The Bereg Affair

Yet another patriot was assassinated in Donbass.

Russian Telegram posters are notoriously bad writers and no sane person wants to deal with trying to parse through their obtuse prose. Bad enough that they ruin everyone’s happy go-lucky mood with their tales of doom and gloom, but you actually have to scratch your head and squint at the text to figure out what they’re trying to get across. There are many reasons for why they are all such bad writers, but the main reason may be that anyone past a certain age was raised according to Soviet standards and ideals. And the Soviet Union was the most fake-educated intelekshual Puritan moral fart-sniffing society that ever existed in the history of humanity, that is, until the USSA rallied and took back the crown with its new and improved moral crusades to save Black Lives, the borders of Israel and New Israel (Ukraine), and the rights of perverts to access young boy bodies.

Nowadays, people from the sovok generation all rely on the most overwrought and obtuse prose to try to fluff themselves and their inane writing up. You thought you were reading a war blog, but actually, unbeknownst to yourself, you were reading the next Gogol! Yes, you thought the fart-sniffing from the authors on Substack was bad? That’s a rather pleasant olfactory aperitif compared to the rank odor seeping out of the orifice of various Telegram channels. Straight-talk is like holy water on a vampire’s skin to them. It is pure torture trying to read their samizdat. This is why I prefer to use traditional news portals because there some quality standards regarding who, what, when, where, and why are kept up which cannot be said about Telegram, which appears to be a live experiment built on the model of giving thousands of chimps typewriters and seeing what they come up with. Again, no different from Substack.

I only bring this up to highlight how I would provide more perspectives more regularly if they were written better. But they are not, and so this is pure torture for me. Being able to organize your thoughts and convey them somewhat clearly and coherently to others is a gesture of respect and good manners, frankly. But as things stand now, I have to wade through dozens of channels written in convoluted Sovok-prose to try and fish out a nugget or two of useful information. Maybe it is a 5D strategy to confound the CIA, or to say something without saying anything which was developed during repression-times, I don’t know, let’s just pretend that it is, why not.

And I am not the only one who sees a problem with this, the kids (35 and unders) hate this style and routinely mock it, but the older generations fear and loath the youth and do not engage with them.

Anyways, with that preamble out of the way, we will now try to sink our teeth into the Bereg Affair, which was the killing of a Russian officer, Igor Mangushev aka Bereg in the Donbass, probably at the hands of Wagner criminal elements looking to make some money from an extortion racket that they ran with the cooperation of the local police or perhaps on orders from the Russian Deep State.

This was not just some random soldier, mind you. Bereg was an old-school Russian Nationalist who was well-known within right-wing circles. He and his paramilitary organization used to organize raids within Russia on illegal immigrant shanty towns and gathered like-minded patriots around him in the process. For all the good he did in that scene, I would be remiss if I did not point out that he eventually almost certainly ended up working in some capacity for the FSB. He was probably chosen as a candidate for cooperation as opposed to elimination on account of him being half-banker, which would no doubt endear him to his co-ethnics who run the Russian spook state. Bereg also scaled down his activities, like all nationalists did, no doubt as part of the crackdown of the Kremlin on Russia’s nationalists following the “Russian Spring”.

If you don’t know, the “Russian Spring” was a surge in patriotic sentiment triggered by the start of the Donbass conflict and the return of Crimea 8 years ago, followed by a crackdown on patriots by the Kremlin so that they could then sign Minsk I and II without facing a backlash from Russian society. This is quite similar to the old Soviet strategy of allowing the occasional “thaw” period followed by a crackdown period on those who poked their heads up like early spring flowers during the thaw. Bereg ended up almost certainly on an FSB leash by that time (if not earlier) and so, like others, he kept his head down and played by the new rules. However, when the SMO began, he rushed to join the fight for Donbass, and that is where he ended up being murdered.

Bereg also worked in Russian politics, and ran various mercenary small-time political operations as a kind of consultant or media influencer. Basically, he used his network of influence to attack political opponents of the people he was hired to work for. He allegedly worked for Navalny and then against Navalny. Consulted for Wagner and then eventually got killed by Wagner. Talked about fighting Fascism in Ukraine, but himself dabbled with Nazi aesthetics. Truly, a man of many twists and turns. Also, he claims to have been the PR guy who came up with and then popularized using the Z-symbol that you see everywhere now. This claim is contested, but no one else has even made such a bold claim, so I thought I’d share it because it might very well be true. If it is, then there is something darkly poetic about his death. Finally, he had his own PMC called “ENOT” which is an acronym that ends up meaning “raccoon” in Russian, but it ended up getting shut down by the feds because it was a PMC trying to carve out a niche for itself in Donbass. It was only with Wagner and Prigozhin, thanks to his connection to Putin’s inner circle, that PMCs were allowed to operate openly in Donbass.

Bereg’s wife believes that he was assassinated on the orders of powerful people and that the doctors at the hospital where he was taken delivered the final blow by allowing him to die by withholding care, also on orders from someone powerful above.

