Lawyers assess Sochi resident's chances of getting his son declared dead in military operation

Sochi resident Grigory Uchkurov will need several years to collect documents and go to court to obtain a death certificate for his son who went missing in the military operation zone, lawyers have indicated.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, Sochi resident Andrei Uchkurov, sentenced to ten years for the murder of a repeat offender, went to the combat zone himself, where he went missing. His family cannot receive confirmation of his death or the compensation due to him. 

If it is not proven that a person died in a military operation, then the laws according to which payments are made on the basis of a death certificate cannot be applied to him, lawyers said.

"The state has provided a number of support measures for the families of deceased participants in the SVO. In addition to the basic 5 million rubles established by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the following are provided: insurance payments, monetary compensation, a survivor's pension, and child benefits. Family members receive payments in equal shares on the basis of a document confirming the death of a relative in the SVO. The funds are paid by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The payments are indexed," he told the correspondent "Caucasian Knot" lawyer Viktor Batadeev.

These payments do not automatically apply to relatives of missing persons, because legally there are no documents confirming the death of a person, on the basis of which the funds are issued. "First of all, you should contact the military registration and enlistment office at the place of conscription and get information about the participant of the SVO. These can be the participant's parents, spouse or adult children. There are also official hotlines of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It is necessary to make written requests indicating all known data about the serviceman," he said.

Information about servicemen is strictly controlled, so relatives should insist on an official response in writing, since oral requests are often not recorded, the lawyer emphasized. He also notes that the status of missing in action is assigned to a serviceman officially if there is no confirmation of death, but there is information that he participated in hostilities. Formally, the status of missing in action in the SVO does not provide automatic payments or benefits that are due to relatives of the deceased, but it allows you to legally file claims against government agencies for search and receive certificates for subsequent procedures.

Based on this status, you can seek recognition of death through the court after a certain period of time. Usually this is 6-12 months of absence and the inability to establish the fate, but the specific terms depend on the situation and departments.

To be recognized as missing, you must submit an application to the military registration and enlistment office and have official information about the draft or participation in the SVO. This can be copies of orders, personal files, certificates from the unit. There is no common public database, all data is maintained by the Ministry of Defense departments, he noted.

The lawyer also noted that the legal consequences of the lack of documents on participation in a military operation may affect benefits and compensation. If you cannot obtain the necessary documents on participation, you will have to go to court against the department that refuses to issue documents. You can also file a lawsuit to recognize the fact of participation in hostilities or the fact of death. That is, documents are the first and main step towards the implementation of benefits and payments. The lawyer emphasizes that even at the time of recognition of a missing person as such, compensation is not assigned, they are provided only for the deceased. In his opinion, collecting documents, courts and correspondence can take up to two years.

Lawyer Igor Kurochkin is more pessimistic about the time frame for collecting documents, searching for a missing person, and establishing the status of the deceased. He cited the work of search groups in the Russian Federation as an example, which establish the names of soldiers killed during the Great Patriotic War 70-80 years after the fighting, finding the remains of soldiers on the battlefields.

At the same time, he agreed that “the status of missing person is recognized by a court decision a year or two after the disappearance, based on a certificate from the military registration and enlistment office.” Relatives who are claiming payments can act as plaintiffs.

More than a dozen lawyers, whom the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent tried to ask similar questions, responded that they do not deal with such topics and problems.

One of the lawyers explained on condition of anonymity that these are "very complex and poorly studied topics that require a lot of resources from a lawyer to write requests, establish statuses and the result may not always be expected." "At the same time, the practice of such cases has not yet been developed, statistics on won cases are not kept and the data itself remains unknown due to the secrecy of the SVO undisclosed," he said.

The father of a Sochi resident who went missing in the North Military District is eager to go to the front

Grigory Uchkurov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he supports Vladimir Putin's policy on the Ukrainian conflict and that he himself sent his son to the front to "defend Russians" and avenge those killed in the Trade Union House in Odessa.

He said that he himself was eager to go to the front, but they were not taking him because of his age. Uchkurov said that he continues to engage in human rights activities and volunteer work. According to him, he defends the land rights of citizens and saves the Black Sea coast from fuel oil.

A human rights defender and activist who knows Grigory Uchkurov well and left Russia, on condition of anonymity, said that he continues to communicate with Uchkurov. "Grigory is a peculiar comrade, I don't always understand him. He calls me and says things that I absolutely do not share and do not understand. Recently he said that it is an honor for him to personally hang by court order those who burned Russians in Odessa in the Trade Union House, while he does not know any of the circumstances of this incident (the court in Odessa in 2017 acquitted the defendants in this case, while opponents of Euromaidan were in the dock - note of "Caucasian Knot"), - he said.

According to him, Uchkurov is a caring person. "Uchkurov, it seems to me, always takes the side of the one who first complains to him about the other, or whom he himself considers right in the first minutes of the conflict. That's how he is. It's too late for him to change," he said.

In his opinion, Uchkurov also reacted to the events in Odessa. "He was inspired, and he does not accept any more arguments. In a word, he is the one they call "Vatnik,"" he expressed his opinion.

The human rights activist believes that Uchkurov's statement, which led to his exclusion from the Cossack society, was caused by his sharp reaction to injustice.

"I am not a Cossack, so I don't know what it meant to him personally. But I know that he is very impulsive. He does not think about causes and consequences, he reacts emotionally and absolutely sincerely based on his personal vision of the situation, which he considers unfair to someone or himself," he said.

In February 2014, Grigory Uchkurov identified Nikolay Kuts, the ataman of the Central District Cossack Society of the city, from a video among the participants in the Pussy Riot incident: in Sochi, they were attacked by Cossacks, sprayed with tear gas and beaten with whips when they were trying to film a video. "I was outraged by what I saw. This is a disgrace to all Cossacks: publicly beating women," Grigory Uchkurov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. After this, he was expelled from the Kuban Cossack Army. Earlier, Ataman Kuts admitted that he had appealed to the prosecutor's office to protest Pussy Riot's presence in Sochi, since, in his opinion, the girls from the punk group came to Sochi "to provoke and stir up a scandal."

After the oil spill in the Kerch Strait, 70-year-old Grigory Uchkurov worked as a volunteer. He came to Anapa in his own car, where he slept and ate at volunteer stations. His task was to inspect the beaches by car and report to headquarters what was happening. Another volunteer traveled with Uchkurov, who filmed what was happening and sent the recordings to the volunteer headquarters.

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