South Ossetian journalist reportedly beaten on president’s orders

South Ossetian journalist Alexander Kelekhsaev has filed a statement with the General Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that he was beaten by State Security Service officers in order to bring him ‘for a conversation’ with South Ossetian President Alan Gagloev.

Kelekhsaev claimed that the beating and summons was related to a comment he had made in a private group on Facebook, where he expressed outrage at the rise in electricity and gas prices.

‘Raised [electricity and gas tariffs]? Well, finally […] Even late somehow)))))) I felt it. It was a matter of time)))). Living is getting ‘better’, living is getting ‘more fun’. I don't know another country where a person breathes so freely)))’, Kelekhsaev wrote with apparent sarcasm.

In a video message published by the opposition United Ossetia party, Kelekhsaev said that people in civilian and military uniforms came to his house on Wednesday night and introduced themselves as members of the State Security Service. According to Kelekhsaev, they asked him to get into the car to answer their questions, but he refused.

‘Everything was happening right outside the front door of my house, and when I grabbed the door handle, one of them grabbed me and started twisting my arm. I broke free, and that's when another member of staff, who was in military uniform, got involved. Apparently, they could not handle me alone; I still tried to resist. Then two more officers, young guys, also in military uniform, ran out of the car. Naturally, the four of them twisted me, threw me on the ground [...] then lifted me up and carried me into the car like an object. My hat and shoes came off, and in that disgraceful state I was taken to the office of Alan Eduardovich Gagloev. Without shoes to the office of the president! How appropriate is this at all?’ Kelekhsaev said on video.

He claimed that he had a ‘normal’ conversation with Gagloev and that they ‘talked delicately’.

‘He showed me that comment of mine and said that there was a ton of stuff against him, an information war of some kind and that he was already tired of it’, Kelekhsaev claimed.

Later, Kelekhsaev documented the beatings and filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office, which told the media outlet state media agency RES that according to a doctor’s certificate, Kelekhsaev suffered ‘a bruise on the right [cheek bone]’.

The presidential administration confirmed to the state news agency RES that Gagloev had indeed met with Kelekhsaev, ‘during which Kelekhsaev received a favourable response to his request for a land plot for agricultural development’.

Commenting to RES, Kelekhsaev said that he had no claims against the president, but in a video message published by United Ossetia he said that he considered his forced summoning to be kidnapping.

‘It is incomprehensible to me why […] it was not possible to simply summon me for a conversation, so that everything happened in the legal field without the use of violence, without the violation of human rights? What happened, I believe, is an act of intimidation against members of the United Ossetia party, so that in the future someone might not be allowed to write comments. I was dragged out of my house as a recidivist, as a criminal, and, I repeat, I regard it as an act of intimidation, and this is Article 126 of the Criminal Code ‘kidnapping of a person’, he said.

Kelekhsaev did not respond to OC Media’s request for comment.

At the same time, Kelekhsaev is no stranger to controversy, and has himself publicly supported violence against other journalists, as well as allegedly personally threatening others.

In 2021, Kelekhsaev voiced support for an attack on his North Ossetian colleague, Rooslan Totrov, after he had his tooth knocked out by South Ossetia's deputy defence minister.

‘He was treated gently […] A little bit of education. Let him try to make similar remarks about the leaders of [Republic of North Ossetia-Alania] or the Federal Centre. He will work his whole life to pay the dentist’, he wrote in comments to the news about the attack on Facebook.

In addition, Kelekhsaev himself also allegedly threatened his colleagues. In 2018, journalist Irina Kelekhsaeva (no relation) claimed that he promised to ‘shoot her in the head’ in front of witnesses.

Grigory Sobaev, the head of the Prosecutor General's Office, who Kelekhsaev appealed to, has also been seen using violence. In September 2024, Sobaev beat up a former employee whom he suspected of leaking compromising information. Sobaev reportedly stormed into the former employee’s house, shouting ‘you know I bury my enemies’. Despite the fact that there were many witnesses to the incident, the victim did not file a report. There was no comment from Gagloev about the incident.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

South Ossetia targets queer ‘propaganda’ with proposed law, citing Hornet and Telegram

South Ossetia’s Interior Ministry reported that the initiative was undertaken following instructions from President Alan Gagloyev.

OC MediaShota Kincha