Quite the story, no?

One of Bereg’s very famous and often-cited blogger friends, Murz, who we have cited before on this blog as well, was the guy who first spilled the details on the killers who took out Bereg when it became clear that the police wouldn’t. At that point, the accusations began to fly, the investigation moved onto Telegram, and all hell broke loose.

The posts I will be analyzing below are a total literary disaster and yet, stitched together, they reveal a very dark and disturbing story. We start with the suggestions of “Soldier’s Truth,” to ensure an honest investigation of what happened during the killing of Igor Mangushev aka “Bereg”:

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An officer of the Russian Armed Forces was killed in wartime in the rear of the Russian army in the combat zone. The killers were caught at the scene of the crime and immediately, after a few hours, released. […]

Let me give you a list of things that the investigator will need to pay attention to when the case is “taken under special control”.

Firstly, due to the special social danger from the group of people who both committed the crime directly and ensured that the direct perpetrators escaped responsibility, “taking the case under the control of the Investigative Committee” should begin with ensuring the protection of all of Stakhanov’s police officers, who in one way or another worked on this case on the night of February 3-4, 2022, and their families.

It was the “Stakhanovite cops”, who arrived when they got a call about shooting being heard when the killers fired at Igor’s car, and de facto became the only people who ensure the safety of the evidence and the possibility of identifying the killers. In addition to them, protection should be provided to the local traffic police officer, accomplice, "the pointer" working for the robbers who killed Igor Mangushev, who confessed to be working with the criminal group.

In the evenings, including in restaurants in the city of Stakhanov, he looked for potential victims for his accomplices and, if necessary, appeared at the scene as a representative of the traffic police, called upon to put pressure on the victim according to an extortion scenario - “They are right! And you... oh, you're drunk! I will write up a ticket!" This same person took Igor to the hospital, when the policemen who arrived at the shooting checked for themselves that he was still alive.

Basically, he says that released criminals from Wagner run extortion rackets with the help of the local police or the military police. They write up soldiers on fake charges and demand ransoms to let them go. Because Wagner “outranks” the regular army, there is no justice for the victims of such schemes. Information on Bereg was given to the criminals by a policeman accomplice (the pointer) and they set up a “checkpoint” ahead of Bereg where they first opened fire on his car and then dragged Bereg out of his vehicle.

Secondly, it is necessary to check for the veracity of the seizure of information from the video recorder of the video surveillance system in the restaurant "Absheron", which was almost immediately established as the place from which Igor left on the road from Stakhanov to Kirovsk. If these materials are not in the file, ask then an explanation for why they are not there, when they should be there.

He suspects that evidence has already been disappeared.

Thirdly, to check the state of the car that Igor was driving that evening, attached to the case as evidence and, on this basis, not returned to the owner, by whose proxy Igor drove it. [Bereg was in a borrowed car]. When checking, the condition of the car has to be checked with the protocol of its inspection, attention paid to the fact that the car was fired on from all sides, including a shot from the front over the hood in the lower part of the windshield, where the bullet entered the dashboard from the side of the windshield. Pay attention to the protocols for detecting entry and exit holes in structural elements and bullets, and also to the fact that none of these shots could be the shot from which Igor died. Pay attention to the fact that the glass of the driver's door is not broken by a bullet. There are no traces in the cabin from the passage of this shot into the bullet and the person, being in the driver's seat in any position, could not get this bullet in the head as it happened with Igor. That is, they shot at him outside the car, after breaking the glass with a pistol grip or other object and pulling Igor out.

Fourthly, to pay attention to the fact that, as follows from the testimony of witnesses who drove past a stopped car and cars of criminals that evening around 23-00, Igor's Pajero was turned in the opposite direction, towards Stakhanov. And the nature of the traces of blood in the car, corresponding to the parameters of Igor's blood, indicates that, after the shot in the head, they tried to put him back in the car in order to stage an accident. The car was turned in such a way that it was convenient to push it down a slope. A steep slope near the road in this place, providing significant damage and deformation to the car, potentially capable of leading to a conclusion about the "spontaneous" fire and explosion of the car, etc., only on the left side, if you drive from Stakhanov. When pushing a left-hand drive car, you need to be able to operate the steering wheel, that is, you need to drive the car with the body into the left ditch, but with the steering wheel away from the ditch. That is, turn it in the opposite direction (in fact, it was precisely for this that the police officers caught the criminals, who responded to the shots with were fired by the criminals trying to smoke Igor out of his car).

Fifthly, check whether the case materials contain the results of the seizure of billing data of cellular operators in the given area from 22-00 February 3 to 6-00 am February 4. If not, ask for an explanation for the absence of this evidence from the case.

Sixth, to check the presence in the file of a list of officials called by police officers to the scene of the crime, whose role included working on this case, as well as making a decision on whether to detain the criminals. Interrogate these officials as to why this detention was not made and why at 5:00 a.m. these people were released after they handed over Igor's unlocked phone, from which the police later notified his wife about the incident.

