Elshad Babaev is a well-known public figure, civic activist, creator of the Sin City project, an active blogger, and a very mixed personality. Most of the information about him can be gleaned from his stories about himself, pages on social networks and numerous frank interviews, mainly by the opposition media.
Service in the authorities
It is not known how the life of the hero of our story would have formed today and his civic position had been formed if it had not been for the events preceding the “Sin City”.
After Elshad Babayev brilliantly ends his studies at the Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he returns to his native Astrakhan and enters the service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His powers and duties included inspections of employees of urban duty units (they must act clearly within the legal framework and legislation). This work is neither calm nor grateful. According to Elshad himself, many of his colleagues simply lost their temper due to the fact that he faithfully performed his duties, carefully documented the identified shortcomings. His corrosiveness in small things, his desire to achieve justice, intractability and young age did not contribute to the fact that this place of service would be permanent for him. And so it happened.
Gradually, Elshad began to feel the pressure of his superiors. As a result of constant conflicts, the administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to get rid of the obstinate and stubborn employee and initiated eight official checks, trying to find a reason to dismiss him for official non-compliance. The guy announced two reprimands. The first - for the lack of entries in the lecture notebook, the second - even more ridiculous. The authorities were unhappy that Babaev was eating food in his lawful lunch break in civilian clothes, and not in police uniform. But this did not attract dismissal. It did not work to get rid of Babaev through deductions under the article, but one of the direct leaders of Elshad was able to provoke a conflict by striking a subordinate in the face. The young policeman understood that if he responded with a blow, he would not only be fired, but also would start a case.
And Babaev writes a statement to the Investigative Committee of Russia, in which he reports on the fact of abuse and abuse of authority by the leadership and immediate superior. But the case was never instituted. On the advice of his father, who is thoroughly familiar with the work in the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Elshad Babayev submitted a report on dismissal.
Prior to Sin City
Around the same period, an incident occurred on the road, which, perhaps, influenced further events in the life of Elshad, pushed him to action. On the night track, he barely managed to avoid a head-on strike with a car driven by a drunk driver. The intruder jumped into the oncoming lane, miraculously managed to avoid collisions, the cars parted literally a centimeter apart.
It was then that Babaev decided to start fighting drunk drivers driving cars. Elshad believes that this problem has become enormous due to the high level of corruption in the police.
Social activity
What did Elshad Babayev do? Sin City is a project that made its author widely known in 2012. Elshad, who caught 102 drunk drivers behind the wheel, including 10 police officers, calls himself a former cop and a thunderstorm. His social activities began with the creation of the Astrakhan branch of the StopHam project. For six months of 2012, Elshad was obsessed with this idea, and in July of that year he created his own and called it large-scale and even a little pathetic - “Sin City”
In autumn, Babaev presented his brainchild at the Selias innovation forum. The National Perspectives Fund allocated only 25,000 rubles for the implementation of Sin City, despite the request for the maximum possible grant of 100,000 rubles. And yet, this did not stop the activists, although, according to the organizer, the cost of the project is much higher: very large amounts were spent on refueling volunteer cars.
Together with his associates, Babaev patrolled the streets of Astrakhan, identified suspicious cars with drunk drivers, and chased them until the traffic police stopped the offenders. The whole process was necessarily recorded on a video camera, and recordings from it were instantly distributed on social networks. Given the fact that the number of victims on the roads is increasing every year, and far from all the cases brought up in connection with an accident involving a drunk driver go to court, those responsible for accidents in uniform often avoid well-deserved punishment, the activity of a civil activist was instantly supported by the general public, first in Astrakhan, and then beyond.
Elshad Babaev: “Sin City”. Effects
Initially, Elshad Babayev’s plans did not include the fight against corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But among the violators who fell into the camera lens of Sin City activists were employees from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutors, traffic police inspectors.
Because of one of these videos, the social activist got into an alteration. The video shows that the local policeman was driving while intoxicated, tried to escape, but was caught by volunteers who immediately called the police. The offender made an attempt to “agree” to resolve the situation, but activists and traffic police drew up a protocol, and the video cameras of Sin City recorded everything that was happening. But after this incident, the volunteers, the traffic police collaborating with them, and Babayev himself began to feel pressure from the prosecutor's office. Even the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the general, tried to intervene in this matter. Elshad Babayev did not give up. A case has been brought against him under article 213 of the Criminal Code. Pickets in support of a public figure were held in many cities of Russia, and an extensive information campaign was launched on the pages of social networks.
Elshad Babaev wanted
The policeman, who was drunk at the wheel, was fired from the police , but a few days later he complained that Babaev allegedly attacked him and threatened with a weapon. There is no evidence of this fact, Elshad himself categorically refutes such statements, but the prosecution authorities still issued a warrant for his arrest.
On July 10, 2013, a search was made in Babaev’s house and the computer’s hard drive was seized.
Elshad Babaev claims that such a measure is aimed primarily at changing his civic position and stopping social activities. The man has so far decided to stop his attempts to restore justice in his native country and is already mentally ready to leave it.
