On Wednesday, a confrontation involving teenagers took place near the Multidisciplinary Lyceum No. 39 on Irchi Kazak Street in the Daghestani capital of Makhachkala. In videos circulated in messaging apps and social media, several individuals can be seen beating two of their peers lying on the ground, one of whom lost consciousness.
Following the incident, one of the injured teenagers was taken to a medical facility and hospitalised. Doctors later reported that his condition had stabilised and that he had suffered a concussion. Six individuals were also taken to the police station to provide statements.
According to regional authorities, students from several educational institutions in Makhachkala were involved in the confrontation, including Gymnasium No. 38, School No. 10, and Lyceum No. 39. Some of them had previously trained together in a freestyle wrestling group.
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article on hooliganism. The case materials were also sent to the republic’s Prosecutor General’s Office, which initiated a supervisory review in connection with the publication of videos of the conflict in Telegram channels and other messaging apps. During the investigation, law enforcement agencies intend to interview participants and witnesses, as well as analyse video recordings and other available evidence.
One of the teenagers involved in the Makhachkala brawl cited a video sent via a messaging app as the cause of the fight. He gave this explanation in a video published on the Telegram channel Criminal Chronicle, run by the head of the press service of Daghestan’s Interior Ministry Gayana Garieva.
‘We had a verbal argument with this boy, and we arranged to meet. Today, I got permission to leave school. This boy met me and said that people were waiting for me. I called anyone I could, and a few people from my side came. There were about 20–25 of them, and five to seven from my side’, the teenager says in the video, with his face blurred.
‘The essence of the conflict was because of a video that was not addressed to him. I did not plan to record this video. It was sent to him, and he thought it was meant for him’, he said during questioning.
‘I managed to watch the very unfortunate video mentioned by the teenager, the one that later caused the school brawl. My personal conclusion from watching the video that led to the fight: foolish, contrived, and nothing more. The video is absurd and slightly provocative, with an element of challenge and an attempt to humiliate another’, Garieva commented on the teenager’s words.
Daghestani Head Sergei Melikov, in an official statement, emphasised the need to clarify the circumstances of the incident, and noted that parents of the participants would be held accountable if the relevant facts were confirmed.
‘The parents who “raised” those we saw today must bear responsibility. The educational institutions from whose walls the participants of the scandalous video came out must also be strictly held to account!’ he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Melikov added that ‘each participant in the brawl will be made to realise the unacceptability of their behaviour’.
Elizaveta Chukharova
