On Friday morning, Daghestani law enforcement officers, along with the participation of members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), detained Derbent City Duma deputy Rovshan Omarov. His house was searched, after which he was taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning.
Later that day, the Investigative Committee reported that Omarov's detention was part of a criminal investigation into the organisation of illegal migration. The investigation believed that Omarov as part of an organised group in 2024 organised the illegal stay in Russia of four foreign citizens from Uzbekistan and China.
The Investigative Committee's publication specified that Omarov provided these citizens with ‘a place to live in a prearranged room, food, and work,’ but the Sapa Telegram channel, which is affiliated with law enforcement agencies, specified that Omarov held the migrants by force, forcing them to work for himself.
Omarov's accomplice reportedly was Zurab Ferzaliev, general director of Invest-2 and a deputy of Eminkhyur village.
Omarov and Ferzaliev now face imprisonment for up to 10 years in the case of organising illegal migration by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.
Omarov had previously been at the centre of a scandal when he was building a shopping centre in Derbent.
On the site of the current shopping centre there was a house with four flats. In 2015, Omarov decided to purchase a plot of land that had four flats on it, and turn the area into a shopping centre there. However, he only managed to buy three of the flats, as one of the residents, Aida Miliadi, refused to sell it to him. Following this, he built the shopping centre around Miliadi’s’s flat, resulting in her home being practically walled up inside the complex.
Miliadi wrote more than 350 complaints to all kinds of authorities, but her requests for criminal proceedings to be brought against Omarov were refused 12 times. Finally, in August 2023 a criminal case was initiated, but it did not prevent Omarov from being re-elected to the Derbent City Council the following month. Miliadi also complained of threats and kidnapping attempts by Omarov’s friends, who allegedly tried to take her to the forest and bury her. As a result, she was then taken under state protection.
The Head of Daghestan, Sergei Melikov, called the incident ‘full lawlessness’, and the Derbent branch of the ruling United Russia party suspended Omarov’s membership. Following a court ruling, The Derbent administration demanded that Omarov eliminate violations in the shopping centre.
Miliadi's suit against Omarov is now being considered by a higher court.
Omarov is 41 years old, and was elected to the Derbent City Council as part of United Russia, the party of President Vladimir Putin. At present, he is listed as ‘temporarily unemployed’ in the list of the City Council deputies.
Labour slavery in the North Caucasus is reportedly the most widespread in Daghestan. There are many cases of people who are tricked into coming to a farm far away from populated areas, who are then stripped of their documents and forced to work for subsistence wages unless they manage to escape.
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