The relatives of Aleksey Kotov, who spent 20 years in slavery in Kazakhstan, told the human rights ombudsman in the Yaroslavl region, Sergei Baburkin, that Aleksey joined the army in 1995, first he served in Russia, then in Kazakhstan. After demobilization, he returned home for a short time, and then went to serve in Kazakhstan under a contract. While trying to return to Russia, he was beaten at the station. The man’s documents and money were taken away and handed over to the owner of the farm.
According to the government of the Yaroslavl region, where the man is from, in February 1999 a letter came from Alexei, in which he said that he was beaten and that he was in the hospital. Letters arrived until July 1999, after which the connection was terminated.
Sergei Baburkin said that the video, in which a native of the Gore-Gryaz village of the Gavrilov-Yamskiy district of the Yaroslavl region, speaks of 20 years of slavery in the winter in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, was transmitted by Aleksey through people with whom he came into contact in this remote area. After that, by roundabout ways, this information got to the hotline of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
“The Yaroslavl police officers began to check the information, contacted relatives, took other necessary actions and as a result established that this is indeed the person who disappeared in 1999 and about whom there has been no information since then,” said Sergei Baburkin.
According to him, the deputy of the Yaroslavl municipality Dmitry Sokolov was familiar with the relatives of Alexei Kotov, he is a volunteer search engine, so he immediately went to Kazakhstan.
“Dmitry Sokolov went there, and there on the spot, already with our consul and the law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan, they brought it all to the end,” the ombudsman added, stressing that the operation was not easy, because the territory where Alexei Kotov lived in captivity was very sparsely populated …
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