“The security forces understand that this is somehow shameful.” Residents of Dagestan are being massively tried for “extremism” because of the Instagram logo

In Dagestan, people are being brought to administrative responsibility en masse for the Instagram logo. The first protocols began to be drawn up at the end of March, and by the end of May, dozens of entrepreneurs and individuals had already received fines. The courts refer to the decision to recognize the owner of Instagram, the Meta corporation, as extremist - it was made back in 2022, but until recently it did not become the basis for protocols on the demonstration of “extremist” symbols. Why this article has become popular among the Dagestan security forces now, the editors of Kavkaz.Realii looked into it.

On May 21, Diana Magomedova, a resident of the Kizlyar district of Dagestan, was fined two thousand rubles and the phone from which she posted a video with the Instagram logo on her VKontakte page was confiscated. Magomedova is a divorced mother of a seven-year-old child with a disability. The district police officer drew up a report on her; he promised to return the phone, but then defined it as “the subject of an administrative offense” and refused to return it. This is stated in court documents .

The footage of the video, for which the convict received a fine, showed a hospital corridor during a regular doctor’s appointment: in 2020, Diana’s son was diagnosed with a serious genetic disease, Regnum wrote . Magomedova herself denied the seizure of the phone on social networks and added that “the district police officer had nothing to do with it.”

The case of a resident of the Kizlyar district is only the most noticeable in a series of “administrative cases”. In Dagestan, several dozen protocols have already been drawn up because of the Instagram logo, the editors of Kavkaz.Realii found out. We are currently talking about administrative cases, but the article has an analogue in the criminal code: it can be used in case of repeated violations.

Attentive operator, diligent inspector

The first protocol in Dagestan under the article on the demonstration of “extremist” symbols because of a status on WhatsApp, where there was a link to a video on Instagram, was drawn up on March 8 by an operative of the Derbent criminal investigation department. Local resident Renat Agdzhabekov was fined two thousand rubles for this.

By mid-March, the case was brought down to the level of local police officers: on March 18, two police officers Tariverdiev and Galimov drew up reports against Seid Muftaliev for an advertising banner at the furniture salon "Mplaza" and Madina Magomedova for an Instagram logo at the entrance to an "unnamed shopping facility." On March 21, the same local police officers carried out a full-fledged raid: the result was fines for four stores and one local resident with a prohibited logo on their car.

Which stores were fined in Derbent?

Nine residents of Derbent were fined under this article in amounts ranging from one to two thousand rubles. The following were brought to justice: Renat Agjabekov and Ruslan Aliyev , who posted the logos in WhatsApp statuses, Seid Muftaliev, who demonstrated the logo on the banner of the furniture salon "Mplaza" , the owner of an unnamed retail facility Madina Magomedova, the owner of the Lada Granta car Tamirlan Nedzhafov, the owner of the "Heating" store Renat Talibov, the owner of the "M-Semeyniy" store Zubaidat Hasanbekova, owner of the clothing store "butic_Monica" Angela Magomedova and owner of the "Stationery" store Naida Medzhidova.

After Derbent, similar raids began in Dagestanskiye Ogni. On March 26, the first report was drawn up by an inspector-lieutenant from the department of execution of administrative legislation (IAZ) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - for a sticker with the Instagram logo in the Aisha store.

It is noteworthy that this is also the only case considered by judge Zeifulla Khojaev. The chairman of the city court, Ruslan Abdullaev, listened to everyone else personally. Since March 30, he has issued fines on 13 protocols, 11 of which, during “preventive rounds,” were drawn up by an IAZ inspector with the initials R.R.

Which stores were fined in Dagestanskiye Ogni?

Fourteen residents of Dagestanskiye Ogni were fined the legal minimum under this article – one thousand rubles. The following were brought to justice: the owner of the "Aisha" store Diana Tamirkhanova, the owner of the "Diana's" store Dinara Khanakhmedova, the owner of the "Raku" store Pakizat Zulfigarova, the owner of the "Sushiro" snack bar Sefer Salikhov, the owner of the "Korea" cosmetics store Farida Osmanova, the owner of the "My Style" store Kamil Ibragimov, the owner of the "Children's massage" salon Elvira Abdulmutalibova, owner of the Silver jewelry salon Gusen Gamzaev, owner of the Textile store Tamamat Abakarova, owner of the Lauren store Marat Abdullaev, owner of the Viber store Kazim Osmanov, owner of the Milady store Tanzilya Magomedova, owner of the Korean cosmetics store Aksana Mirzakhanova and store owner Magomed Agarizaev.

