Concealment of the truth by the authorities
Pressure on the investigation
Immediately after the tragedy, the media presented what appeared to be the main and, seemingly, truthful version of the bullying incident at the gymnasium, in the section "General information about the tragedy." However, this version proved to be very inconvenient for the authorities in Bryansk. Therefore, the leaders of the Bryansk region did everything possible to conceal the true causes of what happened. Let's consider the actions of specific officials.
Alexander Bogomaz
(this gentleman sometimes positions himself as БогомаZ, which reflects his political beliefs)
Immediately after the tragedy on December 9, 2023, Bogomaz ordered compensation to be paid to those injured in the shooting, as victims.
"The families of those who sustained serious injuries will receive 500,000 rubles each, and those with minor injuries will receive 300,000 rubles."
"The tragedy that occurred at Gymnasium No. 5 is our common grief and pain. It is our duty to support the families of those who suffered," said A. Bogomaz.
https://www.m24.ru/news/proisshestviya/09122023/647495
Afanaskin's family, whose daughter was driven to suicide by prolonged bullying, was apparently not considered a victim by him. The girl's father, Dmitry Afanaskin, was not even released from pre-trial detention to attend his daughter's funeral.
At that time, the investigation was just beginning, and all versions were being considered, including the most terrible ones. A year after the shooting, a very reputable Bryansk publication, "Bryansky Vorchun" (Bryansk Grumbler in English) reported on one of these versions.
"The investigation seems to have started leaning towards this version again. The version of possible school violence – not only moral, by the way."
In the picture below the text, the woman on the far left is the former director of the gymnasium, Galina Sautkina, and the second from the left is Sergei Antoshin, see below.
https://dzen.ru/a/Z1RAgH38gjzm_lXD
But what if this version were confirmed and it turned out that the girl had been subjected to various forms of violence in the gymnasium? And her tormentors had already received benefits from the state and been elevated to the status of victims of terror by the governor himself. Then what? Force them to return the payments and put them behind bars?
However, Alexander Bogomaz immediately made his sympathies clear, even though the investigation had only just begun.
Here is a screenshot of one of Timofey Borisov's messages to his friends, written from the hospital shortly after the tragedy:
The first thing that catches the eye is that a respected man in the city "was f**king stunned" (very surprised – Ed.) that he didn't understand how the girl managed to reload such a heavy rifle.
What drove the girl to commit her act and reload the rifle, knowing that the last shot would be the last for her as well, apparently didn't concern the well-known politician. His sympathy and understanding were directed towards those who drove her to this point, not towards her herself.
Sergey Antoshin
“The first deputy mayor of Bryansk and simply the city's "superman" Sergey Antoshin, just a few hours after the tragedy, rushed to convene a large pedagogical council of all the heads of secondary schools in the city (those who weren't with the investigators) and declared that he would not let them be harmed.”
“Sergey Antoshin, who himself previously had big problems with criminal law, somehow modestly remained silent about the prosecutors and investigators.”
The paragraph above implies that the gentleman with the large Z on his cap (photo above) was previously convicted under Article 283 of the Criminal Code and, according to the information we have, spent some time (2002-2003) in prison. And this is not surprising; in today's Russia, criminal convictions are no longer an obstacle to public service.
http://kombr.ru/ru/624/20/750/predatelstvo-kotoroe-ne-proschaetsya.htm
“Meanwhile, the first deputy mayor of Bryansk, Sergey Antoshin, at a large city pedagogical council held at School No. 1, responsibly declared that the management and teachers of the ill-fated gymnasium were not to blame. And he promised not to allow a "witch hunt" against them. He said that journalists and bloggers had already unleashed it. They, as is known, are often to blame for everything.”
It turns out that a former convict (the first deputy mayor of Bryansk) directly indicated to the police who is guilty of the tragedy and who is innocent.
What kind of independent and objective investigation can we talk about after this!!!
Persecution of the independent press
As we wrote in other sections, the teachers of the gymnasium and the parents of Alina's classmates, from the very beginning, tried to do everything to ensure that the tragedy received as little media coverage as possible, and, according to one of the parents, "other people ignored their grief." They did not try to find out the reasons for the shooting.