Seventh, it would be logical to call the leadership of PMC “Wagner” headed by Prigozhin E.V. to testify in this case. (Including the leadership of the security service) whose PMC employees, moving without identity cards … of the appropriate type, and often even in cars without license plates, who as of February 3-4, 2022 and earlier, were delegated commandant functions in some areas of the LPR with such wide authorities that even after the attempted murder, these people, who were caught at the scene of the crime while trying to cover their tracks, were released by representatives of the relevant authorities who arrived at the scene after being called over by the police.

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And there you have it: some reasonable suggestions to investigate yet another suspicious murder of a Russian nationalist that no one will follow up on, of course. People who die in the Donbass are not investigated, generally. Going to Donbass is basically like entering the Player v Player part of an open-world game where it is everyone for themselves, it seems like. “Soldier’s Truth” and others like Murz and Strelkov all blame Prigozhin for the murder of Bereg. They believe that Wagner uses and abuses their privileges and does what they do to further the political ambitions of Prigozhin, not to win the war.

I do not disagree with this assessment necessarily - I have always said that Bakhmut was strategically irrelevant and could only be understood as part of a political play by Wagner. I have literally said that from day one. The deaths were unnecessary, and, as Prigozhin admits, even the stated goal of fighting for Bakhmut has not been achieved: the Russian army has not taken this time to reorganize itself. Everything is as it was during the humiliating retreats, more or less.

In my view though, this entire war is a shit show from which Russia as we know it now will never recover. So, getting mad at the commander of the Slavic Verdun seems rather insignificant when we look at the larger problem, which is this disaster of a Not-War started by the FSB, SBU, and CIA. Furthermore, Prigozhin continues to share info dump after info dump, which are largely accurate as far as we can tell, and this kind of insight is extremely rare and gives us info that we would never normally have access to. Naturally, mouth-breathing morons reject all this information because it messes with their ability to continue fleecing the sheep who follow them.

All that being said, the circle of patriotic critics take their attacks a step further. They now accuse Prigozhin of basically running a criminal mafia of killers who are unaccountable to the law. In that sense though, all I ask is how then is he any different from the FSB? That’s what politics always becomes in a period of disintegration and warlordism anyways. Or rather, this is what democratic (i.e., oligarchic) politics has always been, only it becomes clearer during periods of crisis when the mask of legality and niceties falls.

By the way, I write about this sort of thing in my book, which, you may as well read because you’ll get access to it once you become a paid sub. Until you do however, you won’t be able to read about the rest of this murder conspiracy, Prigozhin’s plots, and the plan to use Donbass to eliminate all opposition at home. Seriously, I’ve put a lot of effort into this post and you won’t regret the read. Frankly, even if you read nothing else, it alone is worth the 50 bucks. But hey, if you want to spend your money on Substack sophists who write almost as poorly as Russia’s Telegram bloggers, that’s also a valid choice, I guess.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think it says something about you and your tastes and your IQ level as well, if I am being quite honest. Essay #6,000,001 about how “da elites!” want us to eat ze bugs, vaxx ourselves up, start wars abroad and why that is bad is, well, it’s really riveting stuff, I’m sure. Yes, if I was a midwit or a lowwit, I’d probably gobble it all down myself unquestioningly and send money to these authors who write like undergrads trying to psy-op their depressed TAs into giving them an A by using “homo-speak” (technical term) and overwrought, run-on sentences that TA’s stamp with a red A to avoid having to actually read the paper.

But be honest with yourself: do you really read Substack’s greatest essayists? Really? It’s OK, you can admit that you try! I’m subbed to like 50 of them and I really did give it the good old Harvard try once to make a habit of reading them all. I quickly realized that this was a complete waste of my time though. Nothing new was being presented or said or proposed, ever! To my credit, I realized this almost immediately.

Have you, though? If not, what is wrong with you?

And to think, you could just be sending all that money to me, instead.

For shame.

I want you to think long and hard about your sins before me and apologize right here and right now. On your knees, head down and eyes closed! Take off your shoes as well, for this is a sanctum of sanity and I am its jealous guardian.

Verily I sayeth unto thee: heed not the words-eth of yonder soothesayers for they be-eth unclean and not possessed-eth of the spirit of truth-eth. Thou shalt not donate alms to any other idologger (idol-blogger) but me. He that sub-eth now, though he be but a miser, shalt be exalted behind the paywall! Mortgage-eth thine own home, that you may find-eth funds to procure a paid sub among Rolo’s ministry. If thine fingers hesitate to type out thine credit card information, chop them off and cast them away lest they lead you to another blogger (Big Serge or Simplicitus). Tarry not, for the hour of judgement hastens!

Giveth unto Rolo now, so that thou mayest profit ten-fold yonder! Sub-eth, sub-eth, sub-eth!!!

Thus spaketh our dear prophet of tomorrow’s ill-tidings, the bane of yesterday’s optimists, the surliest of the surlies, the slav-est of the slavs. Amen.

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