Snipers white tights what they did with them. Female snipers "White Pantyhose": truth or myth. Fatima from Gelaev's detachment

However, sources do not provide information that these snipers were part of women's organized detachments with this name. Official sources in reports of female snipers are often cautious in their assessments.

Sometimes "white tights" or "white stockings" are called all women participating in hostilities against federal forces, less often they use the nickname "geese" and "cuckoo bitch".

One of the first mentions falls on the period of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in the early 90s of the XX century: according to eyewitnesses, allegedly some athletes from the Baltic states, who are called “white tights”, fought as mercenaries on the side of the Georgians against the Abkhazians.

The story of "white tights" exists in Russian military folklore. It is assumed that in the past these women were biathletes who came to fight out of nationalist dislike for the Russians. The media, referring to anonymous sources, reported that allegedly Chechen fighters were paid $50 per hour of work, and the number of "white tights" fluctuated around the battalion.

Legends about "white tights" existed during almost all military conflicts on the territory of the former USSR since the early 90s of the XX century. Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, has heard similar stories about “white tights” that have not received real confirmation since the times of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and the civil war in Tajikistan at the end of the 20th century.

"White tights" as active participants in the Transnistrian conflict are described in a literary and journalistic essay about officer Pavel Popovskikh, who was accused of organizing the murder of journalist Dmitry Kholodov.

According to military observer Vyacheslav Izmailov, the myth of "white tights" was replicated by a mentally ill resident of the Moscow region, who had never been to military conflict zones, but nevertheless posed as an eyewitness and gave interviews to newspapers about scenes of brutal massacres of the Russian military over the Baltic female snipers in Chechnya. Izmailov, who repeatedly traveled to Chechnya as a journalist, did not find any traces of "white tights" there, except for gossip about them.

The position of the representatives of the authorities of the Baltic countries

In 2001, Zenonas Namavicius, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to Russia, to the question of Natella Boltyanskaya, host from the Ekho Moskvy radio station, that in Chechnya the so-called. white tights, Baltic snipers, answered the following:

Although much has been said, no one has proven it. I do not exclude the possibility that there is some kind of adventuristic Lithuanian or a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, or simply a Lithuanian by nationality. But there are the same people from Russia, I think, from other countries. But for Lithuania to organize some kind of sniper detachments and put on white tights for them, this is more than ridiculous.

Prototypes

"Lolita"

According to Elizaveta Maetnaya, a columnist for the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, one of real prototypes"white tights" - a young girl from the Russian provinces, who fought in the detachment of Shamil Basaev, subsequently convicted by the court and in 2001 served her sentence in a correctional labor institution in the Krasnodar Territory.

The head of the press service of the North Caucasian Department of Internal Affairs on transport, police lieutenant colonel Sergei Nazarov, talks about the same woman in an interview with the Trud newspaper. According to him, 22-year-old Elena, nicknamed "Lolita", whose last name was not disclosed, really fought in Shamil Basayev's detachment since 1995. In 2001, she was detained by employees of the Rostov Department of Internal Affairs in transport; the video shows that she is older than her years, on camera she admits that she came to the war to earn money. The same source provides information that "Lolita" allegedly came from Poltava, however, in this case, a citizen of Ukraine could not be placed in a colony on the territory Krasnodar Territory: out of 46 Russian correctional colonies for women, the only specialized correctional institution of the FSIN system for convicted citizens of foreign states is located in the Sverdlovsk region. The public outcry from the story with "Lolita" was such that the official website of the government of Moscow, with reference to information from the newspaper "Segodnya", published information about female snipers "white tights".

Basayev's Women's Detachment

The Ukrainian newspaper Capital News in 2003 claimed that in the mid-90s of the 20th century, Shamil Basayev created a detachment of women, allegedly natives of the Baltic states and Ukraine, commanded by his sister Madina, who fought on a paid basis during the first Chechen war. Presumably, journalists confused him with a detachment of female suicide bombers - a native of Chechnya and other republics North Caucasus"Riyadus-Salihiin", created by the same Basayev in 2001 and participated in the organization of a terrorist act during the performance of "Nord-Ost". Information about the participation of women from Basayev’s detachments and another Chechen field commander, Movsar Barayev, in attacks on Russian servicemen and terrorist acts was confirmed - among the participants in a number of terrorist attacks committed on the territory of Russian cities were Chechen widows and underage girls, allegedly abducted by militants and subjected to psychological processing, but there were no citizens of the Baltic states and biathletes among them.

