Dmitry Zavadsky’s Relatives Plead with Putin to Hold Investigation :: Charter'97 :: News

Close relatives of the ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky, who disappeared in Belarus in 2000, turned for help to the Russian president Putin, reports RIA “Novosti”. Zavadsky’s mother and wife forwarded their letter to Vladimir Putin with a request to set up an independent commission to investigate into the crime.

On Zavadsky’s disappearance case they convicted two persons from “Almaz” special unit. However, Zavadsky’s spouse Svetlana doesn’t believe in their guilt. According to Svetlana Zavadskaya, these people were made scapegoats.

Cameraman of the Russian ORT channel Dmitry Zavadsky was abducted under mysterious circumstances on July 7, 2000 in the Belarusian airport Minsk-2. As said by his mother Olga Zavadskaya, the abduction had been caused by Dima’s professional business. Svetlana Zavadskaya said that before Dmitry’s disappearance he had been investigating into the crimes in Chechnya, while in Belarus he had been denied accreditation.

In a letter, sent to the president of Russia, Dmitry Zavadsky’s relatives mentioned a few more crimes, committed in Belarus over the past years. On April 6, 1999 under mysterious circumstances there passed away the Vice-Speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet, chairman of the National Executive Committee Gennady Karpenko. On May 7 of the same year the unidentified criminals abducted former Interior Minister Yuri Zakharenko. There also vanished chair of the Central Electoral Committee, Vice-Speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet Viktor Gonchar and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky.