When I stopped paying, things started to happen, recounted the blackmailed Ukrainian
The blackmailed Ukrainian has been living in the Czech Republic for 24 years and has known the leader of the Luhansk Brigade, Pavel Nykoljuk, since the beginning of his stay. But it is said that Oleg Kalashnyk, who, according to the public prosecutor, led the group since 2007, when Nykoljuk was in prison for dealing in counterfeit money and illegal possession of weapons, started asking him for money.
“He wanted money from me for protection. That if someone wanted money from me, he would arrange it and we would all sleep peacefully at home,” described the only witness who admitted that the group paid.
And that regularly every month for several years, although, according to the statement, he had a friendly relationship with Kalashnyk. “I told them five years ago that I would not pay anymore. That no one threatens me and that’s enough. Then things started happening,” he told the court today.
It is said that a stone with threats was thrown out of the window of his apartment, someone deflated the tires of his and his son’s cars. Someone then placed a firebomb on the younger son’s car. “Then he started texting. That I can already see that they are after me if I don’t change my mind,” the man described.
Calls from hidden numbers
According to the lawsuit, the group, whose members also come from Ukraine, used exactly such practices. She warned her compatriots that there was a gang operating in the Czech Republic that was blackmailing businessmen, and she offered them protection.
This was also the case with the second of the witnesses, whom the defendant knew for the most part and, according to him, had good relations with. “Pavel and Saša came to see me. It was a friendly visit, they came to warn me to be careful. And that if something happens, I should call and they will sort it out. And for that, they would want ten, fifteen thousand for gas,” described the businessman in court.
However, he did not pay the money, saying that he would manage on his own. A few days later, hidden numbers started calling him. Once they needed him to bring 4.5 crowns to Brno, but the businessman always hung up. “They didn’t say the name, they wanted a burning fee. They spoke Russian, I think it was pure Russian,” Judge Dufka answered the question.
However, Ukrainian-speaking people also called him. His “friends” later asked again if he had changed his mind and if everything was okay. The paradox is that it was this businessman who lent money to Pavlo Nikoljuk – once 80,000, another 120,000.
“Friendly” meeting in the office
The judge also asked another of the witnesses about the language in which the extortionists communicated, to whom two Russian-speaking men came to the office at the end of 2018. “They spoke Russian, but with an accent. They were Ukrainians,” claimed the witness.
The meeting was said not to be long. The men were looking for his father, who was in Ukraine at the time. “They wanted to be friends, they didn’t explain why, otherwise I don’t have to leave the office alive,” the man described in broken Czech. His father then received about ten phone calls in two months from Czech, Ukrainian, but also Spanish or Italian numbers.
“They tried to set our house on fire in Ukraine, they threw an incendiary bottle into the window,” described a witness to the attack, which was supposed to take place about a month after the incident in the office. In the courtroom, he identified the accused Volodymyr Andrejčuk, whom he already recognized from police photographs, as one of the pair who threatened him.
Andrejčuk objected that the businessman did not remember the exact date of the alleged visit and that he did not even have to be in the Czech Republic at that time. In the end, he excused himself from today’s and future makeup and left. However, there were more ambiguities in the statements of the witnesses.
They took good relations for granted
The name Kalašnyk was often heard in the courtroom, Oleg and his wife Valentyna are also defendants. Another of the possible blackmailed men admitted that in the beginning his family had good relations with Kalashnyk, their wives saw each other, their children knew each other, and he himself sometimes gave Kalashnyk leftovers from constructions. “And suddenly I have to start paying money. Every month, that I have a business, and he that he will protect me so that no one gets close to me,” the witness described in court.
Kalashnykov should have added an alternative to it. “He wanted his wife’s car as a substitute for his son to drive it to practice. I refused that. He gave me the last option to take over the leasing. He said it was for Mr. Nikoljuk, but I don’t know that person,” added the businessman, saying that he did not accept any of the alternatives.
“In 2020, he called me on vacation and wanted glass wool. I told him: Mr. Kalashnikov, you threatened me, you threatened my family, I will never give you anything again. After he started blackmailing me, there were no more visits, no more communication. That simply wasn’t possible,” the witness emphasized.
Paradoxically, the first of the mentioned witnesses, who had been paying him severance pay for a long time, allegedly had good relations with the Kalashniks. He regularly played football with Kalashnykov, and became the godfather of his daughter, because, according to him, he could not refuse it as an Orthodox believer. He then sent his godchildren gifts and money, but they said they did it voluntarily.
Although he paid a lot of money to Kalashnyk in envelopes or into the marital account, we still saw him at birthday parties, holidays and visits. However, the witness denied fishing or vacationing together. Kalashnyk’s wife accused him of lying in court. They couldn’t even agree on whether the idea for him to become godfather came from him or from the Kalashnikovs. However, the witness repeated that there was no coercion by the police or anyone else during the statement.
It was the police who accused Valentyna Kalašnyková of the complex in court on Monday. The trial will continue on August 30.