Chapter Investigative Committee Russia, Alexander Bastrykin took personal control of the investigation of a shocking story that fell into social media and caused a storm of indignation. In the city of Priozersk, Leningrad Region, a 10-year-old boy was hit with his head on the hood several times, forced to his knees, and later handed over to the police. The driver did not like that the child was shooting from a toy machine gun near his car. Who did the sadist turn out to be, and what is he already known for in the city?
At the crossroads the boys were playing war. The guns are toy, the bullets are small and very light, the kind that the wind blows away. What kind of damage could there be? However, a businessman passing by thought that the toy weapon was a reason to run over the child.
Everything here is strewn with these bullets; they didn’t even reach the roadway. The game was abruptly interrupted. A black SUV makes a police U-turn and drives out onto the lawn and pedestrian area. One of the boys manages to hide in the store.
The second one, very frightened, is crushed by the car and pushed onto the road. But this was not enough for the driver. He gets out of the car to punish the child.
“The car turned around, then he drove towards me. Then she almost ran over me. She pressed my leg. And then (the driver) got out, hit me with his fist here. He took my head and hit me on the door,” the injured child Ivan points to his left temple. Shchegolev.
Bruise of the left temporal part, concussion. And still very scared. Businessman Vladimir Belsky did not let the child leave. He threw him into the snow and did not allow him to get up for 15 minutes until the police car arrived.
I filed a statement with the police saying that the children were being hooligans and damaging other people’s property. The police brought the child home. The boy was crying.
“This is a child. We, too, were children once. The ball hit the window, into cars,” recalls Vanya’s father, Yuri Shchegolev.
Unheard of cruel behavior towards a child outraged Vanya’s parents. On the same day they wrote a statement against businessman Belsky. A criminal case has been opened. In the afternoon, Belsky was put on the wanted list.
“All necessary measures are being taken to establish the whereabouts of the person who hit the child and used violence against him,” stressed Svetlana Petrenko, acting head of the media relations department of the Investigative Committee of Russia. “The investigation will also check the actions of the police officers who went to the scene of the incident, "Without understanding the situation, the suspect was released."
Little is known. He is over 50 years old. Businessman, lawyer. Landlord for several retail outlets. He greeted his neighbors, his manner of communication was always businesslike. But everyone here has heard about scandals involving children and their parents.
“I heard that a ball hit his car on that site. I just heard that he was arguing with someone,” says the businessman’s neighbor.
In Priozersk, Belsky is not known for his legal activities. Such educational conversations with other people's children have already happened. He left the house specifically to punish a five-year-old boy who was throwing snowballs at the wall of the store while waiting for his mother.
“I run out. My son is dangling by the scruff of the neck, grabbed in the hands of Mr. Belsky. And he is yelling at him. It turns out that the child was throwing snowballs at the wall under the stairs from the end of the building, and this person lives opposite and saw it through the window. I was so confused then! She grabbed the child, let’s calm him down. And this one started yelling at me that I was raising my son poorly,” wrote Olga Dyakonova.
At the hospital, Vanya was again taken for an x-ray. He is recovering, but apparently psychologists will still have to work with him.
At night, St. Petersburg police detained businessman from Priozersk Vladimir Belsky, who had previously deliberately knocked down a 9-year-old boy because he had fired plastic bullets from a toy machine gun at his car. The man was detained while leaving St. Petersburg. This was reported to Gazeta.Ru by the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
“The man was detained on the Moskovskoe highway at the exit from St. Petersburg, he was in a taxi,” the department explained.
The information that the man was in someone else’s car was confirmed to Gazeta.Ru by the directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region. In addition, the department clarified that Belsky was taken to a pre-trial detention center in the city of Priozersk, in this moment investigators are preparing documents to submit a petition to the court to select a preventive measure against him in the form of detention.
Let us remind you that the scandalous incident occurred in Priozersk on March 9. On one of the city streets, two children, while playing, aimed at passing cars with a toy machine gun. The driver of the Nissan Pathfinder, seeing a child aiming at him, suddenly turned around and began to pursue the “shooter.” He decided to stop the fleeing child in an unconventional way - he knocked him down, catching him from behind and hitting him with a bumper. After that, the man grabbed the boy by the hood, forced him to his knees and called the police. The child stood in a humiliating position for about 15 minutes before law enforcement officers arrived.
The police, who were not at all embarrassed by the cynical behavior of the motorist, took an explanation from him and released him, and the child was soon handed over to his parents - no damage was found on the car.
Already at home it became clear that the boy was injured; the hospital diagnosed a concussion and bruises. At the moment, he is in a satisfactory condition in the hospital, the department of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region explained to Gazeta.Ru.
According to preliminary data, Belsky nevertheless struck the child. However, despite a telephone message from the hospital and a statement from the child’s parents, the Priozersk police were in no hurry to detain the aggressive driver, and if the video recording of the incident had not gone online and had not produced the effect of a bomb exploding, then most likely there would have been no criminal prosecution of Belsky .
Almost immediately after the incident became widely known, the regional Investigative Committee promptly conducted an investigation and opened a criminal case against the man under Part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism). The video attracted the attention of the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, who ordered that the businessman be caught and investigated as soon as possible.
When asked if he knew that a criminal case had been opened against him, the driver of the SUV replied: “Yes, and let them be.”
Answering a question about the proportionality of chasing a child in an SUV and running over him in response to shooting with bullets, Belsky said: “What should I chase? He himself fell to his knees and began to ask, saying, uncle, don’t call the police.”
According to him, after the incident the police interviewed both him and the child. “They asked him: “Did they beat you?” He replied that no, they didn’t beat me,” the suspect summed up.
In addition to the driver of the SUV, investigators will also have serious questions for the police officers. “The investigation will check the actions and inactions of police officers in response to the initial report of the crime received by them. It was established that the police who went to the scene of the incident, without understanding the situation, released the suspect. In addition, on the same day, the police received a telephone message from the hospital about the child being injured, but the police did not take appropriate measures. All these facts will be given a strict legal assessment,” noted the RF IC.
Petersburg police at night detained a businessman from Priozersk, who had previously deliberately knocked down a 9-year-old boy because he had fired plastic bullets from a toy machine gun at his car. The man was arrested while leaving St. Petersburg. This was reported to Gazeta.Ru by the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
“The man was detained on the Moskovskoe highway at the exit from St. Petersburg, he was in a taxi,” the department explained.
The information that the man was in someone else’s car was confirmed to Gazeta.Ru by the directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region. In addition, the department clarified that Belsky was taken to the city of Priozersk, and investigators are currently preparing documents to submit a petition to the court to select a preventive measure against him in the form of detention.
Earlier, information appeared in local media that an entrepreneur from Priozersk was traveling to Moscow by taxi with his wife. It is noted that the wife of the detainee came from Priozersk to St. Petersburg at night and met Belsky there in one of the courtyards in the south of the city.
It was also reported that they were heading to the capital to participate in the filming of one of the television shows, to which the driver of the SUV and the father of the injured boy was invited by one of the federal television channels.
The story of the hit-and-run caused a wide public outcry and was of interest not only to law enforcement agencies and journalists. On Tuesday, Vladimir Petrov, a member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, promised to pay 300 thousand rubles to anyone who helps the police and names the place where Belsky is hiding. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.
“The report about a driver in Priozersk who crushed a child with a jeep and then forced him to kneel in the dirty snow for almost half an hour is beyond my understanding. I am a father myself and I know very well how children can be naughty, hooligan or capricious. But this does not give any adult the right to humiliate children, much less use physical force,” Petrov wrote.
In a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, he noted that he had not yet communicated with the police and did not know whether Belsky was caught based on someone else’s tip.
“Today I will contact the commander-in-chief: if they confirm that assistance was provided by citizens, the reward will naturally be paid. If a man was caught solely by the police, then I can only pay the reward by agreement, otherwise such things can only harm the law enforcement officers,” Petrov said.
He also explained that after the publication, only journalists from one of the publications contacted him and tried to sell Belsky’s account on the social network.
“By that time, however, both his last name and account had long been known,” the deputy said.
Let us remind you that the scandalous incident occurred in Priozersk on March 9. On one of the city streets, two children, while playing, aimed at passing cars with a toy machine gun. The driver of the Nissan Pathfinder, seeing a child aiming at him, suddenly turned around and began to pursue the “shooter.” He decided to stop the fleeing child in an unconventional way - he knocked him down, catching him from behind and hitting him with a bumper. After that, the man grabbed the boy by the hood, forced him to his knees and called the police. The child stood in a humiliating position for about 15 minutes before law enforcement officers arrived.
The police, who were not at all embarrassed by the cynical behavior of the motorist, took an explanation from him and released him, and the child was soon handed over to his parents - no damage was found on the car.
Already at home it became clear that the boy was injured; the hospital diagnosed a concussion and bruises. At the moment, he is in a satisfactory condition in the hospital, the department of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region explained to Gazeta.Ru.
