The Commander Of The SOBR Group, Who Could Have Been Involved In The Disappearances Of Belarusian Opposition Activists, Has Died

Vladimir Butko was 50 years old.

Former group commander of the Special Rapid Response Unit Vladimir Butko has died after a long illness. He was 50 years old, reports "Belarusian Association of Special Forces Veterans "Gonar".

Vladimir Butko figures in the confessions of ex-SOBR fighter Yuri Garavsky, who told about the murders of critics of Lukashenko in the late 1990s. In the spring and fall of 1999, former Interior Ministry chief Yuri Zakharenko, former head of Belarus' Central Election Commission Viktor Gonchar and opposition-supporting businessman Anatoly Krasovsky disappeared in Minsk. Garavsky claims that they were kidnapped and killed by fighters of the Special Rapid Reaction Unit (SOBR) of the Interior Ministry of Belarus.

Garavsky testifies that Vladimir Butko and an APC driver drove the latter's jeep into a pit the day after the murder of Gonchar and Krasouski, crushed it and buried it on a country road near Begoml.

In 2001, Garavsky and Butko were convicted of extorting money from businessmen at the request of Pavlichenko, the ex-fighter claimed in an interview with Deutsche Welle. Butko was allegedly given three years of "chemistry" at the time.

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