On May 21, 2003, in the Central Press Organ of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published an article by journalist Nikolai Astashkin, which pointed out the differences between the Black Widows combat group and the White Tights special formation:

According to the investigation, the actions of the terrorists were led by a woman in her fifties, who also died in the explosion. One of her sons was previously killed, the second was convicted of robbery. It is possible that she was part of the combat group of the so-called "black widows" - 36 suicide bombers trained by Basayev. In general, terrorist No. 1, as Basayev is called in Russia, has a very “chivalrous” attitude towards the weaker sex. During the first Chechen campaign, he created a special formation "White Tights", which consisted mainly of female snipers from the Baltic states. Every day they were paid 1 thousand US dollars and 1.5 thousand dollars for each killed Russian serviceman. Subsequently, this unit was commanded by his relative Madina Basaeva. Now Black Widows...

"Leningrad biathlete"

The federal forces have irrefutable evidence that female snipers are fighting on the side of the militants in Chechnya. Recently, television showed one of these women. And now three more female snipers have been arrested there.

However, Sergei Yastrzhembsky did not provide data on whether women are citizens of foreign states, whether the detachments consist of only women.

"Female sniper of Tajik nationality"

Servicemen of the federal forces captured a female sniper of Tajik nationality in Grozny today. As the correspondent of RBC was told in the commandant's office of Grozny, she was captured after she "took a firing position" in one of the multi-storey dilapidated buildings of the city, went on the radio with the help of a walkie-talkie and advised the servicemen "to take care of reproductive organs". On the way to military base Khankala sniper was shot while trying to escape.

The question of the participation of citizens of Tajikistan in hostilities on Russian territory was not raised during interstate Russian-Tajik negotiations, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not make official statements about the participation of citizens of Tajikistan on the side of the Chechen separatists.

Fatima from Gelaev's detachment

Baltic snipers of Vladimir Zhirinovsky

The photograph, distributed by the state agency "RIA-Novosti", dated December 10, 2004, shows representatives of the women's battalion on Grozny Street, in particular, a plump brunette in a gray downy scarf and with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in her hands, dancing along with other elderly Chechen women a ritual combat dance " dhikr ".

Mythologization of the phenomenon and attitude in society

From the point of view of the writer and politician Eduard Limonov, "this myth has often served as an excuse for violence against women in the conflict zone."

Journalist and director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations Oleg Panfilov, in an interview with Radio Liberty on April 29, 2009, remarked:

I was in Georgia during the war in August for almost a month and watched it all. So fairy tales, myths about white tights, about blacks with machine guns - these are myths that I have been meeting with since the early 1990s. They were in Abkhazia, and in Tajikistan, and in the Fergana Valley, and everywhere for some reason the same snipers from the Baltic states in white tights, and blacks, forgive the word. One of the figures in the civil war in Tajikistan, a recidivist with 23 years of experience Sangak Safarov, when his journalists asked: “Is it true that blacks are fighting on the side of the Tajik opposition?”, - he says: “Yes.” "And from what country?" “From what? From Africa". These are the myths, they, unfortunately, are very loved by the people, they are supported, they are spreading in in large numbers, large circulation. And it's convenient because it's easy for people to understand.

In fiction and film

In Denis Evstigneev’s film “Mom” (), the hero of Alexei Kravchenko, while serving in Tajikistan, finds a wounded woman in one of the houses, whose appearance (in particular, blond hair) clearly implies her Baltic origin. The muffler of the female sniper's rifle has a series of notches, no doubt symbolizing the number of enemy soldiers killed.

In the first season of the serial film " Men's work”(2001) there are biathletes from Latvia who arrived in Chechnya to commit murders and terrorist attacks.

In the serial film "Drongo" (2002), it is repeatedly mentioned that Marta Saulitz (the heroine of Olesya Sudzilovskaya) fought in Chechnya on the side of the separatists.

"White tights" appear in detective stories Russian writer Ivan Streltsov. In the story "Gyurza. White tights ”() for the first time he raises the topic of female Baltic snipers. The "White Pantyhose" squad is commanded by a certain Dalida, who brutally kills the fighters Russian special forces. In the novel "Sniper Fighter" () main character former marine and GRU special forces fighter Vladimir Panchuk, nicknamed "Shatun", is heading to Chechnya, where he must find and eliminate the sniper group of the so-called "white tights", who killed his brother, an FSB special forces officer

