Aleksey Mozgovoy

Aleksey Borisovich Mozgovoy (Russian: Алексе́й Бори́сович Мозгово́й, Ukrainian: Олексі́й Бори́сович Мозгови́й, Oleksiy Borisovich Mozhovyj; born 3 April 1975, died 23 May 2015) was a pro-Russian Separatist in the self-proclaimed republic of Novorossiya. He was leader of the rebel battalion "Prizrak".

Biography

Born in Svatove Raion, Mozgovoy lived in its administrative centerSvatove where also participated in a local choir "Svatove Cossacks". Just before the "Russian Spring" in Ukraine, Mozgovoy (according to Espreso.tv) was a gastarbeiter in Saint Petersburg supposedly as a cook. During the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, he became commander of the military formation "Prizrak" (Ghost). Mozgovoy pledged his allegiance to Igor Girkin. Unofficially his militant group is known as the "Antratsyt Cossacks". He was reportedly killed in an attack on the road from Luhansk to Alchevsk together with his press secretary and three security officers.

Controversy

In October 2014 he headed a "people's court" that produced a death sentence against a suspect accused of rape by asking the audience to raise hands. Answering questions from the audience afterwards, Mozgovoy said that he ordered his patrols to "arrest any woman found sitting in a pub or cafe". After the statement caused significant critical response in Russian media, he had to explain that he said that because he thought that women "should care about their safety", that the intention of the statement was to make people think about morals and that he was not going to arrest anyone. The statement that caused the controversy was:

If tomorrow I see in a cafe, in a pub even one young lady, she will be arrested ... А woman should be the guardian of the hearth, the mother. And what kind of mothers do they become after pubs? ... A woman should stay in the house baking pirozhki and only celebrate [meaning "drink" in this context] on the International Women's Day. It is time to remember that you are Russian! It is time to get your spirituality back!

***