Grenade for the mayor

The house of the head of the administration of Nazran was shelled

In Nazran on Sunday night, unknown persons fired grenade launchers at the house of the head of the city administration, Magomed Tsechoyev. It was only by luck that there were no casualties - one of the grenades flew into the window and exploded inside, but all the inhabitants of the house were in other rooms at that moment. The security agencies of Ingushetia did not comment on the incident. Representatives of the local opposition linked the shelling of the mayor’s house with the harsh methods of the authorities during the dispersal of the rally in Nazran on November 24. One way or another, what happened demonstrated that the situation in the republic remains tense, and despite all the efforts and the deployment of additional troops, the local authorities were unable to neutralize the mysterious gang underground, which has been regularly making itself felt with terrorist attacks and murders for the last six months.

According to the Ingushetia prosecutor's office, the attack on the house of Nazran mayor Magomed Tsechoev, located on Mira Street, occurred on Sunday night at about 3.30. Unknown persons fired two shots at the building from under-barrel grenade launchers. One of the shells exploded outside, and the second flew into the room. “As a result of the shelling, minor damage was caused to the home, but none of the people in the house at that moment were injured,” the prosecutor’s office said. According to operatives, Mr. Tsechoev and his family were simply lucky - at the time of the shelling, as it turned out, they were sleeping in other rooms.

An operational investigation team immediately went to the scene of the emergency, the “Interception” plan was introduced, but it was not possible to pick up the trail of the saboteurs. It is noteworthy that at first the local security forces, despite the obviousness of what had happened, did not really know how to officially classify the incident. As a result, a criminal case was opened only on the fact of “illegal storage and use of weapons, ammunition, explosives.” Obviously, the authorities simply did not want to officially regard the shelling as an attempt on the life of a government official, so as not to formally spoil the picture of calm that, according to officials, has reigned in the republic in recent months, despite constant explosions and shelling. The local opposition put forward a version that in this way one of the mayor’s ill-wishers was trying to take revenge for the actions of the authorities in dispersing a rally on November 24, at which local residents were going to draw the attention of the federal authorities to the harsh actions of the security forces.

It is noteworthy that a day earlier in Nazran, on the same Mira street, three law enforcement officers were wounded as a result of a shootout. On Friday, at about 10 pm, unknown persons fired at a VAZ-2109 car, in which there were an employee of the Republican Directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation Issa Abadiev, policeman Ruslan Beshtoev and traffic police inspector Timur Solsanov. All three were taken to the hospital with various injuries. Already yesterday, the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that a suspect in this crime had been detained. According to investigators, the shooting was the result of a domestic conflict between a man and police officers.

Eduard LOMOVTSEV