Today, the activist is on the All-Russian wanted list. But such are the realities of our reality that this does not prevent him from leading a very active life in virtual space. He is regularly present in all social networks, maintains his blog on LiveJournal and the video blog on YouTube. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Elshad said that he did not regret his choice, despite everything that had happened to him.
Meeting with the President
Some time after the criminal case was instituted against Babayev, he came to the capital to appeal to the president of the country. Further is known exclusively from the words of Elshad himself. As he told in an interview with Radio Liberty, the meeting took place in Tver at the Seliger forum. Already at the end of the forum, when V.V. Putin left the room, Babaev managed to approach him and held out a piece of paper where the request was written: “Save your life!” Putin listened attentively to Babayev, Elshad briefly described the situation in Astrakhan, complained of illegal prosecution and falsified criminal cases. The president allegedly praised the activist, but he was not able to immediately provide documents confirming his words. After this meeting, Elshad Babayev sent an official appeal to the Presidential Administration.
Effects
The trial has begun. The case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Investigative Committee. After some time, employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation from the city of Stavropol arrived in Astrakhan. Active correspondence began, the case went down “from above” to “down”, but it ended corny. As a result, a formal reply came; justice, according to Babayev, did not triumph.
After that, E. Babaev, who used to be quite loyal to the policy of the Kremlin and the very leader of the country, is sharply changing his worldview. Prior to this event, as Elshad himself claims, he was completely not interested in politics and politicians. He "did not know about the Nashi, nor about other state sects, nor about who is in our opposition." He considered V. Zhirinovsky and G. Zyuganov the main oppositionists. Babaev did not participate in rallies of Putin supporters, nor in rallies against the government. Now he considers himself an oppositionist.
Elshad Babaev: biography
What else is known about such an ambiguous person as Elshad Babayev? Astrakhan is the city in which he was born and gained popularity. Elshad himself does not extend his life outside social activities. Father is a police major, later worked at customs, today he is a pensioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Elshad Babaev (ethnicity - ethnic Azerbaijani) - Russian and Russian-speaking. He is a graduate of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nizhny Novgorod, which, by the way, he graduated with honors and was encouraged by a mass of meritorious letters.
After graduating from the academy, he worked in the internal affairs bodies, in the juvenile division. Later, the transfer went to the tax crime department . His track record also includes the work of an inspector at the headquarters of the Internal Affairs Directorate.
Elshad Babaev vs Soloviev
The activist and public figure gained popularity not only due to his fight against drunk drivers and corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is known to the wide Internet public as a sarcastic, sarcastic and very sharp-witted user of social networks. A vivid example of this is the relatively recent verbal skirmish between Babaev and TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov. The scandal flared up on Twitter when a journalist complained on his page that he could not buy lactose-free products in one of the elite supermarkets in the capital. In a tough form, Babayev recommended Soloviev "to go to the Crimea and there are earthworms shoveling to the sound of the Russian anthem." Such statements by Babaev are based on several incidents that happened a little earlier: the inhabitants of Stavropol were fed pancakes with a shovel at one of the city mass festivals, and a group of scientists from Tomsk invited their compatriots to eat earthworms.
It is unlikely that Solovyov’s message would provoke such a reaction of Elshad Babayev, if not for the tough pro-Kremlin position of Vladimir Solovyov and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine preceding these events. Babaev himself takes a pro-Ukrainian position, supports the ideas of the Maidan and believes that the Russian media are massively manipulating the consciousness of the people.
Further more. Soloviev live on Vesti FM radio expressed doubts about the usefulness of Babayev’s public activities and the veracity of the situation preceding Elshad’s dismissal from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The conflict went into the framework of stinging skirmishes and mutual insults, which are hardly appropriate to quote here. A hypocrite is the mildest insult to a journalist that Elshad Babayev throws. Soloviev, in turn, did not stop with the response.
In addition to Solovyov, Babaev’s taunts went to other well-known political characters, for example, Sidyakin, Degtyarev, Pushkov.
Is Elshad Babayev a traitor?
Today, Babaev is an ardent opponent of journalists and officials who hold the position of the official Kremlin and sharply criticizes everyone who supports the president. This is evidenced by his posts on social networks Twitter and VKontakte. Many people who previously had great respect for the social activities of this man today accuse him of betrayal.
In an interview with Radio Liberty, E. Babayev said that he had never believed Russian propaganda, and emphasized how much he was disappointed in the president of the Russian Federation.
According to Babayev, Russia has turned into Through the Looking Glass, and now, in the order of things, call freedom slavery. Former policeman, former activist, former public figure today is ready to leave Russia, renounce Russian citizenship, because he "was deeply disappointed not only in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the state, but in the country as a whole."
When asked about the funds that Elshad lives on, he replies that people from the Internet are helping him. Most recently, he sold his car. So today lives Elshad Babayev. News about him, most likely, will not be long in coming.