see also

• Volodya-Yakut - the hero of a famous urban legend

Notes

1. The head of the Kremlin administration in the first half of the 1990s, Sergei Filatov, on December 8, in an interview with journalist Artem Krechetnikov, visiting the Russian Service of the BBC, the article “Sergei Filatov: Dudayev was picked up by Moscow”, said the following: “We know that there were once Ukrainian nationalists and female snipers from the Baltics. Then there was a link with the Afghan groups and bin Laden. Today, of course, it is not just a war in Chechnya. This is the hearth that supports international terrorism in order to fulfill his task: to scare the world and then transform it in his own way.
2. Transcript of the meeting of the State Duma dated January 11, 1995, speech by Deputy Burlakov M. P.: “There are civilians in the basements. They cannot get out of there, because snipers are shooting from everywhere. Snipers are basically mercenaries. There are Latvian women there, they are called “white tights”. There are Turks there, Chechens, of course, are also there (I mean among the snipers).”
3. Information-analytical network publication “Today. Ru”, Evgeny Ikhelzon. Chechen “general” Roza Litaeva: “Putin owes me star Hero Russia!” : “After that, Aslan Maskhadov, who was in charge of defense in this sector, called me to him. He thanked me and suggested that I gather a group of women to take out the wounded. I gathered 40 girls, we called our squad "White Shawl", then the Russians called us "White Pantyhose", they said that we were snipers. In the first war, 27 of us died, eight in the second, three were missing. Now there are only two people left, me and another woman.”
4. Radio broadcast on Mayak radio dated 01/09/2008 “Special operation in Dagestan suspended until morning”: “As reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, this moment the active phase of the operation has been completed and will continue with the onset of the morning. The place where the bandits are located was blocked by special forces officers. During the special operation, one of the militants was killed. There are two women in the gang, one of whom is a sniper.”
5. An article in the Vedomosti newspaper dated January 27, 2005 “A sniper woman fires from a residential house in Nalchik at participants in a special operation”: One of the women, who is with the extremists in a residential building in Nalchik, is a sniper and conducts aimed fire at the participants of the special operation. According to information from one of the participants in the operation, the battle continues inside the house.
6. Article by journalist Ilya Kedrov, Nezavisimaya Gazeta dated 06/06/2000 “Female snipers detained in Grozny”: “On June 4, three female snipers were detained in Grozny, as well as the owner of the apartment in which they lived.”
7. Information from the official website of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, message dated January 27, 2005, “In Nalchik, the assault continues on the house where the terrorists are blocked. Perhaps one of the women is a sniper leading aimed shooting on stormtroopers": “The fate of the women in the blocked house is still unknown. There are suggestions that one of them is a sniper firing at the participants of the special operation..»
8. An article by journalist Timofey Borisov in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Federal issue No. 3862 of September 1, 2005 “Taimuraz Mamsurov: So that the commemoration does not turn into a reality show”: “One woman at the trial of the only surviving terrorist, Kulayev, testified officially that the two suicide bombers were not the only women in the school. When one day she was led along the corridor to the toilet, she saw a young blonde woman of Slavic appearance, who was standing with a sniper rifle and smoking.“»
9. Article by journalist Vladimir Yanchenkov in the newspaper "Trud" No. 060 dated 04/01/2000 "Wild geese" in white tights: “Such volunteer “warriors” in the hot spots of the former Soviet Union called differently - sometimes "white tights", then "geese". The last nickname is understandable, it is the same as “wild geese”, that is, mercenaries who fight solely for money. "White tights" back in the days of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh and Tajikistan, snipers began to be called because of the white woolen tracksuits in which they "worked" and winter camouflage coats. Both in the current and in the past Chechen campaigns, female snipers inflicted tangible damage on federal units and caused them special hatred. After all, “tights” and “geese” acted with special deceit and composure.”
10. Reference and information portal "Gramota.ru", "Cuckoo bitch replenishes cargo 200: Dictionary of Russian military jargon": “Since the Transnistrian events, the expression“ cuckoo bitch ”has been attached to a female mercenary sniper, the enemy sniper is called“ badger ”(this word is still used in Bosnia, Yugoslavia).”
11. Library Center extreme journalism (unavailable link since 26-05-2013 )
12. Rules of warmakers - Society MK
13. Vladimir Voronov. Lubyansky Pool
14. Kommersant-Power - Special propagandist Homer
15. Oleg Panfilov: “Incredible stories about that Russians in Tbilisi are persecuted are lies” - Radio Liberty © 2010 RFE/RL, Inc
16. Vladislav Shurygin __ PRISONER  (Essay on Colonel Pavel Popovskikh)
17. Mercenaries in Chechnya (indefinite) . Kommersant No. 7 (725) (January 18, 1995). Date of treatment August 13, 2010. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012.
18. Dmitry Belibentsev: “Scorpions” against “white pantyhose”. In the first Chechen war
19. Labor: "Wild Geese" In White Pantyhose
20. Valery Kiselev, collection of articles "Nizhny Novgorod in the Chechen War"
21. Abdullah Dargo . "White tights" fought in Dagestan (indefinite) . Independent newspaper (October 2, 1999). Date of treatment August 13, 2010. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012.
22. OZON.ru - Books | Journalistic investigation | Julia Noise | New in humanities sciences | Buy books: online store / ISBN 978-5-7621-0399-2
23. “Novaya Gazeta” dated 04/03/2000, an article by journalist Mainat Abdulaeva “Where do they sew white tights. Myths of the second Chechen ": “The myth of “white tights” was born during the First World War. And in the first Chechen one, the most ominous rumors circulated about the elusive Baltic biathletes, shooting only in the head or in a piquant place: they are merciless with prisoners, and they shoot without a miss. The only problem is that not a single person, either in that war or in this one, saw with his own eyes the mysterious snipers, most likely generated by someone’s sick fantasy. ”
24. Dmitry Muratov, Chief Editor « Novaya Gazeta", on the radio station "Echo of Moscow" in the program "Personally yours ..." dated 06/25/2001: “I have heard information many times that snipers, “white tights”, are fighting there, and that many of them are captured. But, frankly, I, as a taxpayer, have never been shown this money at any of their briefings on TV, although I have no doubt that they exist, and they didn’t show me a single sniper either, but here I doubt that they there is. How many I went on business trips to "hot spots", I did not see them. These are soldier's legends."

