Brother of Nikita Krivtsov, who was found dead, tells the details of his disappearance
2 September 2020 | Nastasya Zanko, Onliner.by
Source: Onliner.by
Nikita Krivtsov, 28 y.o., went missing on August 12. All his friends and relatives were looking for him for 10 days. He was found hanged in a park near Parnikovaya Street. According to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the death of the man is not criminal in nature and there are no visible marks of physical injury on his body. The guy’s relatives believe that Nikita was killed, and suspect law enforcers of the murder. We managed to talk with Nikita’s brother Pavel, who lives in Ukraine.
Official version
According to the investigators, the body was found on August 22 in a green belt near one of the houses on Parnikovaya Street. An investigative team went to the crime scene. According to preliminary data, Nikita’s death is not criminal in nature, and there were no visible bodily injuries.
An inspection is being carried out. A forensic medical examination has been appointed. The State Forensic Examination Committee of the Republic of Belarus is entrusted to establish the exact cause of death.
The Investigative Committee reports that the young man had been declared missing since August 12. According to Nikita’s wife, the spouses decided to divorce shortly before the incident. Investigators note that Krivtsov hadn’t been held accountable for administrative offenses related to participation in unauthorized mass events and hadn’t been detained on this matter.
The Investigative Committee also notes that a number of Internet resources have hastened to link the disappearance and death of a man with the events taking place in the country, which doesn’t correspond to reality: “The authors of some Internet resources purposefully give each newsbreak a political dimension. We are drawing the attention of the media to the fact that dissemination of false information is unacceptable.”
He took a couple of things and left. And didn’t say where
Nikita Krivtsov is from the small city of Vileika, where his parents live. The guy grew up with his grandmother in Molodechno. There he studied at school No. 12, and then at Molodechno State College as a cook. After the wedding, he and his wife moved to Zhodino. The couple had a daughter, Varya, and Nikita worked at a wholesale depot in the village of Korolev Stan, Minsk region. He was also an active football fan, rooting for FC Molodechno since the college years.
On the morning of August 11, he went to his wife’s house (the spouses live in Zhodino) and said that they want to put charges for the organization of mass riots on him. Then he took a couple of things and left. And don’t know where he went, I don’t know all his friends,” tells Pavel. “At lunchtime on the 12th, he was supposed to be at work in Korolev Stan near Minsk. But he never showed up there. According to the investigation, he spent the night at some friend’s house. I don’t know who this man is; I haven’t been familiar with all of Nikita’s friends.
From the moment Nikita stopped answering the calls, his brother Pavel and the family started looking for him. First, they called all his friends and acquaintances.
“They told me that Nikita might have laid low to avoid detention. Because in Molodechno his friends were detained for participating in meetings. Friends also said that the authorities planned to put charges for the organization of mass riots on him,” Pavel recalls. “Some of his friends assumed that he probably had left for Smolensk. Fortunately, I have friends in Russia, I asked them to look for Nikita in Smolensk. But no one could find him.”
The family was calling the police departments and checking the lists of detainees of the temporary detention facilities of Akrestsin Street, Zhodino, and Slutsk. But the man was nowhere to be found. He was neither in the morgues nor in the hospitals where relatives were calling.
“On August 18, his wife went to the Zhodino police department to file a report. The police told them they wouldn’t take the report and the woman should call Nikita’s mother so that she did it. The wife called our mother and asked her to file a report at the Vileika police department. But they said something like “you haven’t seen him for a long time, you can’t file a report, text to his wife and she will write the report since she is the last who saw him”, Pavel explains. “In the end, the issue was resolved. The volunteer search-and-rescue squad ‘Angel’ also joined in search”.
Mother said that my brother was found leaning against a tree
During the search, Pavel found out through Nikita’s wife that the last time Nikita’s phone had been switched on near the National Scientific and Practical Center of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Francisk Skaryna Street 24. This is about 3-4 kilometers from the place where the man’s body was found.
“As soon as the information appeared that Nikita’s phone was switched on in the National Scientific and Practical Center of Neurology and Neurosurgery, his friends and acquaintances immediately went there. But they were told that Nikita hadn’t showed up there,” says Nikita’s brother. “On the territory of the hospital, there are communication towers — of course, it was displayed that the phone turned on there. But I was told later that there can be a spread from 100 to 500 meters. It’s unknown where exactly Nikita’s phone was switched on. What is interesting, the police department of the Minsk Regional Executive Committee is located nearby.”
As a result, on Saturday afternoon on August 22, the relatives discovered that Nikita had been found hanged in a forest park on Parnikovaya Street.
“Mother said that my brother was found standing near a tree. He was leaning against it, and his head was hanging a bit down at one side. And there was a noose around his neck. That is, he did not hang, but stood,” the man says. “According to the Investigative Committee, he stood there for several days, if not for ten whole days. It is clear that this could not be true, especially in this heat. According to the investigation, Nikita was found by some watchman who was making a round there. It turns out that my brother was standing or hanging, as they say, and the watchman wasn’t there for so many days, but then suddenly passed by and found him. This is somehow strange. It seems to me that Niita was simply brought there, placed, photographed, and taken away. I think all this time he had been somewhere else, and then they told us he was found. ”
Nikita had always actively participated in protests, supported them and stood for free Belarus
Pavel, like all his relatives, does not believe in the version of suicide.
I know his character; he would never do that to himself. This is a priori impossible, the man thinks. Nikita had always actively participated in protests, always supported them, and stood for free Belarus, even before people began to protest massively. He was very active but didn’t organize actions. He treated politics with mistrust.
Perhaps he was detained and beaten up. Nikita was not a fighter by nature, he did not practice martial arts to fight back,” Pavel says. “But he was a man of character, he would never remain silent, he would argue and insult in return. I think he was killed. Then may have staged a hanging version.”
It should be remembered that Nikita’s relatives filed a report to the Investigative Committee ‘on the criminal prosecution of unidentified people that used violence’. The forensic examination is being prepared, it will take about a month for the results to return.
“My father told me there was an independent expert who said that he hadn’t noticed any marks. But it was difficult to notice something because the body was in such a state that one could not see anything,” concludes Paul.
