14 May 2022
Source: Facebook
Andriusha was a very unusual person, it was always a huge pleasure to talk to him. He had a great way of expressing his thoughts, which is not the case with everyone these days. A great sense of humour. Intolerance of injustice and readiness to help – almost 24 hours a day.
He took me with him on unannounced inspections of police stations (in those days, still ‘militia’), where we would find, for example, Uzbek citizens who had been put behind bars by the cops, evidently for purposes of ransom.
Together with Andriusha we started a project of return visits between high up officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and British police officers. It was about to be implemented, but at some point someone even more important (and maybe from another department) put the brakes on the process.
Everywhere I saw what deep knowledge Andriusha had. His striving for justice and also his compassion and goodness were evident everywhere.
He told me that he was from a family of Old Believers and once in Syktyvkar, when we were there together many years ago, he paid a visit to the local Old Believer community.
In blessed memory.
Translated by Simon Cosgrove