Ukrainian MP Dmitry Tymchuk once accused the LNR authorities of spreading rumors about snipers from Latvia shooting Donbas residents. These rumors go back to the "white pantyhose" - a battalion of female snipers from the Baltics who fight in all wars against Russia. It arose on the basis of real facts about mercenaries from the Baltic states, and the support of the Ukrainian military by the Baltic countries in the civil war in the Donbass includes not fictitious, but documented facts.

“White Pantyhose” is an army tale that is widespread in the professional environment about a detachment of snipers from the Baltic states, who have been participating in all armed conflicts in the post-Soviet space since the beginning of the 1990s on the side of anti-Russian forces. Witnesses of the events in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Tajikistan and, of course, Chechnya, mentioned “white tights”. As befits a folklore plot, the soldier's legend about the Baltic snipers over the years has acquired details and details. Nowadays, the legend says that the “white tights” are a battalion of former Soviet biathletes with nationalist views, made up of the descendants of the Baltic peoples exiled to Siberia under Stalin.

But jokes are jokes, and any legend arises on the basis of some real events, and stories about “white tights” are no exception. A detachment of biathlete snipers is, of course, a myth, but participation in two Chechen wars mercenaries from the Baltic states - a well-known fact. The Lithuanian mercenaries who died in Chechnya (for example, L. Vilavicius) were buried by the Lithuanian authorities in their homeland with military honors. Based on the facts of glorification of Lithuanian citizens who fought in Chechnya on the side of the militants, the Vilnius District Court in 2013 issued a lenient sentence to a native of Kaunas, Egle Kusaita, who was recruited by the Caucasus Emirate terrorist organization and planned to blow herself up in the Moscow metro.

The participation in the Chechen wars on the side of the militants of mercenaries from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was mentioned in 2004 in a communiqué of the official representative of the Regional Operational Headquarters for the management of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, Major General Ilya Shabalkin. The Russian military command confirmed the work in Chechnya of snipers from the Baltic states, including women. “The bulk of the militants were Arabs, immigrants from Central Asia, there were several blacks and a sniper from the Baltic states, ”writes General Gennady Troshev, commander of the federal troops during the fighting in Chechnya and Dagestan, in his memoirs. So the stories about the battalion of "white tights" were where to come from.

With such a historical tradition, as well as taking into account the long-standing ties of the Ukrainian ultra-right with the Baltic nationalists and the well-known facts of support from the Baltic countries Ukrainian army(including not only regular army, but also voluntary nationalist formations), it is not surprising that rumors about snipers from the Baltics reached the Donbass.

This week, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmitry Tymchuk, accused the authorities of the Lugansk Republic of spreading rumors about provocations against the civilian population by the Ukrainian army, which involve mercenaries from the Baltic countries, including Latvian snipers. “According to the local media, citing “officials” and representatives of the command of the “2nd Army Corps of the LPR”, groups of “snipers-mercenaries from Latvia” are shelling civilians at the Zolote checkpoint in order to discredit the young republic,” Tymchuk wrote on his page on Facebook.

Are these statements of the Luhansk media and officials of the self-proclaimed republic that reached the Donbass a tale about “white tights” or are there real facts behind the talk about snipers from Latvia? There is no direct evidence of the participation of mercenaries from the Baltic states in the fighting in the South-East, but there has been talk about this in the Donbass since the summer of 2014. “I am sure that not only snipers, but also military specialists of a different kind from the Baltic republics, including Latvia, are working in the conflict zone,” Latvian political scientist and publicist Einars Graudins told RuBaltic.ru, “but in order for us to could speak substantively on this topic, either a prisoner or a corpse with documents of a representative of the Republic of Latvia or another Baltic state is needed. I can say that when I myself was in the Donetsk People's Republic in 2014, I asked the head of intelligence of the DPR whether representatives of the Baltic states were fighting on the side of Ukraine. He answered in the affirmative. And I draw your attention to the fact that even then it was about snipers.