Shopping center with risks of extremism

A month later, the practice reached Makhachkala. All known decisions – there are already seven of them – were made by the Sovetsky District Court. The first protocol against Gurban Shaban Ogly Getayev due to an Instagram sticker on his car was drawn up by an investigator from the Center for Pretrial Investigation. On April 19, Getaev was fined two thousand rubles. The next day, the court considered the protocol of Center “E” against the owner of the Dagmaster store, Alikurban Aliyev.

In May, the number of cases increased, and ordinary police officers began to draw up reports, as before in Derbent. The owner of the baby food store "I'm growing" in Makhachkala, Abdulla Adziev, was fined two thousand rubles - his case was handled by a criminal investigation officer.

Three more entrepreneurs in the Makhachkala shopping center "TSUM" were punished by the local district police officer for banners and stickers with the Instagram logo: we are talking about the holder of her rack with dietary supplements Elmira Akhmedkhanova, the owner of the women's clothing store "Monica" Zukhra Gadisova and the lingerie store "Flirt" Jamila Tsisoeva. They were given fines within half an hour of each other: a local police officer, whose name is not given in the protocol, simply walked through the shopping center with a “check.”

From the protocols we know about at least 31 administrative cases from Dagestan: 14 from Dagestanskie Ogni, 9 from Derbent, 7 from Makhachkala, including, for example, the “holiday” protocol of Center “E” on May 9 for an Instagram logo on a car, as well as one, the most famous and recent one, from Kizlyar - the mother of a child with a disability.

The earliest protocol was not drawn up in Dagestan at all - the Kirov District Court of Astrakhan became the pioneer of punishments for the Instagram logo: on November 12 last year, it fined Ekaterina Penkova, who administered the community “CHAIKHONA SHOLI Astrakhan/Restaurant/Cafe” on VKontakte, two thousand rubles. An employee of the Center for Combating Extremism drew the attention of her: in two videos published in the group, he found the logo of a banned social network. The court agreed with the CPE’s arguments, but such practice did not become widespread at that time.

"It's kind of shameful"

The data department of OVD-Info told the editors of Kavkaz.Realii that they know of 58 administrative cases for the public use of Meta logos since 2022.

“The practice was and is, the number of cases in Dagestan is not the first mass imputation, but not in the south of Russia and the Caucasus. In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, individuals - business owners, administrators of municipal websites and several directors of kindergartens - were also fined for Meta logos in accounts, on business cards and banners. I note that traditionally Facebook is used much more often in the occupied Crimea than in other regions of the Russian Federation, but there are practically no fines for its logos," – the specialist told OVD-Info.

The number of protocols grew every year: back in 2022 there were only two of them for the whole country - in Moscow; in 2023 – already seven, in four regions; in 2024 and 2025 – 11 and 12, respectively. The massive wave of fines from Dagestan in 2026 has almost caught up with the all-Russian statistics of all previous years.

A series of protocols for the Instagram logo in Dagestan “looks like an organized campaign,” a public figure from the republic shares on condition of anonymity. In some cases, the motive may be revenge from security forces on individuals - this is what the protocols for WhatsApp statuses resemble; the subsequent practice of district police officers is intended to show that this is not personal interest, but “the purposeful work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he believes.

“And, at the same time, the security forces have an understanding that persecuting people for their “Insta” logo is somehow shameful. Almost all of them, their wives, sisters have Instagram, many do business through the social network and, in principle, relatives of the security forces can also become victims of the zeal of the police,” the interlocutor argues.

This is probably why people are not brought to justice as entrepreneurs, but only as individuals - this is “such a half-measure” on the part of the police and courts, the speaker notes.

• A court in Omsk fined the leaders of the local branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ivan Fedin and Vladimir Vinichenko, under an administrative article regarding the demonstration of extremist symbols. The reason for this was a photo published in 2019 from a rally against “Western liberal propaganda on Facebook,” which was held by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The photo shows a poster with the logo of the social network.
• While in Dagestan, Instagram, banned in Russia, is becoming a reason for mass raids, in Chechnya, through the same social network, the son of the head of the republic, Adam Kadyrov, is quite openly advertising his energy drink.
• Under the same article on the demonstration of extremist symbols in the south and the Caucasus, members of the non-existent “International Satanist Movement” are fined. Sentences for participation in its activities are already being actively handed down for old posts on social networks, provision of esoteric services and - in isolated cases - for performing occult rituals in public. The Krasnodar Territory has emerged as a leader: it accounts for a quarter of all protocols drawn up in the country.

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