Vladimir Kvachkov is Russia’s best-known military nationalist, who rose to fame through the failed assassination attempt on businessman Anatoly Chubais. Kvachkov is a Soviet and Russian military and public figure, colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU), retired.
**Short bio**
Vladimir Vasilyevich Kvachkov was born on 5 August 1948 in the village of Kraskino, Khasansky District, Primorsky Krai.
He graduated from the Far Eastern Suvorov School, the Kiev Higher Combined Arms School, and graduated with honours from the Frunze Military Academy. Graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. In 1969, in Pskov, Kvachkov was assigned to the Second Special Purpose Brigade of the GRU. Since 1981 he served in the Leningrad Military District, in the Intelligence Directorate. He also served in Germany and the Trans-Baikal Military District. Participated in military conflicts in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.
**Chubais assasination case**
He was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted assassination of Anatoly Chubais, one of the ideologists and leaders of the economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s and the reform of the Russian electricity system in the 2000s. Along with Kvachkov, Robert Yashin, Ivan Mironov and Aleksandr Naidenov were charged with five counts. Kvachkov was accused of setting off an explosion on the route of Anatoly Chubais’ motorcade on Mitkovskoye Highway. An improvised explosive device detonated on the side of the road. The armoured BMW was first blown up and then fired on with Kalashnikovs. However, Chubais himself got off with only a minor scare, as his armoured car, although suffering some damage, drove away from the scene at speed.
After three years in prison, Kvachkov acquitted by a jury on 5 June 2008. Kvachkov neither then nor later admitted trying to kill Chubais, but publicly endorsed the attempt itself as an act of “national liberation struggle”. Shortly after his release from prison, Kvachkov called Chubais a “national traitor” and said that Russia was “occupied by the Jewish mafia”, which “is the matrix for the other criminal gangs”.
**Rebellion case**
On 26 August 2008, the Supreme Court of Russia quashed the verdict on appeal by the prosecutor’s office, but on 29 September 2010, the Mosobl Court again acquitted the case following a jury verdict. On 23 December 2010, Kvachkov was detained again, this time on charges of preparing an insurgency. According to the prosecution, Kvachkov and his comrades-in-arms had planned to seize weapons and stage a march on Moscow with the aim of seizing power. Kvachkov initially described the case as fabricated and added that he was “sure it was Chubais’ doing”. 8 February 2013 Moscow City Court sentenced Vladimir Kvachkov to 13 years in prison. On 18 July 2013, the Russian Supreme Court reduced the sentence from 13 to 8 years.
On 2 June 2016, a new criminal case was initiated against Kvachkov after the colonel recorded a video “Kvachkov in penal colony 5 Mordovia” in a high-security prison in Mordovia. In the video, Kvachkov said that “the Judeo-liberal detachment has intensified subversive activities”, “the Jewish colony of Jew-parasites” is forming hordes of “non-Jews (black and yellow)” and called for elimination of “the Jewish social and political entity of Russia”. On 18 August 2017, the Volga District Military Court in Samara sentenced Kvachkov to 1.5 years in prison for this. Kvachkov released from prison in February 2019 due to partial decriminalisation of Article 282 of the Criminal Code
**Politician career **
Because of the Chubais assassination attempt, Kvachkov became very popular in nationalist and communist circles. In fact, Kvachkov’s political career began in 2005. While in detention, Kvachkov called for a “national liberation war against the alien power” and ran for deputy. In December 2005, he won 29 per cent of the vote in the pre-election to the State Duma in Moscow’s Preobrazhensky district, only 7 per cent behind the winning United Russia candidate. In February 2009, Kvachkov established two organisations, Parabellum and the Minin and Pozharsky People’s Militia (NOMP). In November 2010 he announced the creation of the People’s Front for the Liberation of Russia. He received his second sentence just in the NOMP case. After his release, he returned to public activities, including speaking at rallies, and immediately admitted that the sedition charges were real.
**Public activity**
As a public figure, Vladimir Kvachkov describes himself as a nationalist: “Yes, I am a Russian, a Christian nationalist. I am a supporter of the Russian Orthodox state“.
19 May 2022 he was elected as chairman of the All-Russian Officers’ Assembly to replace Leonid Ivashov, who has resigned.
Several books by Kvachkov were declared extremist and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. In June 2015, a court in Penza declared the book “Who Rules Russia” extremist, in March 2013 in Vladimir region a court declared the book “Main Special Operation Ahead” extremist, and in July 2013 in Penza region the book “The Russian Revolution is Inevitable” was banned.
Vladimir Kvachkov is a highly popular blogger who appears on several platforms at once. Although his text-based blogs are not very popular, videos of Kvachkov appear regularly on several YouTube channels.
