruslan Sidiki siloviki

Ruslan Sidiki at this point was not searched purposefully. He was arrested by a pure accident.

“I made a few mistakes. He was in poor condition after my grandmother’s death. I agreed to go with him, hoping that they would simply be asked and released,” Ruslan will later write from the SIZO to journalist and human rights activist Ivan Astashin.
The main method of investigation. “I already wanted all the cyclists in Ryazan to re-suffill”

Warning: The text further describes torture.

Even after the arrest of Ruslan Sidiki, the security forces did not have confidence that they were the person they were looking for. He began to be asked about where he was on November 11. In the answers, he got confused a couple of times, and it was enough to arouse suspicion.

As it later became known from Ruslan’s letters, torture began. Under torture, he confessed not only in the case of the explosion on the railway, but also on the episode with a summer attack on the Diaghilevo airfield, in which at that time there were neither suspects nor any leads. After Ruslan’s confession, both cases were combined.

Later, Ruslan’s lawyer obtained a certificate of medical examination, which his client passed when he was taken to a pre-trial detention center. It recorded multiple wounds on the head and wrists, bruises in the eye and large hematomas on the back. As Ruslan recalls, knocking out the testimony, one of the security forces said: “I already wanted all the cyclists in Ryazan to re-absecure.”

The “Solidarity Zone” published Ruslan’s story about the torture that he had to endure on the night of detention:

“A man, apparently, for about 50 years in civilian clothes, began to say that if I voluntarily confess to the bombing now, they take me out of town and stage an attempt to escape in order to have a legitimate opportunity to shoot me, and before that they will be tortured.

After I agreed to cooperate and testify, I was asked if I had chronic diseases. After my answer “no” to me, one of these people hit me on the head, and I fell to the floor.

There were at least six people in the office at the time. When I lay on the floor, they stepped on my hands and on my feet so that I could not move them, although I did not resist. I was naked with parts of the legs in the area of the ankles, and I felt that they tied me something. (...) One of them said to someone, “Call!”

At this point, my body passed the discharge of electric current, strongly contracting the muscles from unbearable pain, I screamed hard and beat my head on the floor, one of them stood in front of me and filmed me on the phone. Because I was screaming, I got a rag in my mouth. (...) The exact time as long as the torture lasted, I can not say, since after a few shocks my mind blurred, I can say that it is unbearably painful.

Between the ranks, unidentified people asked me questions, if my answer did not suit them, they kept hitting me with an electric shock. (...) They asked questions about whether I was planning the next bombing, I said no, and after that I was kept trying. I was already on the verge and realized that in order to stop them, I must say something. ”

The arrest was issued for November 30. All documents – reports, protocols, confessions – begin from this date and do not contain a single mention of violence.
Conclusion. “I don’t regret what I did”

Almost all the conclusions about what went wrong, Ruslan himself did – after the arrest. In letters from the SIZO, which Ivan Astashin shared with The Insider, he analyzed his mistakes in detail.

Reconnaissance. “When I conducted reconnaissance near the railway, I was lazy and decided to drive through the cottages – on a bicycle, a couple of kilometers from the place of the future explosion. I met a couple of grandmothers who could remember me - the summer residents usually look at strangers with suspicion.

In a good way, in such a situation it was necessary to change the point. But the deadlines were tightened - it was two weeks to prepare, and the snow was already coming. I decided to stay with my own: it seemed that the chance that I was being calculated is minimal.”

Lack of legend. “I didn’t think about the legend of the day of the bombing. In a good way, there should be a clear story - where it went, why, at what time. I didn't have one. Even when I was detained, they were still not sure that I was involved.”

The waste route. “You didn’t have to go back to the city right away. It was necessary to sit in the forest to the dark, and then walk along familiar paths. But I was tired - and the last kilometer walked on the asphalt. I thought it was safe. It was a mistake.”

Disguise. “The face had to be hidden before returning home. But after changing clothes, he felt invulnerable - and relaxed. Clothes also had to be picked up more closed. Then there would be less chance of lightening.”

The digital footprint. “After my arrest, my phone was removed. We saw the subscriptions in Telegram - and immediately concluded that at least I do not support SVO. It was another mistake. The network had to look like an ordinary turbopatriot.”

Desteeship. Ruslan stayed in the city, very close to the site of the bombing, and did not provide for any security measures: “If I had then hung an IP camera at the door, I even saw from a smartphone that the cops came to interview the neighbors.”

Contact with the security forces. “Almost twenty days have passed since the explosion. I have already relaxed - and did not attach importance to the fact that the entrance is worth a cop. He compared me to the frame from the surveillance camera and offered to pass for a conversation to department No. 4. I agreed.

They got the saliva for the DNA test. Then people came in civil and began to ask questions: where was, what he did on November 11. I got confused a couple of times in the answers – and one of them knew I was hiding something.

I shouldn't have gone. Say: write out a subpoena, come with a warrant. Maybe it would be possible to buy time.”

Ignorance of your rights. “It would not hurt to know their rights better when they are detained – and to understand what methods the security forces are working.”

Ruslan writes that almost twenty days before the arrest is already in itself an achievement. He believes that his experience can be useful to other guerrillas:

“Twenty days before the arrest, in principle, show that it was difficult for them. I am silent about the attack on the airfield - there they were one hundred percent at an impasse. I think you can benefit from my capture - in terms of information. It can be useful to urban saboteurs.”

“In any case, I do not regret what I did,” Ruslan writes. – I am now at least not ashamed – how it would be if I had done nothing. I am not a bulog that we are not big, we will not be able to do it better. “

At the time of publication of the material Ruslan Sidiki is in jail. According to the totality of charges, he faces from 15 to 30 years in prison or life imprisonment.