The project "Destroy"

In Grozny, the office of human rights activists from the “Committee against torture” was defeated; Local television called the incident "a picket of public organizations and representatives of the civil society of the republic." Ramzan Kadyrov suggested that the employees of the organization themselves provoked the pogrom

On Wednesday morning, several hundred people gathered near the building of the Investigative Directorate of the SK in Grozny. The crowd moved towards the office of the consolidated mobile group of human rights activists, located in house No. 19 on Rosa Luxembourg Street. In their hands, the audience held the posters “there can be no suffrage!”, “The killers to answer!”, “Why are Kalyapins silent?”, “Dadaev is a victim of lawlessness!”. Soon, human rights activists reported : people in masks are trying to penetrate the office through the door and windows.

Unknown with scraps broke into the porch, the eye at the door of the office was filled with paint. The crowd on the street was circling a car of a consolidated mobile group. Having broken the door to the headquarters of human rights activists, recently repaired after arson, the attackers began to destroy the room. The human rights activists who were on duty there managed to get through the window.

In front of the building of the SMG office. Photo: Elena Milashina / Facebook

According to Sergei Babinets, an employee of the Committee against torture, he and his colleagues called for 20 minutes the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the city of Grozny, the Republican SU SK, but there was no reaction of the security forces. Meanwhile, the pogroms tried to penetrate the apartment where human rights activists live - it is located on the same staircase with their office.

“Now we are focused on assisting the consolidated mobile group, but it seems that everything is good, intact and healthy,” Babinets told Mediazone.

“My attempts to contact the chief of the police of the Chechen Republic - Alaudinov did not give a result. The general simply does not pick up the phone. I informed the chairman of the HRC - Mikhail Fedotov about what is happening, ” said Igor Kalyapin on his Facebook committee on torture.

“We sat in the office when we saw the crowd. The protesters stood under the windows, shouted about the fact that we refused to investigate the murder of Dadaev. I printed the application, took business cards, shoes - I wanted to go out so that everyone could sign this statement, since without such a document we cannot start the investigation. I took the door handle, and at that moment they began to pound the door with a sledgehammer. I shouted: guys, you can do without violence, but it was noisy in the entrance, no one heard me, ”said Albert Kuznetsov, coordinator of the consolidated mobile group. Human rights activists tried to contact the police, but no one answered them on the phone. Then they decided to leave the office through the window.

“I jumped from the second floor, then we jumped off our intern. I almost fell, but we caught him. The whole picture was observed by a police officer. I came up and said: on the other side of the house, unlawful actions take place, but he simply ignored me, ”says the human rights activist.

“We saw in the cameras that among the crowd there were people in uniform, but they did not interfere with the attackers. I don’t know anything about the detainees, ”Kuznetsov emphasized. Earlier on Monday, he shared with the “mediazone” plans of members of the consolidated mobile group, saying that his colleagues are going to visit the Kle-Yurt village and understand the circumstances of the conflict of local residents with police officers, which resulted in a final exam in a rural school.

According to Novaya Gazeta, today in Grozny a promotion was to be held against independent Russian media criticizing the Chechen authorities, but at the last moment the event was canceled. The newspaper notes that the corresponding order was received from the presidential administration.

Meanwhile, the Grozny CHGTRK called the defeat of the office of human rights activists "a picket of public organizations and representatives of the civil society of the republic."

“The audience expressed their protest against the politicization of human rights activities. The picketers expressed indignation to ignore human rights activists of the fact of the murder of the Chechen businessman Dadaev, ”the republican television channel said. The audience was allegedly outraged by the fact that human rights activists were not engaged in the case of Dzhambulat Dadaev, who was killed during the special operation of the Stavropol security forces in the republic.

“Why is the“ committee against torture ”not engaged in this case? The man was killed in broad daylight, and the human rights defenders have no business, ”the television channel quotes the words of an unnamed participant in the action.

Photo: Human Rights Center Memorial

The murder of Dadaev on April 19 of this year caused the indignation of the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov. During the meeting, Kadyrov called on the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic to open fire to defeat if a special operation is carried out on the territory of Chechnya without notifying Chechen security officials. He later clarified that he made such a statement in a flash. Nevertheless, he criticized the decision of the head of the Investigative Committee of Alexander Bastrykin to terminate the criminal case against the Stavropol police officers who participated in the detention of Dadaev.

On the afternoon of June 3, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, promised to investigate the attack on the office of the “committee against torture” and submitted his data on the incident: a group of persons, allegedly relatives of Dzhambulat Dadaev and the inhabitants of the Nadherchny district, gathered in front of the house in which the office of the “committee against torture” is located. According to the head of the republic, the participants in the action asked someone to go out and chat with them, "however, this request was ignored." Then a group of people entered the office and “injured” furniture and office equipment.

Later, the head of Chechnya added that, according to unverified data, the initiative to go to the office came from the employees of the Committee against torture themselves.

“And when asked why you [human rights activists] do not defend the rights of the mother of the murdered Dadaev, shouted that they did not protect the killers. So eyewitnesses say. Subsequently, unidentified persons damaged office furniture. As a result of the measures taken, violence was not allowed in relation to anyone, ”Kadyrov wrote on his blog on Instagram. He emphasized that the “analysis of events” gives reason to conclude that human rights activists “deliberately provoked the incident, having the goal of once again become famous in the world press, to become the owners of new American grants.”

“We are worried that these people who have nothing to do with human rights activity systematically create a nervous environment, trying to provoke mass riots in Grozny,” Kadyrov explained.

Press Secretary of Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov assured that the president would report on an attack on the office as soon as the details of the incident appear.

On December 13 last year, unknown people set fire to the Grozny office of the Committee against torture after the 50,000-thousand-thousand-high rally “against terrorism” agreed in the capital of the republic. Its participants went outside with the posters “Kalyapin, Go Home”, “Ramzan, protect us from“ dollar human rights activists ”” and “V.V. Putin! Send the “Kalyapintsy” to your owners! ” The human rights activist’s office caught fire after the head of the committee Igor Kalyapin asked the Investigative Committee to check the call of Ramzan Kadyrov to demolish the houses of terrorists and their relatives - the head of Chechnya proposed punishing their family for the actions of their family.

The authorities of the North Caucasus Republic are critical of the “Committee against torture”. According to the Commissioner for Human Rights in Chechnya Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Kalyapin and other human rights activists "are actually ordinary mercantile businessmen working out the money of Western intelligence services." In addition, Ramzan Kadyrov wrote that the money named Kalyapin allegedly transferred the money to organize the attack on Grozny in December 2014, and that "a certain Kalyapin defended the bandits and their relatives."

The Chechen human rights activist Hed Saratova told Mediazone that she was at the morning rally, and then came to the crushed office of the consolidated mobile group.

“The rally was about the inaction of the investigation on the fact of the murder of Dadaev. I do not know who attacked the office. Here they say that supposedly 50 people were detained for this. The police work inside, ”she said. The detention of 40 people reports with reference to the representative of the IC and the human rights center Memorial, it is not clear where and how they were delayed - none of the events at the scene of events, ”said on the Facebook human rights organization. The head of the press service of the Republican Ministry of Internal Affairs Magomed Deniev did not answer the calls of the Mediazones.

Information about the detainees was confirmed by the Deputy Minister of the Interior in the Chechen Republic of Alaudinov. According to him, more than 30 people were delivered to the police departments.

“Police officers took the necessary measures so that there was no violence against anyone,” the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.