Speaking of the evidence base. In August 2014, the Donetsk militia published in in social networks photo of a passport in the name of a citizen of Lithuania Remigius Shinkunas. Lithuanian army captain Remigius Shinkunas arrived in Ukraine as a representative armed forces Lithuania to provide advice and training for cadets of the Kharkov Military School. According to the military of the DPR, they found Shinkunas' passport at the site of the launch of missiles from the Tochka-U installations by the Ukrainian military.

In addition to this story, there are many official facts of the provision of military assistance by the Baltic authorities to the Ukrainian allies.

Lithuania became the only country in the world that officially and openly supplied weapons to the Ukrainian army. In 2014, official Vilnius sent 43.5 thousand euros to the Ukrainian army financial assistance, and in 2015 sent several military instructors to Kyiv. Given the scale of the war in the Donbass, such Lithuanian support is a drop in the ocean, it was rather symbolic. Much more impressive is the unofficial support of the Baltic countries for the Ukrainian ultra-right - radical nationalist organizations, on the basis of which the private volunteer battalions Azov, Aidar, Shakhtyorsk and others were subsequently formed. Far-right groups that united in 2013 in the "Right Sector" (an organization banned in Russia), back in 2006 trained at the NATO military base in Estonia. There was evidence of similar training sessions of Ukrainian nationalists held in 2013 (on the eve of the Euromaidan) at the Adazi base in Latvia.

In 2014, one of the leaders of the Right Sector, in the future a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Borislav Bereza declared about his acquaintance with former Prime Minister of Estonia (and current Vice President of the European Commission) Andrus Ansip. Where they met Ansip, Bereza did not say - probably at the same Estonian NATO base. However, the Estonian state itself confirmed the fact of its special relationship with Ukrainian radicals in the same year: in the fall of 2014, several militants were sent to Estonia for treatment. National Guard and disbanded by the Ukrainian authorities for looting the Shakhtyorsk volunteer battalion, as well as Dmitry Yarosh's deputy for the Right Sector, Andrei Tarasenko. Their transportation and treatment in the North-Western Estonian Hospital in Tallinn was carried out with the money allocated by the Estonian government as part of a program ... to provide assistance to the civilian population of Donbass, affected by hostilities in the South-East of Ukraine.

So you shouldn't immediately announce the talk about snipers from Latvia and other mercenaries from the Baltic states as rumors spread by DNR officials and a new retelling of the legend of "white tights". Too solid factual base exists for the emergence of such rumors and legends in the Donbass.

The Baltic and Ukrainian national radicals were in close contact with each other at least since the formation of the SS territorial divisions by the Nazis.

Their representatives kept in touch with each other in exile in the West. The Baltic and Ukrainian dissident circles were linked with a nationalist bias in the Soviet Union. "People's Rukh" in Lviv was created in the image and likeness of the "Sayudis" and " Popular Fronts» Latvia and Estonia. There is ample evidence of the participation of mercenaries from Western Ukraine in two Chechen wars. Side by side with the Baltic mercenaries.

So, according to all indirect signs, military specialists and mercenaries from the Baltic states should participate in hostilities in the Ukrainian South-East. It remains only to wait for direct confirmation, and the obvious will also be proven.

“White pantyhose” was the name given to the units of female snipers that allegedly existed in 1990-2000. It was believed that they were mercenaries and fought against Russian army in Chechnya, Transnistria, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and a number of other armed conflicts on the territory of the CIS.

In the detachments of the "White Pantyhose" served mainly young women of Baltic origin. There was no documentary evidence or other evidence of their existence. All "evidence" has the character of legends and army anecdotes. The image of the girls from the White Pantyhose squad was often played up in detective novels that time.

Where did

They were first discussed in the 1990s in connection with the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Official sources confirmed the participation of female snipers in military operations in this region. These ladies fought on the side of the Georgians. Whether these were single cases or there were some special women's units, it was not specified.

In army folklore, there were rumors about snipers in skirts: in the past, all of them allegedly were biathletes from the Baltics. They began to fight against the Russian federal troops out of fierce hatred for the Russians. The Chechens paid the mercenaries for their "work" $50 per hour.

In 1995, Kommersant published unconfirmed information that female snipers of Slavic appearance were indeed fighting in Grozny. After the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, the military spread rumors about allegedly shot terrorists of Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian origin. The same situation was repeated later in Transnistria.

