Our heroes
On the Day of Heroes of the Homeland in Russia, participants of various wars are honored - those who showed valor, bravery and courage in battle.
Daria Khaydukova, a correspondent of the Kurgan State TV and Radio Company, met with one of these soldiers.
- Retired police Colonel Andrey Kazimirovich Bortovsky.
Colonel. And by first education - an engineer. Andrey Kazimirovich joined the internal affairs bodies in 83. After 10 years, he became one of the leaders of the Kurgan OMON. The special purpose militia unit was created from scratch.
- Since 1995, this has been our home.
Fighters rarely lived at home. The squad "Skif" almost immediately went to Moscow. Then the events in Ossetia and the Chechen campaign broke out. Andrey Bortovsky was 40 years old at the time. His fighters are 20 each. All around - fighting. We went for water under fire. We shared a loaf of bread among 20 people. And they entered into negotiations with the militants.
- I arranged a meeting through the Chechens. They told me on the radio that the meeting would be tomorrow at lunch. Then they said if you don't come in half an hour, there won't be a meeting at all. I got in the car and together with the driver arrived at the outskirts without weapons. He said that "I have an order from Maskhadov that there is no checkpoint here." I say: and I have an order from Yeltsin to have a checkpoint here (chuckles).
Andrey Kazimirovich received the Order of Courage for the defense of the checkpoint. He brought not only awards from hot spots. Reports, combat notes, letters - stores everything.
- This is a suicide bomber's armband. In 1995, the city of Grozny. This is a rosary.
- So this is a real person's thing?
- This is a real person thing.
And here is a part of the land mine that killed the commander of the Kaliningrad SOBR. He has a lot of such things. There are even more memories.
- One of such heavy business trips was the Shchelkovsky district of the Chechen Republic. The area was blocked by militants. We were taken out by helicopters. The checkpoint was shelled 8 times.
Colonel Bortovsky has nine business trips on his account. I especially remember the last one.
- I was the first deputy commander of a mobile detachment in the Chechen Republic. This is 8.5 thousand people. During the trip there were 42 killed, only policemen. And about 600 people were injured.
After 27 years of service in the authorities, he retired. The eldest son is also in uniform. Comparing today's riot police and the former ones, he answers: each time has its own fighter.
- The service chose me, and I didn't choose it. Her life turned out the way it turned out. You can't rewrite it now. I think about what happened. And I am not ashamed of my service and my life.
The full version of Andrey Kazimirovich Bortovsky's interview with the correspondent of GTRK "Kurgan" Daria Khaydukova.