(OC Media)
Queer women in Russia’s North Caucasus face attempts to ‘cure’ them, beatings, rape, forced marriages, and murder, according to a report interviewing a number of queer women from the region. While some gay men have been able to flee, the report said women were less able to do so as their money, movement, careers, and private lives were controlled by male ‘guardians’.
Dormitory buildings of the North Caucasus State Academy (ncshta.ru)
The administration of the North Caucasus State Academy in Cherkessk, the capital of the Russian Republic of Karachay–Cherkessia, is attempting to ‘illegally evict’ former teachers and staff and their families from their homes, a number of families have told OC Media.
Three Circassian and Abaza organisations in the Russian Republic of Karachay–Cherkessia have appealed to President Vladimir Putin over what they say is a disproportionate allocation of power amongst the republic’s ethnic groups. [Read more…]
Abusupyan Gasanov (riadagestan.ru)
Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in the Russian Republic of Daghestan have arrested the acting mayor of the capital, Makhachkala. Abusupyan Gasanov was detained on Wednesday suspected of costing the state ₽40 million ($600,000) during auctions under a federal roads programme. [Read more…]
(kbrria.ru)
Russia’s Minister of North Caucasus Affairs has accused the subjects of the North Caucasus Federal District of stealing gas and electricity and chronic non-payment. But many locals say the utility bills are beyond what they can pay.
A Friday prayer at Prison No 10 in Saratov (ansar.ru)
Prisoners from the Caucasus in Russian jails receive a ‘special treatment’ of beatings, bullying, and torture from both prison authorities and their fellow inmates. But in the ‘green zone’ prisons, where Muslim inmates have developed a system of resistance — the North Caucasians are fighting back.
Radzhab Abdulatipov (md-gazeta.ru)
The brother of the former head of Daghestan was detained on Wednesday by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of involvement in a criminal community issuing fake disability documents. Radzhab Abdulatipov, the brother of Ramazan Abdulatipov, is an MP in the Russian republic’s parliament, the People’s Assembly. [Read more…]
Mufti of Karachay–Cherkessia Ismail Berdiyev and head of the Coordination Centre for Muslims of the North Caucasus speaking at the centre’s conference (/Muftiate of Tatarstan)
Ingushetia’s Muftiate was absent on Saturday at a conference of Muslim religious authorities from throughout the Russian North Caucasus, OC Media has learnt. While the Muftiates of all other republics attended, Ingushetia was represented by the state religious authorities, who have been in public conflict with the Mufti since 2015.
Screenshot from a video from a counterterrorism operation in Botlikh, Daghestan, in March 2018 (Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation /YouTube)
For several years, young Daghestani men have been disappearing, reported missing by their families only later to be declared ‘destroyed in counterterrorism operations’. Evidence from the families of many of these men as well as local rights groups and experts, suggest they may have been kidnapped by the authorities, and that faking the war on terror is just another face of Daghestan’s raging corruption.
Nalchik Airport (aviateka.su)
The Commission on adaptation of militants coming back from Syria to peaceful life has functioned in Kabardino-Balkaria for over 6 years. Despite its mandate to reintegrate former militants into society, a number of high-profile prosecutions has raised doubts over the authorities’ true commitment to peacefully returning them to civilian life.
