Hydrologist Tsvetkov, a scientist accused of a series of murders, told the details: he visited all pre-trial detention centers in Moscow

The criminal case against Alexander Tsvetkov, a hydrologist from Bork, who was accused of a series of murders 20 years ago, was dropped due to lack of involvement.

It took the investigation 379 days to figure everything out. But this, most likely, would not have happened if the president had not become aware of the scientist (the author of these lines told his story to the head of state at a meeting with the Human Rights Council).

“I’m glad, of course, but I still can’t get over everything that happened,” says Alexander. – The resentment probably doesn’t just go away.

The investigation did not apologize to the scientist (nowadays, in principle, this is not practiced). But God be with them, apologies! How I would like Tsvetkov’s case to serve as a lesson for law enforcement officers and a warning for all of us, the main thing is that any citizen could find himself in the scientist’s place.

Let us recall that the hydrologist was initially detained at the airport based on artificial intelligence findings about his similarity to the killer’s sketch drawn up 20 years ago. Despite the fact that Tsvetkov himself had a 100% alibi: on the days of the murders of three women and a man, he was hundreds of kilometers from the crime scene – on expeditions with colleagues, which was confirmed by photographs and documents. After the author of these lines spoke to the President, Tsvetkov was released from the pre-trial detention center. However, no one fully believed that everything ended well.

“Eva, Sasha and I are going to Moscow, we were summoned to the Investigative Committee. I’m warning you to be aware,” Tsvetkov’s wife Marina wrote to me on February 28 (she is also a scientist, works at the Institute of Inland Water Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, like her husband). To be honest, we were all worried. And on February 29, the investigation informed Alexander that it had no claims against him.

“A female investigator reported this,” says Marina. “She let me see the results of the examinations – they confirmed the authenticity of the Institute’s consumers, photographs, etc., that is, all those that confirmed the alibi. These examinations should have been done in the first days after the arrest, but today is the 379th day (I wrote down each one). In our case, everything was very delayed. The first investigative actions with Sasha were carried out on the 164th day after his arrest. Just think about it! The man was simply kept in a pre-trial detention center and nothing was investigated… But they could have immediately checked his alibi and released him.

In fact, the most common complaint that I, as a member of the Human Rights Council, receive is that the investigation locks a person in a detention center and seems to forget about him. Guess what prisoners who go on hunger strike most often make as demands? So that an investigator finally comes to them and at least some investigative actions are carried out with them.

“The investigator let Sasha sign that he now knows that there are no claims against him,” Marina continues.

– Did you apologize?

– No, but it’s not her fault. On the contrary, we are grateful to her for sorting it out. Initially, the case was handled by another investigator from the Northeast District. There are a lot of questions for her. She confiscated my phone and generally behaved strangely. And after the noise, the criminal case was transferred from the district to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Moscow. And now the new investigator closed it. By the way, she returned the phone to me! I understand that without publicity all this would not have happened. This is a miracle in our times. Thanks to the president and you!

– Alexander, what do you feel? – I ask Tsvetkov.

“Relief, of course,” the scientist answers. – After this whole story, I changed my attitude towards life in many ways.

– Are people more appreciated?

– I always appreciated them and was easy to communicate with. Everyone knew this, and therefore I organized expeditions and agreed on everything. In prison – and I visited all the famous pre-trial detention centers in Moscow – this skill came in handy. I communicated well with all my cellmates.

– How do you like your prison experience overall?

– I’m not sure I needed him. You see, I was raised in such a way that I believed that the investigative bodies were crystal honest and clean. I knew about the presumption of innocence, which was discussed a lot both in the USSR and in modern Russia. And then suddenly this happened to me…

– But now can you tell me why you wrote a confession? Were you in an altered state of consciousness at that moment?

– On the eve of my arrival in Moscow (I was detained right at the airport), I was on an expedition to the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station for three days. We worked in temperatures of minus 30, barely slept, and were exhausted. And then, right after arriving, they grabbed me and threw me into a temporary detention facility. And there are two men in a cell. I’m almost sure they were decoys. And so they began to scare me, to “process” me.

– How?

“They said: “In any case, no one will let you out if you don’t confess. And if you confess, you’ll go home, because the statute of limitations has passed.” Well, they said that the main thing now is to break out of the isolation ward, and then you can prove your innocence. I was eager to go home – it was my daughter’s birthday…

“Didn’t you understand that you were signing confessions not to anything, but to murders?!”

– To be honest, I didn’t really understand. I didn’t even know my rights. The lawyer was not allowed to see me. Then I found out that a certain citizen Aleshin “identified” me. It was surprising, because I didn’t know him. I was amazed that they believed the criminal who told us about our joint crimes. But to the professors and doctors of science of my Institute, who said that I was with them these days, no.

Looking back, I remember that I wanted only one thing – for all this horror to end.

– Well, it’s over.

– Yes, I would really like nothing like what happened to me to happen to others. It should not be.

“During the time that he spent in the pre-trial detention center, Sasha suffered greatly from poor health,” says Marina. – Now he is being treated. I hope it will recover.