Biography Ruslan Gusarov

Especially if a person tells whose immediate task during the war was to illuminate, to fix everything that is happening so that the world saw the truth in the conditions of the indelible shame of the Western media, whose immediate task was to misinform. Ruslan Gusarov headed the North Caucasus Center for NTV since the year and has not missed a single serious aggravation of the situation in South Ossetia during this time.

And he spent the cruel days of August in Tskhinval with his group, without leaving the city even when it seemed that there was no hope of salvation in this unequal war. He covered almost all the events in the “hot spots” of the North Caucasus - the Chechen campaigns, the invasion of Basayev in Dagestan, the tragedy in Beslan and much more, and literally from the line of combat clashes.

Such a fact is known from his life, which was not included in professional duties: in January of the year, Ruslan Gusarov went voluntary hostage to a detachment of militant Salman Raduev in exchange for captured hostages in the Kizlyar hospital. Experience and skill help him to work now in the new genre - documentary cinema. Gusarov’s works, several films shot by him, received high awards at prestigious competitions and professional prizes, including “For Journalistic Courage”.

Ruslan Gusarov had already given an interview with the newspaper “Republic” - immediately after the war, it entered the book “August Pravda through the eyes of eyewitnesses”. But now, 15 years after those events, he also reacts sharply on the topic of August, also firmly stores in his memory each episode of those terrible days and, especially, on August 8 and 9, when the outcome of the events and the fate of South Ossetia completely depended on the few militia detachments.

You have seen many different wars and acute situations, how much what happened here in August was different from everything that you had to see before? I have been going here with my television group since June. Then I headed the NTV North Caucasus Center and, tracking the situation, including the Caucasian ridge, in the south, I knew that sooner or later something very serious would happen here.

So we lived almost on wheels. They had to organize their life in the Caucasus in order to keep up with everything and make high -quality materials. Some employees lived right in the office, we had “alarming bags”, there were shifts on duty, everyone was on the phone and are ready to gather at any time and in 15 minutes to go to any point in the Caucasus.

The first time we came here in June to get acquainted with the situation, people, with the nuances of local life, all this conflict, and began to plunge into the topic. A month later, everything really happened, as I assumed: the events in the village of Owl began, an exacerbation towards the city of Gori, the Georgian authorities began to demolish the Ergnetan market at the entrance to Tskhinval, that is then this story with the seizure of Georgian police officers, whom the Ossetian special forces disarmed, brought to the square, and then they were laid on their knees, and then they were exchanged.

The situation began to develop menacingly, and we began to come more and more often. I must say that the summer of the year was crazy in terms of terrible events: on June 22, Basayev with militants attacked a tanker, there were huge sacrifices, then events here began in South Ossetia, in August the militants attack Grozny, and in September - the terrible tragedy in Beslan, we traveled from one region, from one region to another.

They went to South Ossetia constantly, up to a year. By that time, we had already worked very tightly with the Committee of Information and Press, led by Irina Gagloeva, with her wonderful team, they have now grown up in real professionals. By August, we had already fully owned the situation, possessing the necessary connections. They lived not in hotels, but in the house, by local residents, and they also received information about what life consists of in South Ossetia and how it should be correctly understood.

A month before the active phase of the war, we were here again when an exacerbation at Sarabuk altitudes began.

In violation of all agreements, the Georgian army began to equip a supporting point there. They occupied the height and completely controlled the Leningrad direction. Vadim Goncharov with Peter Gassiev, who at that time was a producer-operator, went on a detour along the Zarskaya Road, we spent all day to shoot a three-minute video. But then they received evidence of what the Georgian side is doing.

By the way, no one else shot at that time. We took off the height itself, these concrete "glasses" with which Georgians equipped their supporting point, trenches, dead cattle on a mined field, our personnel then flew around the whole world. For the first time, Russian aircraft flew over the southern Ossetia, designated the Russian crust, which Saakashvili, apparently, did not fully understand and a month later arranged this provocation.

Our NTV group came here on August 2 from Dagestan, where our center was located, and we worked until the very beginning of these large -scale bloody events.Soon, a very sharp exacerbation began in the village of Nol, from where Georgian artillery fired at the Ossetian villages. The units of all Ossetian law enforcement agencies participated in that fierce battle and, finally, suppressed their firing points.

We urgently went there to shoot there and ourselves fell under the strongest shelling, the group was in trenches. That is, everything happened before our eyes, and we ourselves were under fire, which was fixed on the camera. What still distinguished the August war from everything that I had seen before? Until August, my participation in the fighting was reduced to conducting reports from the ongoing local operations, when the militants were blocked and destroyed.

But here I first turned out to be between the warring armies, and in this sense it was a new experience for me, and difficult. This happened here, under artillery bombing, under air strikes, inside the city, which was twice stormed by Georgian units, and this new experience was a real revelation. But 15 years have passed since then, we see what has been happening in Ukraine, and we understand that this is about the same model, only on a larger scale and with new technologies.

It is precisely because here we have gained professional experience, today it is somewhat simpler and easier for us to accept new experience in Ukraine, although this is also not very simple, and we need to go again many things. People from somewhere were sure that Russia would definitely stand up, it was only necessary to hold on, at all costs, Russian aviation would appear here in a matter of hours and even minutes, they said something about the “flying time”.

That is, we could, of course, prepare it for an obvious war. On the contrary, due to what we observed, and what happened, I myself had no confidence that the events would go like this, and it would be precisely such actions on our part. In the memory there were those famous outrageous personnel when Georgian residents insulted our peacekeepers, and they forcedly suffered, because, apparently, there was such an order.