According to preliminary data, Belsky nevertheless struck the child. However, despite a telephone message from the hospital and a statement from the child’s parents, the Priozersk police were in no hurry to detain the aggressive driver, and if the video recording of the incident had not gone online and had not produced the effect of a bomb exploding, then most likely there would have been no criminal prosecution of Belsky .
Almost immediately after the incident became widely known, the regional Investigative Committee promptly conducted an investigation and opened a criminal case against the man under Part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism). The video attracted the attention of the chairman of the Investigative Committee, who ordered that the businessman be caught and investigated as soon as possible.
Belsky himself, shortly before the detention and shutdown of all his mobile phones, managed briefly comment situation to the local publication.
When asked if he knew that a criminal case had been opened against him, the driver of the SUV replied: “Yes, and let them be.”
Answering a question about the proportionality of chasing a child in an SUV and running over him in response to shooting with bullets, Belsky said: “What should I chase? He himself fell to his knees and began to ask, saying, uncle, don’t call the police.”
According to him, after the incident she interviewed both him and the child. “They asked him: “Did they beat you?” He replied that no, they didn’t beat me,” the suspect summed up.
In addition to the driver of the SUV, investigators will also have serious questions for the police officers. “The investigation will check the actions and inactions of police officers in response to the initial report of the crime received by them. It was established that the police who went to the scene of the incident, without understanding the situation, released the suspect. In addition, on the same day, the police received a telephone message from the hospital about the child being injured, but the police did not take appropriate measures. All these facts will be given a strict legal assessment,” they noted.
“We even created a separate folder for statements from this citizen...”
A game of war ended with a concussion for a 10-year-old schoolboy from the city of Priozersk, Leningrad Region. The guy hit the jeep of a local businessman with a toy gun. He decided to teach the boy a lesson - first he went at the schoolboy with a battering ram in his SUV, then he put the child on his knees. After the incident was made public, the businessman went on the run. But the townspeople identified the hero of the video. As it turned out, he fights not only with naughty children. “There is no authority in the city that this Belsky would not complain about,” local residents write.
On the page on social networks of entrepreneur Vladimir Belsky, who committed that very “educational attack,” there is only one photo. Look at this portrait - a most pleasant person. A vest over a white shirt, a tie for solidity, a mustache the color of ripe wheat, a barely noticeable smile. They say about such people - they wouldn’t hurt a fly. But in the video that hit the Internet last Monday, Mr. Belsky appeared in a completely different role.
The incident occurred on March 9, but it became known only now. That day, 10-year-old Dima (the child’s name has been changed - “MK”), returning from school, decided to play a war game with a friend. The “enemies” were cars driving along the highway; the third-graders had toy machine guns that fired plastic bullets in their arsenal. The game lasted for half an hour, until Belsky’s SUV pulled onto the track.
Of course, shooting at cars is not good. And probably the boys needed to point this out. But what happened next does not quite fit into the framework of an educational conversation.
Vladimir pointed the car at the guys and stepped on the gas. Dima didn’t have time to run away. The car with the businessman behind the wheel chased the guy for a few more meters, forcing him onto the roadway. By the way, other cars were rushing along the road. Then an angry driver came out of the SUV, grabbed the boy by the collar of his jacket, and forced him to his knees in the March mud. And he didn’t let me get up until the police arrived at the scene of the “incident.” By the way, Belsky himself called her.
The law enforcement officers arrived about 15 minutes later, but the sight of the student kneeling in front of his adult uncle did not bother them. They took an explanation from the businessman, after which he was released, and the boy was taken home. They told the guy’s father that he was mischievous and shot at cars with a toy machine gun. Not a word about the fact that a local resident had already “reprimanded” him for this.
Dimka himself already told us about this, but in general terms, without specifics. That an unknown passer-by caught him and began to scold him. We saw bruises on the child's legs and wrote a statement to the police. It was that same evening. But until today there was no reaction from law enforcement officers; no one was in a hurry to deal with this Belsky. And only after the video of the incident went online did they initiate a case,” the boy’s father, Yuri, told MK.
All these days the third grader did not feel very well: he had a headache and lost his appetite. It is unclear why the child was not immediately shown to doctors. Dad convinces us that we simply didn’t imagine that everything would be so tough at the crossroads. On Monday, according to his father, the boy became very ill. And he was taken to the hospital.
