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Slava: "He's holding up well in jail. And we've never doubted him. He's a very strong man, he always was." Ira: "I can't imagine him going under. And they clearly didn't expect this. Because they just didn't know him. He radiated a sense of strength. He took everything on himself, onto his own shoulders. I can't imagine him breaking, not even if they torture him. "He's a very courageous man. I was with him once when he disarmed a young officer who'd had too much to drink and was waving his pistol about. Half an hour later, when the guy had sobered up, Aleksey told him he was an idiot and that's not the way an officer behaves. He gave the guy a valuable lesson. We were shouting to Aleksey, 'Go on, give him one!' His reply - 'No, I have to explain it to him. He's only starting out in life.' That was in 2001, outside my home. "He's still the same, even in jail. In his letters he writes things like, 'Send my regards and best wishes to all my good friends and colleagues who have kept their honour and conscience at a difficult time for me.' And in every letter he urges us to keep our spirits up: 'Try not to lose control, retain your dignity.' He's the one consoling and supporting us! You wouldn't be able to tell who was writing from a cell and who was writing back from outside. It's as if he understands that we're suffering without him. Typical of the man." Mother: "From school he went straight to military academy. From there, he was posted to the KGB school in Novosibirsk, which he was well pleased with. He left state security work in 1994. I tried to persuade him to stay on and asked: 'Are you sure you won't regret this later?'. The war in Chechnya had started by then, and postings were available. 'I don't want to fight my own people,' he said. "He was always an exemplary son. Even when he was grown up and married he'd be phoning me day and night: 'How's things, Mum? How's your health?' He always looked after me." Slava: "He was always sending me out to take food or medicine to various folk. He was always talking about the kids. A day wouldn't go by without him thinking about someone else." Wife Tanya: "He could never insult a woman, let alone kill one. Even if she had it coming. I remember one occasion: one of his employees was a single mum, and he had great sympathy for her. He had to lay off one of two women, and the first thing he did was go to personnel and find out what their family status was. He laid off the married woman. As he put it: 'She's got someone to lean on, but the other one has to do it all herself. Best to help her.' "I don't know if other managers take an interest in their employees' family lives. But that episode was typical of him. At the same time he was a gentleman, and he never treated women differently on account of how they looked or whether they were attractive. So absolutely all the woman, of all ages, loved him, old and young. For example, the concierges at our block of flats still love him. One of them still remembers how he used to help her keep her balance when it was icy and slippery outside."
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