Kanamat Botashov – the pilot-occupier died while covering for the Russian military
On 22 May 2022, the pilot of the Russian occupiers, 63-year-old retired Major General Kanamat Botashov, died in the war against Ukraine. The Ukrainian military shot down an enemy plane near Popasna in the Luhansk region.
After that, on 1 June, the occupier was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, and the Russian propaganda media began to glorify his “feat”. Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most famous Russian propagandists, did not stand aside either. In his evening TV program, he praised Botashov. Solovyov said that the occupying pilot had been flying after completing the task but had decided to help the group of the surrounded invaders. He allegedly helped them get out of the encirclement, but after that, Ukrainian soldiers shot down his plane, and the pilot did not have time to eject.
However, there is another interesting page in Major General Botashov’s biography, about which Russian propagandists after his “feat,” are already trying either not to mention at all or to round off the sharp edges as much as possible. The fact is that in 2012, the pilot of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, exceeding his authority and “not calculating his strength”, crashed a Su-27UB aircraft worth 100 million rubles at the time in Karelia.
Botashev was flying on an aircraft with his friend, a colonel, and at some point took control of the plane. Although he did not have the appropriate skills and approval for aircraft of this type, and, he even, began to perform one of the most difficult “bell” manoeuvres, which he had never done before in his life. As a result, the plane crashed, and the general and the colonel barely had time to eject at an altitude of 500 metres from the ground and survived.
After such a trick, Botashov was released into reserve, and the court sentenced him to probation and forced him to pay the state a large amount of compensation for the crashed plane. Having spent 10 years in retirement, Botashov volunteered for the criminal war that Russia waged against Ukraine.
After the death of the major general, Solovyov, of course, presented his biography as a “martyr”, sympathised with the fallen occupier for all the “burden” he had to bear, and presented him only as a hero.
Other propagandist Russian media acted in the style of “Of the dead nothing but good is to be said.” and the reports about the General’s death avoided mentioning his “dark past”. And in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, where he comes from, the local authorities even wanted to name one of the streets in his honour.
However, some Russian media began to question how it happened that a pilot who had not flown an aircraft for 10 years, and even at a respectable age, was allowed to fly the plane.
It is known that during his participation in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine on the side of the aggressor country, Botashov dropped unguided missiles on peaceful Ukrainian cities.
