"With the arrest of Amirov, the era of lawlessness and lawlessness in Dagestan ended"

The mayor of Makhachkala, Said Amirov, will be under arrest until August. During this time, the investigation must collect evidence proving the mayor’s guilt in the murder of Arsen Gadzhibekov, a high-ranking investigator ( shot in December 2011 ).

The Makhachkala city administration turned to Vladimir Putin with a request to take personal control of the criminal case. The appeal, in particular, states that the media have already made Amirov guilty, ignoring the presumption of innocence, and now it will be “difficult to count on the objectivity of the investigative actions and the entire investigation as a whole.” The administration's press service released a report that the mayor was detained in order to disrupt his nomination for the presidency of Dagestan. City authorities asked Putin to also change Amirov’s preventive measure - a written undertaking not to leave the place. The mayor himself is now in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Lawyer Mark Kruter, known for handling the cases of thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (better known as Yaponchik), undertook to defend his rights.

In addition to Amirov, the investigator involved in the murder case is his nephew Yusup Dzhaparov (deputy mayor of Kaspiysk). According to a PublicPost source in the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs, twelve more people are also involved in the case - officials from the Makhachkala administration, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of the republic. As the source said, Amirov and his team were pointed out by the leader of the so-called “Makhachkala group” of militants, Sirazhudin Guchuchaliev, who was caught during a special operation on June 1 (Amirov’s nephew was detained on the same day, and the mayor himself was detained the next day).

Another witness in the case of the Makhachkala mayor, Magomed Abdulgalimov, an alleged drug dealer and former employee of the prosecutor's office, tried to commit suicide in the Pyatigorsk pre-trial detention center. He was found hanging in his cell from a noose of tied sheets, but was able to be revived, a source in the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs told PublicPost: “Abdulgalimov, in addition to drug trafficking, is also accused of organizing the murder of an investigator. He is actively cooperating with the investigation in this case, and after attempting suicide he was transferred to Moscow. By the way, there is a suspicion that it was not suicide.”

The chairman of the city meeting of deputies of Makhachkala, Magomed Magomedov, told PublicPost that he does not believe the accusations brought against the mayor of the Dagestan capital: “His unquestioned authority, his influence may have greatly interfered with someone. I think there were other issues, for example, related with election matters. But I never noticed that Said Amirov was eager to become the president of Dagestan - I remember when I asked him personally whether he would run, he replied that there is a president of Russia, as he decides, that’s what will happen. I haven’t heard from him about this. I don’t believe the accusations that he is accused of. He is a man who was always at work, he didn’t even have enough time to eat. I worked with him for many years, and I didn’t even think about it. I admit that he may be guilty. I never heard a rude word from him, he didn’t even raise his voice at anyone. They detained him very rudely, I would say they staged some kind of mask show. Why couldn’t he just be called in for questioning. ? He would have come on his own, he didn’t hide from anyone, he was available to anyone. Even in court, where a preventive measure was chosen for him, he calmly said that he was ready to answer for every action, for every word spoken.”

Well-known human rights activist in Dagestan Isalmagomed Nabiev told PublicPost that Amirov’s detention may have been sanctioned by Vladimir Putin: “With the arrest of Amirov, I think the era of lawlessness and lawlessness in Dagestan has ended. I suppose Vladimir Putin has something to do with everything that is happening now around this case For some reason, I’m even sure of this. I think that a few days before Amirov’s arrest, the President of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, met with Putin and outlined the situation in the republic, that is, he said that he could not work with these Dagestan princes. that even on the Internet Dagestanis are writing that they are happy not so much with Amirov’s arrest, but with the fact that there is a strong hope that the situation in the republic will change for the better - this is a kind of signal to other odious Dagestani officials, especially officials. behind which there are strong clans."

The Dagestani leadership is so far cautiously commenting on Amirov’s detention. Ramazan Abdulatipov's press secretary, Magomedbek Akhmedov, when asked about the reasons for the detention, only answered that “probably, law enforcement agencies have some claims against him.”

Amirov has been the permanent mayor of Makhachkala for more than 14 years and heads the city branch of United Russia. There were attempts on his life 15 times (after one of the first attempts, Amirov received a spinal injury and moved to a wheelchair, then he was popularly nicknamed Roosevelt).

The 59-year-old mayor has a wide variety of awards: the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, the Order of Merit for the Republic of Dagestan, the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, II degree of the Russian Orthodox Church, the medal For Cooperation with the FSB of the Russian Federation. One of the mayor’s last awards was a diploma for first place in a competition of municipal formations of the Russian Federation: in the State Duma, Amirov was awarded as the best head of a municipal formation.

Meanwhile, Dagestani bloggers are replicating an old article from Novaya Gazeta (No. 10 of February 12, 2001) “Why is Roosevelt bloody?”, in which they hint that the mayor, even during the Soviet Union, could steal state property: “For 70 years In the 80s, Said Amirov worked as a procurer and director of procurement offices in Kalmykia and Dagestan. And what’s strange is that his workplaces often caught fire. Warehouses with finished products and documentation were on fire...” Bloggers are also actively discussing an entry from the blog of journalist Elizaveta Alexandrova-Zorina. In a post entitled “Said Amirov: bloody Roosevelt,” the journalist cites a letter from an acquaintance from Makhachkala. The anonymous author attributes to Amirov, in particular, political murders and corruption crimes: “In Dagestan, everyone knows that in order to ensure his undivided power, Amirov is not used to stopping at anything, including the physical liquidation of his opponents and competitors.”