During the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany in the early 1990s and later, after the collapse of the USSR, the bandits regularly carried out armed attacks on the military returning to Russia. Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Samoilov, who in 1994 was the head of intelligence of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Western Group of Forces (WGV), spoke about this in an interview with Lente.ru.
“Many did not leave empty-handed. For example, as a professional intelligence officer, I bought myself a new video camera. The commander advised to buy a suitcase on wheels. I went from Magdeburg to Moscow in my own car. In the area of the state border near Brest, six people in two cars tried to attack me, ”he said. Samoilov claims that he then managed to fight off the bandits.
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“Russians, get out!”
30 years ago, a huge Soviet army withdrew from Europe. How did this turn out for the country and the soldiers?
According to him, cases of banditry were then regularly covered on television. Some attacks have ended in killings.
“In April 1994, when I was an operational duty officer at the headquarters of the 20th Army, I reported to Commander Lieutenant General Nikolai Pugachev about 16 people who died while traveling from Germany in a private vehicle. In one of the bandit raids, a whole family was killed — parents with three children, ”Samoilov says.
Also during the withdrawal of troops there were cases of desertion, soldiers and some officers fled. So, according to Samoilov, a former regiment commander named Kolesnikov, scout Alekperov and anti-aircraft gunner Matsyuta, both lieutenants, deserted. They attacked the duty officer in Rosenkrug, stole 15 pistols and 222 cartridges for them.
Samoilov participated in the search for deserters and found the stolen pistols near the military hospital in Belitsa. Alekperov and Matsyuta managed to escape, the lieutenant colonel specified.
“They robbed a bank in Kiev. One was liquidated during his arrest, the other was imprisoned. He died there, ”he said.
In total, according to Samoilov, up to 200 military ZGV deserted.
In the fall of 1989, the USSR announced that it was refusing to interfere in the military affairs of the Warsaw Pact Organization (OVD) countries and began to withdraw its troops from Europe. This operation lasted for years. The largest contingent was withdrawn from East Germany in the 1980s and 1990s – about half a million people.