Russian investigations and the opinion of the Lithuanian ambassador

All these stories have never been confirmed by any official structure of the Russian Federation, including the Foreign Ministry. Russian journalists (Yuliya Shum, Dmitry Muratov, and others) have made investigations more than once, but they also did not find any traces of young ladies-snipers. Many researchers of this issue came to the conclusion that the stories about the "White Pantyhose" are just a colorful legend or a skillful propaganda device.

In 2001, the journalist of the radio station "Echo of Moscow" N. Boltyanskaya was able to interview the Ambassador of Lithuania to Russia Z. Namavicius. When asked about "White Pantyhose", the latter replied that it was simply ridiculous. In his opinion, the image of a Baltic female sniper who shoots Russians was created to incite ethnic hatred.

Prototypes

Likely prototypes of blonde mercenaries with sniper rifles there may have been some real people. One of them is a young girl from Poltava, nicknamed "Lolita". She really served in 1995-2001 in the Basayev detachment and subsequently received a term for this. Columnist E. Maetnaya ("Moskovsky Komsomolets") wrote about her.

The story of "Lolita" received a wide public outcry and could provoke rumors about the "White Pantyhose". The fact that Shamil Basayev created a women's sniper squad in the 90s was also confirmed by the newspaper Stolichnye Novosti (Ukraine, 2003). It allegedly recruited a native of Ukraine and the Baltic States, who wanted to earn extra money. The rite was led by Madina, Native sister Basaev.

In fact, Chechen suicide squads existed in his army. But among them there were no girls of Slavic nationality. Another prototype of the "White Pantyhose" could be a Russian biathlete from St. Petersburg, who really fought on the side of Basayev and shot Russian soldiers for good money. S. Shavrin, a former FSB colonel, spoke about it.

Propaganda reception

There were many other not 100% confirmed cases of arrests of female snipers. But all of them were of various nationalities: Ukrainians, Russians, Tajiks, etc. No reliable evidence of the existence of "White Tights" has been found to this day. This image was most often used to incite ethnic hatred and mythologize the terrorist activities of militants.

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“White pantyhose” was the name given to the units of female snipers that allegedly existed in 1990-2000. It was believed that they were mercenaries and fought against the Russian army in Chechnya, Transnistria, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and a number of other armed conflicts in the CIS.

In the detachments of the "White Pantyhose" served mainly young women of Baltic origin. There was no documentary evidence or other evidence of their existence. All "evidence" has the character of legends and army anecdotes. The image of the girls from the White Tights squad was often played up in detective novels of that time.

Where did

They were first discussed in the 1990s in connection with the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Official sources confirmed the participation of female snipers in military operations in this region. These ladies fought on the side of the Georgians. Whether these were single cases or there were some special women's units, it was not specified. In army folklore, there were rumors about snipers in skirts: in the past, all of them allegedly were biathletes from the Baltics. They began to fight against the Russian federal troops out of fierce hatred for the Russians. The Chechens paid the mercenaries for their "work" $50 per hour. In 1995, Kommersant published unconfirmed information that female snipers of Slavic appearance were indeed fighting in Grozny. After the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, the military spread rumors about allegedly shot terrorists of Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian origin. The same situation was repeated later in Transnistria.

Russian investigations and the opinion of the Lithuanian ambassador

All these stories have never been confirmed by any official structure of the Russian Federation, including the Foreign Ministry. Russian journalists (Yuliya Shum, Dmitry Muratov, and others) have made investigations more than once, but they also did not find any traces of young ladies-snipers. Many researchers of this issue came to the conclusion that the stories about the "White Pantyhose" are just a colorful legend or a skillful propaganda device. In 2001, the journalist of the radio station "Echo of Moscow" N. Boltyanskaya was able to interview the Ambassador of Lithuania to Russia Z. Namavicius. When asked about "White Pantyhose", the latter replied that it was simply ridiculous. In his opinion, the image of a Baltic female sniper who shoots Russians was created to incite ethnic hatred.

Prototypes

The probable prototypes of the fair-haired mercenaries with sniper rifles could be some real-life faces. One of them is a young girl from Poltava, nicknamed "Lolita". She really served in 1995-2001 in the Basayev detachment and subsequently received a term for this. Columnist E. Maetnaya ("Moskovsky Komsomolets") wrote about her. The story of "Lolita" received a wide public outcry and could provoke rumors about the "White Pantyhose". The fact that Shamil Basayev created a women's sniper squad in the 90s was also confirmed by the newspaper Stolichnye Novosti (Ukraine, 2003). It allegedly recruited a native of Ukraine and the Baltic States, who wanted to earn extra money. The rite was led by Madina, Basayev's sister. In fact, Chechen suicide squads existed in his army. But among them there were no girls of Slavic nationality. Another prototype of the "White Pantyhose" could be a Russian biathlete from St. Petersburg, who really fought on the side of Basayev and shot Russian soldiers for good money. S. Shavrin, a former FSB colonel, spoke about it.

