L’opinion publique russe et l’affaire Boudanov [Russian Public Opinion and The Budanov Case]

In March 2000, Colonel Yuri Budanov kidnapped, raped and killed a young Chechen girl from the village of Tangui-Chu. After his arrest and during the entire trial, he claimed that she was a sniper who had murdered several of his soldiers, and that he had lost his temper and strangled her, but he denied raping her. High-ranking military officials closed ranks behind him, and at all stages of his trial demonstrations of support were organised in front of the court. He was finally condemned to ten years of imprisonment in July 2003. The aim of this article is to study how Russian public opinion perceived this case, using different kinds of sources (newspapers, forums and discussions on the Internet, public opinion polls, Human rights report, etc.). How were the events covered by the Russian medias? Some groups (the military, the Cossacks, fascist groups) can be identified as his supporters. But what support did he receive from the general public and on what basis? Which arguments were used to defend Budanov and how were they perceived? Was this crime “justified” by the vengeance against “a sniper”, by the “laws of war”? Was Budanov a scapegoat sacrificed for the sake of good relations with the West? Defining the attitude towards Budanov might help explain why other Russian servicemen charged with crimes against Chechen civilians (the Ulman group, Arkacheev-Khudiakov) have been systematically acquitted by a popular jury