A resident of Daghestan has recorded a video apology for a comment he had left in the Telegram messaging app wherein he called a traditional religious majlis gathering a ‘gay parade’.
The original post made by local Islamic Group The Path of Men discussed a traditional religious majlis held in the city of Buynaksk. A majlis typically refers to a gathering where Muslims recite the Quran, listen to sermons, discuss religious matters, or commemorate the deceased.
In a comment underneath the post, Muslim Temirbulatov wrote: ‘So, the gay parade in Buynaksk did take place after all’.
The comment was deleted shortly afterwards.
Later, a video of Temirbulatov publicly apologising for the comment appeared in the Telegram channel Echo of Daghestan.
‘I realised my mistake. I sincerely regret it and offer my apologies for hastily posting an inappropriate comment on social media regarding this majlis. Forgive me for the sake of Allah. I don’t want my comment to cause discord among Muslims’, Temirbulatov says in the video.
It is unknown whether the apology was made of his own free will. Throughout the video, Temirbulatov appears to glance downward, seemingly reading from notes. The location of the recording is also unclear, although the presence of an echo suggests that the room is quite large.
The practice of public apologies in Russia originated in Chechnya. As early as 2005, the Chechen branch of the Communist Party held a press conference to apologise for the Stalin-era deportations. In 2008, the head of the Russian Union of Journalists, Vsevolod Bogdanov, issued a public apology to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov after the union’s secretariat criticised the decision to grant him membership.
One of the earliest high-profile video apologies from an ordinary Chechen resident emerged in late 2015. At the time, a woman from Nadterechny District, Aishat Inaeva, publicly complained about hardship and corruption in the republic.
‘You take our salaries before we even bring them home. Only you need to eat and drink? Only you deserve to live? You mock us [...] We try to resemble human beings, but you won’t allow it’, she said, addressing the Chechen authorities.
Kadyrov personally met with Inaeva in the studio of a local television channel, reprimanded her, and accused her of lying. During the broadcast, she kept her eyes lowered and covered part of her face with her scarf. She later appeared on camera to ask for forgiveness.
According to statistics compiled by the independent Russian independent media outlet Caucasian Knot, at least 21 public apology videos have been recorded this year alone, closely matching last year’s total of 40 apologies from North Caucasus residents.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted the phenomenon of ‘humiliating video confessions’ in Chechnya in its 2021 report. The commission recommended that Washington impose sanctions on Chechnya’s Minister of Information, Akhmed Dudaev.
Elizaveta Chukharova