Propaganda reception

There were many other not 100% confirmed cases of arrests of female snipers. But all of them were of various nationalities: Ukrainians, Russians, Tajiks, etc. No reliable evidence of the existence of "White Tights" has been found to this day. This image was most often used to incite ethnic hatred and mythologize the terrorist activities of militants.

Intelligence Lugansk people's republic The LPR announced the transfer of female snipers from the Baltic States and Poland to the line of contact. This was announced on Sunday, April 9 official representative LPR People's Militia Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Marochko.

"Our intelligence continues to record the activation of foreign mercenaries on the line of contact, among which groups of snipers were noted," Marochko said. In most cases, he says, we are talking about women from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Recall that at the end of March it was reported that female snipers from the “Witches” unit, which is part of the “Right Sector” banned in Russia *, were transferred to the Donbass.

It should be noted that earlier in the republics it was repeatedly stated that several hundred mercenaries from Canada, the Baltic states, Poland and Georgia were fighting on the side of the Kyiv security forces. In addition, there is a lot of evidence that Western military instructors and advisers are training soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in sabotage and reconnaissance activities.

Recall that in the 1990s Russian media there was a legend about the so-called. unit "White Pantyhose", or "White Stocking", which included female snipers of predominantly Baltic origin, who allegedly fought on the side of anti-Russian forces and volunteer detachments in combat zones on the territory of states former USSR- in Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia, Chechnya, during the events in Dagestan in 1999 and other local conflicts. Snipers, trained from former biathletes, became the heroes of army folklore, newspaper publications, literary works, feature films, and appeared in politicians' speeches.

At the same time, the very fact of the existence of the White Pantyhose detachment, which has become one of the ideological clichés, has not been proven for certain. Not a single criminal case initiated by Russian law enforcement agencies against citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia who would have been detained in war zones has been recorded. The Russian Foreign Ministry has never made statements about the discovery of citizens of these states, both living and dead, who fought on the side of the militants on the territory of the country.

It is unlikely that Marochko set out to convey some kind of sensation, - the political scientist, ex-Deputy Minister of Information of the LPR Yuri Pershikov is sure.

There were and will be snipers, his statements are nothing but a message to the other side that intelligence is working and working well, and the people's militia knows that a group of snipers has entered. In any case, the Ukrainian side prefers not to advertise this information. Now the military will have to be more careful when the locals add topics for conversation. A year ago, a truly sensational news was the appeal to Shchastya to the hospital of one of the Poles, who was raped by officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine while drinking alcohol together. The scandal was resonant and they could not hide it, despite the fact that this lady was accompanied by SBU officers. In principle, it was then for the first time in the LPR that they learned that foreigners help Ukrainians in the literal and figurative sense. Also, a few months ago, a woman sniper with the call sign Bagira worked on the demarcation line - she is also an instructor.

I think at the moment we are talking about practicing instructors. Not so long ago, scanned copies of coaches from Latvia and Lithuania, who taught Ukrainians, were made public by Russian journalists. There were many women among them, and this group was led by a Canadian citizen, an active serviceman.

How much do mercenaries get paid? And why exactly women?

As for their fees, I can definitely say that in addition to the regular salary and travel allowances - these guys are in a very privileged position - they are rented good housing, transport is provided, as well as personal fees from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Not so long ago, at the end of January - again in Shchastia, a US military man, demolition instructor Maxim Kuchina, boasted in one of the cafes that such business trips were not only prestigious, but also well paid. Not only by the US command, but also by the Ukrainian side.

There is nothing unusual in the fact that these are women - there are few people in the Baltic States, therefore women also have to go to military service. The fact that he arrived at the line of demarcation speaks of seasonal activation.

A mercenary is always a specialist in a particular area of ​​war, - says the deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine " new earth» (Donetsk, DPR), permanent expert of the Izborsk Club of Novorossia Alexander Dmitrievsky.

And the specialist is very high class: "cannon fodder" is not in demand at recruiting stations. The military professions most in demand in this case are sniper, mine and sabotage.

Why female snipers? Yes, because biathletes who have completed their careers are often recruited as snipers. Imagine a former athlete who not only remained out of work, but found himself on the sidelines of life, wasted all his strength on the way to the podium, but did not acquire any other useful skills outside of shooting and running ... And here the choice is small - either to the bottom of the glass , or in killers, or in mercenaries ...

- Do they fight for money, or are they ideological Russophobes? Are they very different from the mercenaries of the first wave?