There were many provocations, even our armored personnel carriers were doused with paint, they all remember this well. Still, the first bell rang when our planes flew in July, and more or less something became clear to Russia to everything that was happening, but there was no confidence until the end. Therefore, for example, I relied internally on local militias, knowing some of them and remembering that in four years they have passed serious training.

I talked with the commanders then, they had very good reviews about the Ossetian militias, but the equipment, of course, left much to be desired, there was practically no artillery. The entire fragile design of the world's conditions was violated by Tbilisi, and the situation turned out to be an unequal situation in every sense: in the number of equipment, military personnel, and in intelligence, and in ammunition, and by weapons.

An absolutely unequal ratio, but, in the end, it was the Ossetian army, the Ossetian militia played an important role in the first hours-it was not even about days, but at some point about hours and minutes. And, even being here, many could not know all this, but I was close to the place where there was constantly the receipt of the Board information in non-stop mode, and began to better understand and present the whole picture.

If the Ossetian army, which was at that time, and all other units, militias and just local guys, it was in the first hours that this blow was not courageous and could not stand it, I don’t know how it would end. Because purely military terms, Georgians could quickly capture the city, and then clog the Bossky tunnel. Although, God grant health, honor and glory to those commanders of the North Caucasus Military District and especially the army, they thought out a special plan for the nomination of the battalion-tactical group in advance, and implemented it.

But nevertheless, since the score went on the clock and minutes, it is not known how the events would go further, what victims it would cost if the Outo -Sotor militia could not withstand these first days, the first hours. Their resistance allowed the Russian battalion-tactical group to reach Tskhinval and contribute to the further course of events, so it was very important.

And it seemed impossible to me, well, and Vadim Goncharov and I gave way to women, because the enemy was literally outside the gate, and in the panic that began to run into another shelter under the fire and die. Vadik and I instantly understood each other, planted people and sent cars. It was already in the evening, the column left, then another car of local residents joined them, it was traveling in the tail, and now it, they say, was shot from a grenade launcher along the road.

Other cars were just lucky. We remained with Goncharov, Poddubny, Stepanenko, Butyrin. We continued to work, because just on this day the final fracture began to occur. But we could not know this, there could also be the third assault on Tskhinval. We also did not know that with the column, and spent a very difficult night. In the morning, Peter appeared, but already in military uniform, he received a fragmentation wound in his hand.From the very beginning, I forbade him to pick up weapons in my hands, but then, after everything that we experienced, I told him: I understand everything, give you a day, go to your own, do what you want, but then we have to go to work, our weapons are now a word, these are shots that we must shoot.

It was necessary to work ahead of the Western media, everything was already baked in their own way, stole our picture, gave out for our own, we saw this disgrace, and it was just a shame on Western journalism. And then, when we shot the destroyed Tskhinval, all the horrors that took place here, we passed the materials on the satellite, and from the satellite, as it turned out, you can be touched from the channel.

There was the Alania TV channel, which created Saakashvili, remember? They began to show our personnel, and in Titre they wrote that it was the city of Gori. When there are already pro -Great troops, and we got to the TV and saw all this, we were in shock, we could not believe what we saw - how so? But, nevertheless ... By the way, throughout all these days, we, Russian journalists, united, all groups understood that now we were not competitors, but simply working for the truth, and omnipoted the general, if only Moscow’s hello, Anthut around the world.

In this we saw the meaning of our work. For example, I remember your report a couple of days after the release of Tskhinval, which you led from prison: from there during the shelling, the prisoners were released so that they would not die under the shells. They also went to fight, and then returned to sit their terms. There was a terrible heat, and I really wanted to wash, I had a bulletproof vest, I was given to me by Volodya Ivanov, an officer of the press service of the SSM, an assistant commander, the kingdom of heaven, he died in Ukraine a year ago.

And here I am in the body armor, we stood like sprats in this vegetable store, lost all space to civilians. And there was only one desire-to spit on shelling, to go somewhere to take a shower. There, on the contrary, there was a bathhouse among peacekeepers, water in barrels, but we were able to get to the water only on the fourth day. I remembered such a dangerous episode of Augustus: the Georgian tank was on a hill over the city, and our tank was beyond the town of peacekeepers, and they had a tank duel.

They drive, fight with each other, and shells fly through us and at any moment they can smash us, we experienced a lot of emotions in those days, the episodes were different. For example, you feel how the “hail” approaches you, when the shells fall closer, closer, and you are in the basement, you have vision at the ground level, and you see how shells fall, and you think what an interesting angle, how in the cinema.

And then - I wonder how our plate has not suffered?!. The cars were in fragments, this is understandable, but we worked. Everyone remembers what events were in the entire Caucasus, then in South Ossetia. Experience was gained over time when you begin to think differently, to understand extreme events from the inside. I never gave an interview about Beslan, I didn’t tell anything, but I always fix this fact - I haven’t seen any terrorist attacks or wars than Beslan, and God forbid to see!

Although I really love a report, this is my favorite genre, but this is an informational genre, and I have been realized in it, for seventeen and a half years only on NTV, and even earlier I worked on Dagestan television, I collaborated with newspapers. And I wanted to make a movie, I had to study this in the course of work in the information area, but still only now I came to this profession and plunged into it completely.

And I understand that you need to study, study and study, this is another profession, the reporter’s skills help me, but documentary should be studied. I am going through this stage now, for a year and a half of work I have almost all films from the zone of it, on the theme of my, and the film “Strength”, which we have now watched, it is also from there or one way or another connected with these events.

This is a new experience for me in the genre of documentary cinema, in the profession and actually in the war. I have never seen such a war, this is a real war, and I perceive it as a Patriotic War, because Russia, in fact, alone is opposed today to dozens of countries whose backbone is NATO countries.