From a story about bringing a pedophile to justice, to a story of a cruel murder
[Review: Russian killed a man, and when you find out why he did it, you will not wish for him to go to prison!]
The portal “Kurir” has published a story about a resident of the Russian city of Ufa who killed an alleged pedophile, who in turn held two teenagers hostage. He became a hero of the day when he himself brought the pedophile (an ex-prisoner of sexual abuse of minors) to justice – the public demands for him not to be held accountable for the done deed. Under Russian law, the sentence for this crime is 15 years in prison. This, first of all, is true as an event with all the original facts, and the Russian public indeed demanded his abolition. But this text is problematic in many ways. In the end, it turns out that the text is not true at all, and the true story has not been transmitted as a follow-up, even though the media has a professional obligation to correct its own mistakes.
Link to original post: Русин уби човек, а кога ќе дознаете зошто, ќе барате да не одлежи ниту еден ден затвор (Russian killed a man, and when you find out why he did it, you will not wish for him to go to prison!)
Date and time of publishing: 6 February 2020
Reviewer: Ljubomir Kostovski
The article cited by the newspaper “Metro”, as well as in a dozen other (foreign) media, does not contain the statement “Russian kills a pedophile” … but either “pedophile killer” or “a mechanic killed a…” avoiding the generalization that seemed was the goal of “Kurir!”
The first step towards this goal in the reviewed article is clearly the title, which should suggest that the killer is something special, i.e. he has a national license for “heroism” or that he belongs to a nation where individuals can replace the legal system themselves, and without an accusation, without hearing out all actors at the relevant event and without undergoing trial, get to the point when criminals receive the punishment they deserve. It is true that Russia is not known for its respect for human rights, but, as it can be read, the legal system provides severe punishment for such individuals.
What is, of course, problematic in this text, is the assertion in the headline that “when you find out why he did it, you will not wish for him to go to prison” i.e. if you could, you would release him! Such an interpretation of the event can really give someone the impression that each of us can act as the Wild West Sheriff – Roy Bean, who was at the same time the plaintiff, the judge and the executor of a sentence, and the situation always ended with a gibbet for the one who did not see eye to eye with him. Practically, in the spirit of the title, this can be understood as an indication in that regard: real men do not wait for the police to come. Be Roy Bean or, a closer character to our audiences, Dirty Harry, and solve the crime “in a shortened procedure” by yourselves, which is a really ugly example.
At first in Russia there were many articles in that “liberating” direction, saying that the police themselves did not want to arrest him or keep him in jail, but fortunately, after a while, the attitudes changed. First of all, the confession of the killer’s sister – Kristina Kovalenko, shows that the family renounces Vladimir Sankin and paid for the funeral of the murdered man (20,000 rubles).
Let us return to the Macedonian text on the Sankin case. The good practice is the following: when you “discover” something, you should follow the events of this legal situation. Especially when there is a Copernican plot-twist: there are new details to the scandalous story of a man who, according to initial interpretations, protecting the boys from a pedophile, beat the rapist, after which the pedophile died.
The investigation has been able to prove the falsehood of this version. The interlocutor in the investigation told ProUfu the real story. “The investigation has a new version of what happened, which excludes the story of rescuing children from a pedophile. So, according to the new version, the adolescents, who were allegedly rescued from a pedophile, drank with the victim at his home. Alcohol abuse continued until the man suggested that adolescents show their genitalia. They refused and left. On the street, they met Vladimir Sankin, to whom they told that a former acquaintance had treated them with alcohol. The teens, along with Sankin, returned to the victim’s house, took him to the street, and Sankin began beating him with a piece of a fence over his head and vital organs. During the beating, Sankin stole 1.5 thousand rubles from the victim, 500 of which he gave to the adolescents. It all lasted from 11 AM to 2 AM the next day. The police officers stopped the beating … ”
And now what? In our minds echoes the story of the killer that needs to be pardoned, but in fact, he and the two teenagers, the alleged “victims”, were classic killers and looters. Even sadists. This is the truth, but it is just an “ordinary story”. There are no “Great Russians” bringing justice.
This is the kind of unprofessionalism in the media that everyone should be aware of, including those who have published the Russian version of Roy Bean.
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