A mercenary always fights for money. And only for money. They didn't pay - a bayonet to the ground. This is their difference from the ideological Russophobes, who, on the contrary, are very often fully self-financed, receiving minimal maintenance from Kyiv, sometimes exclusively in the form of weapons and ammunition that are not freely available for sale. And as for how much the current mercenaries differ from the cohort of 2014, I will say one thing: countries of origin, recruitment points may change, but the essence of this abomination was, is and will be the same.

- Why have the republics still failed to show the world a single living mercenary?

It is easier to eliminate a mercenary on the spot than to take prisoner. Let's start with the fact that the number of mercenaries in relation to the rest of the personnel of the punishers is negligible: they are highly qualified military specialists. Each of them is always in front of the authorities. Secondly, by the nature of the tasks performed, these are specialists of the lower, in fact, soldier or junior officer level. Let us also take into account the fact that Russian or Ukrainian languages they practically do not speak, they do not communicate with the bulk of the punishers. That is, they are extremely rare carriers of any valuable information, therefore, they are usually not of interest as “languages”. Therefore, it makes no sense to risk a sabotage group for the purpose of capturing one such person militarily.

But even if one is captured, for example, during a battle, problems will inevitably arise of how to legally prove that this is a mercenary, and not an ideological volunteer. Yes, mercenaries do not enjoy the protection of international humanitarian law, but the presumption of innocence has not been canceled in our case either. You will need to present indisputable evidence confirming the fact that the mercenary received a reward, but we know that for such financial transactions either “black” cash is used, which does not pass through any statements, or very well legalized cash. Before us, after all, they are not fools either: both recruiters and those recruited reliably took care of how to wash their hands.

The presence of a significant number of foreign volunteers, mercenaries or military specialists from third countries is, in principle, typical for armed conflicts recent decades, especially when it comes not to conventional wars, but to conflicts that have signs of civil wars, - Stanislav Byshok, a political analyst at the International Monitoring Organization CIS-EMO, is sure.

The war in the Donbass is quite typical in this sense. At the same time, it should be understood that mercenaries are unlikely to be able to somehow influence the outcome of the conflict.

- Who are these people? Wishing to earn money or ideological Russophobes?

If such people go to fight for “their” side of the conflict, they are perceived rather in a positive context, calling them daredevils, soldiers of fortune, or something else. If for "alien", then completely different, derogatory epithets are applied to them. These are sadists, and scum, and jackals, and everything else.

In general, the tendency of a person to constantly participate in hostilities and, consequently, to participate in killings in one country of the world, then in another, should be considered more from a psychological point of view, and not from an ideological one. The ideology here is more of a superstructure than a basis. Take Nadezhda Savchenko. Did she go as a mercenary to Iraq because of some particular ideological hatred towards the population there? Hardly.

As for the snipers from the Baltics. There was such a legend about the White Tights squad, consisting of Baltic biathletes, and participating in all conflicts in the post-Soviet space. To what extent does it correspond to reality? We are really talking about a specially trained detachment or about individual adventurers, as the authorities of the Baltic countries assured. After all, not a single sniper has been caught anywhere in 25 years ...

One can also recall the version, widely disseminated in the national-patriotic community, about snipers from the Israeli "Beitar" who shot people in October 1993 in Moscow. In general, military or near-combat actions contribute to the emergence and spread of legends of this kind, when among the initially homogeneous mass of enemies they begin to distinguish (or design) a “man with a scar”, “blue dwarf” or “white tights”. The enemy must be personified, then the experiences associated with the situation of life and death become less unbearable than when you are at war against a vague hostile mass pressing from all sides.

Who else, besides the Baltic states and the Poles, is involved in this? To what extent are the authorities of their countries involved, that is, sanctioning or even carrying out their training?

There was also information about snipers from the United States, but American citizens are also fighting on the side of the Donbass republics. In general, it is obvious that on both sides of the conflict there are representatives of many states whose authorities are somehow aware of the purpose for which their citizens go there. It is difficult to say whether there is any support for volunteers or mercenaries from the countries they come from. Is it possible to consider the fact that so far in none of the third countries, with the exception, as I understand it, of Belarus, trials they don’t go over the participants in the conflict, I don’t presume to judge as a sign of tacit support for “their” side of the war.

What will happen if several of these mercenaries are captured and presented to the world? How will the authorities of these countries justify themselves? Will anything change at all?

Western public and expert opinion is dominated by the belief that the Donbass conflict is a hybrid war of Putin's Russia against post-Maidan Ukraine, in which citizens of third countries also participate, for ideological or mercantile reasons. Accordingly, the presence in the Donbass of Baltic, Polish or some other snipers fighting on the Kyiv side will not introduce absolutely anything new into the Western public expert consensus. Which does not eliminate the need to collect and check, if possible, this information for the possible in some perspective international tribunal across the Donbass.

* The Ukrainian organization "Right Sector", by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of November 17, 2014, was recognized as an extremist, its activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.

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