Because they knew very well that the shooting was caused by the unprofessionalism of the gymnasium teachers, the indifference of the parents, and the cruelty of their children. But they did not want to make this public.
The local newspaper "Bryansk Grumbler" which dedicated many honest publications to the tragedy, and its editor-in-chief, Alexander Chernov, became the object of particular hatred.
Alexander Chernov
“In the first two or three months, they actively tried to make the editor-in-chief of "Bryansk Grumbler" Alexander Chernov, the scapegoat... They collected signatures among teachers and parents against him, demanding that law enforcement and other authorities hold the journalist accountable...”
“Chernov, they said, with his close attention to the tragedy on the pages of his news publication, did not allow the children, their parents, and teachers to distance themselves from the horror they had experienced. They wanted to shift all the blame from the guilty party to the innocent, to remove the informational mirror as far away as possible, so that it would be out of sight and no one would remind them. He didn't even give them a chance to understand what had happened.”
https://avchernov.ru/mnenie/god-proshel-s-rasstrela-detej-i-vzroslyh-v-gimnazii-5-goroda-bryanska/
All this was done with the full support of Mr. Antoshin, see above.
The teachers of Gymnasium No. 5 wanted to shift their own obvious guilt for the tragedy (see the section "Responsibility of Teachers") onto the media. This is what they wrote in their appeal to Roskomnadzor (Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media):
“According to the Bryansk mayor's office, the teaching staff appealed to Roskomnadzor with a request to investigate the publications of the website (the Bryansk Grumbler publication). Teachers and parents are confident that the blogger Chernov is promoting cruelty and violence.”
“The publication also states that the Bryansk city administration has appealed to law enforcement agencies with a request to provide a legal assessment of the publication's articles.”
“It turned out that “Bryansk Grumbler” and Alexander Chernov personally are to blame for all the problems of the recently prestigious educational institution, “Gymnasium No. 5” in Bryansk. It turns out that it is our publications that may “prevent the return of the educational process to normal, distract children from the memories of the terrible tragedy.”
https://avchernov.ru/mnenie/ne-gorkij-s-kem-vy-mastera-rasstrelyannoj-gimnazii-i-merii-bryanska/
This appeal was signed by many teachers of the gymnasium and some parents of the students.
An appeal from the gymnasium teachers to state authorities, demanding that the Bryansk Grumbler newspaper be effectively silenced.
It turns out that journalists who wrote the truth about the tragedy are to blame for all the problems.
Note: "The persecution of the free press, including violence, censorship, and legal pressure, is a violation of international law, as it contradicts fundamental human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the principles of international humanitarian law that protect journalists as civilians."
The Absurd Recruitment Version
A year after the tragedy, the Telegram channel Mash, which is supposedly close to various law enforcement and investigative agencies, wrote:
"The teenage girl who carried out the shooting at the Bryansk school a year ago may have been groomed for several months by Ukrainian radicals."
"According to Mash, the investigation led to Ukraine – this is now considered the priority line of inquiry. Alina may have been recruited by Ukrainian handlers of the 'Maniacs: Cult of Murders' movement. Or the girl may have joined a sect."
Such a version from some channel cannot be considered official. At least, no official in Bryansk dared to put their signature under this nonsense. The channel did not present any evidence to support what was written, only noting that a year after the shooting, "the culprits have not yet been found."
Lack of an official version two years later
Two years after the tragedy, the new chief investigator of the Bryansk region, Alexei Kuzmichev, met with representatives of the parents' community of Gymnasium No. 5 in the regional center, where almost two years ago a student named Alina shot her classmates with her father's rifle.
https://bryansk.bezformata.com/listnews/gimnaziyu-5-v-bryanske/152426190/
He made a vague and unclear statement that "Based on the evidence gathered, no external factors have been established, including from classmates, or any psychotraumatic situation that would have influenced the minor's decision to commit unlawful acts."
Alexei Kuzmichev
It has become completely clear that nothing is clear.