There it turned out that my son had a concussion. It turns out that he hit him on the head with his fist. In the meantime, he held him on his knees and yelled obscenities at his son,” Yuri is indignant.
-Have you communicated with this Belsky?
No, he didn't contact us. He went on the run. Even the police can't find him. But I have heard a lot about the fact that he constantly writes complaints about everyone.
Meanwhile, residents of Priozersk, having seen the name of the businessman who offended the child in news reports, immediately identified him as a local malicious complainant.
“Yes, he doesn’t only fight with children. A stack of statements from this gentleman will be found in all departments,” citizens write on the forum.
I once worked in the housing and communal services system, so we had one folder “applications from citizens”, and another - “applications from Belsky”. And you can believe me, there are such folders in many organizations,” local resident Olga Smirnova told MK. - He basically did not pay utilities for his apartments, the debts were enormous, more than 200 thousand. In courts for non-payment, he used phrases from the series “I didn’t ask you to heat my apartment or take out my garbage.”
The entrepreneur makes money by renting out space for shops. Before that, he worked as a lawyer. Apparently, his passion for all kinds of lawsuits from the past.
Sergei worked in the city gas industry and came to the entrepreneur as part of a routine inspection to check the gas stove. They checked for leaks, repaired them, but advised to replace the unit.
His stove was very old, bought 30 years ago. He began to be indignant, but signed the bypass sheet that he had no complaints about the repairs. Naturally, we checked everything with him. And a couple of weeks later a lawsuit comes to us - allegedly, we broke his stove,” Sergei laughs. - But the funniest thing is that he wrote exactly the same statements against my colleagues who came to him for examination before.
Sergei says that one of his friends had the imprudence to rent an apartment from an entrepreneur.
So he moved out after a couple of months. Commissions from the departments to which he wrote complaints began to appear in the morning. As per schedule.
And, as it turned out, this is not the first time that the hero of the video has “re-educated” local children. This message was left on a forum where the video was discussed by one of the city residents.
“Four years ago, when my son was 6 years old, I left him on the playground while I ran into the store. Five minutes later I run out - this gentleman grabbed my son by the jacket and, without mincing words, yelled at the child that he shouldn’t throw snowballs at the wall of the store (...) And after 3 weeks the inspector of the ODN calls me and asks me to come and give an explanation about the damage to the store’s property my son. The first thing I did was to go to this building - suddenly I had really spoiled something. But the store says that they have no complaints against me. And only at the police they showed me a statement from Belsky, who wrote down the number of my car (the police used it to look for me for 3 weeks) and asked me to register my six-year-old (!!!) son for hooliganism.”
While the police are looking for the hero of the video, the residents of the town came up with their own action of retaliation. “I suggest that those who are concerned place notices with the traditional content in such cases at the entrance to public places: “Belsky is prohibited from entering.” They are not afraid that they will sue for discrimination.
In turn, Milonov’s colleague in the Duma, deputy Alexander Sidyakin(“United Russia”) said that he also intends to get involved, to the best of his powers, in the punishment of Belsky, whose act caused a great public outcry.
“A resident of Priozerka, Leningrad Region, Vladimir Belsky turned out to be a habitual defaulter on housing and communal services.<…>Over the past 11 years, he has been systematically accumulating debts for housing and communal services, and only by a court decision, when the bailiffs come to him, does he pay them off,” Sidyakin said on his Facebook page.
According to him, Belsky owns two apartments in the center of Priozersk, and “the management company is in litigation with him over a debt totaling 147 thousand rubles (!).”
“In addition to utility debts, Belsky has problems with gas services. He stopped letting them into the apartment and arbitrarily turned off the gas stove, violating the integrity of the gas boiler valve. This, of course, creates the threat of a gas explosion,” added Sidyakin.
Recalling that in the State Duma he deals with housing and communal services issues, Sidyakin promised to send requests to all authorities, “so that Belsky has the gas in his apartments cut off, electricity and water turned off for non-payment, and plugs installed in the sewerage system.”
“If we are going to re-educate this autocrat who almost killed a child, then do it to the end,” added the State Duma deputy.
As reported IA REGNUM, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya(“United Russia”) today demanded that law enforcement agencies give “to the fullest extent of the law” a legal assessment of the situation with a driver hitting a child in the Leningrad region.
In turn, the leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky, commenting on the incident with the child, drew attention to the fact that the actions of the police can be classified as illiterate.
As is known, the Investigative Committee has already promised that, as part of the criminal investigation, the investigation will “check the actions and inactions of police officers in relation to the initial report of the crime received by them.”
