In 2007, Russian president Putin got the nod to host the Winter Olympics in 2014 in the subtropical Russian city of Sochi – allegedly as a result of “negotiating” with the organizing committee (President personally came there, contrary to the traditions of the International Olympics Committee). The Committee of course knew nothing about the bloody history of the land where the Olympics Village was to be established. And more recent human rights violations in the host country were overlooked either.

The land of “Sochi

This land for many centuries (until the last Russian-Caucasian war (1763-1864), belonged to the Circassian Principality, the most numerous of the peoples of the North Caucasus. In the mid-19th century, the Russian Empire committed genocide of Circassians. Krasnaya Polyana – a ski resort near Sochi, which would see many competitions of the Winter Olympics,- is a place that practically all peoples of the North Caucasus associate with bitter memories of this war. Now no mountaineers remained on this land – they were all killed or deported to Turkey and the Middle East. In Krasnaya Polyana last battles of the Caucasian War were fought, and the Russian imperial army parade took place, marking the victory of the Empire. Thus, Sochi city is constructed on the bones of the Circassian people , who along with other nations of North Caucasus (Ubykhs etc.) was destroyed by the Russian Empire.

Here is how the Russian writer Abramov described the tragic events of 1864 deportation of Circassians to Turkey:

“Highlanders without any belongings were gathering in Anapa and Novorossiysk [major cities on the Black Sea – V.P.], as well as many small bays of north-eastern coast of the Black Sea, which were not yet occupied by Russians. From there, they were transported to Turkey in Turkish sailing boats and also in Russian ships, specially rented for this purpose by the Government of Russia. But since this fleet was fully unfit to carry more than half a million people, most of the mountaineers had to wait for their turn from half a year to year and even longer. All this time long they had miserable life on the beach, without any means of living. The suffering of mountaineers during this waiting time hardly could be described. Literally thousands of them died of hunger, and in winter time, the cold contributed in their massive dying. The entire eastern coast of the Black sea was strewn with dead and dying people, and those still living laid between the corpses, extremely weak, waiting in vain when they would be sent to Turkey.”

Now, in connection with the war in Syria, the Syrian Circassian community who found itself caught between two fires, urged the Russian Federation to take them back to their ancestral land – but they were denied. Of course, no place for them exists anymore: their primordial land is “occupied” by the Olympics. When the world more and more persistently raises the question of the recognition of the Circassian genocide, Putin struggles to hush up the matter: several years ago, the European Parliament allocated 2-3 days in a year for the presentations of the Circassian ( Adyghei) community; this year, Putin by the cunning and pressure just stole Circassians days, giving them to the Russian puppet state of Abkhazia.

Heinous crimes of the Putin regime

Aggressive war Russia waged on Georgia in 2008, right during Summer Olympics in China, which killed hundreds of Georgian civilians and Abkhazians, was stopped only with huge diplomatic efforts by the world community, mainly by then-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy and then-president of Poland Lech Kaczynski. But after the peace accords were signed, Russia blatantly ignored its own commitments included in the agreement, in particular, to withdraw its troops from the occupied Georgian territories. Undoubtedly, this war, which had several goals, intended to “purify” the area close to Sochi from “unfriendly” Georgians and pass it to “friendly” Abkhazians (these lands are ancestral Abkhazian territory, and Russia occupied them under the disguise of “independent” Abkhazia).

Huge mystery, wrapped in a gloomy and dense fog of lies spread by the Russian media, encompasses another tragedy associated with Putin regime, that is,- the crash of the Polish presidential plane in April 2010 . Russia ignores all appeals of the Polish side and the the world community to launch a profound and impartial international investigation and also to return to Poland the debris and other evidence that could provide for further investigation. Moreover, a hacker attack on Polish Internet connection disrupted a scientific expert conference on the crash just as the conference started in Poland in July. These and other unfriendly moves of Russian authorities provide for further suspicion of possible staging the crash, or a terrorist action. Political circumstances surrounding the crash add to the suspicion, as possible motivation of the Russian side, a revenge by the Russian regime for Poland’s support of the Georgian side during the Russian attack on Georgia .

On April 14, 2013, a Russian tycoon, turned a staunch Kremlin’s critic, Boris Berezovsky was found dead in London. Among his numerous appeals against Putin, he called for boycott of the Olympics. It seems that the Russian FSB already well mastered ” the way” in London with their dirty criminal plans. And just a few days ago suddenly came a scaring and alarming suspicion of a Russian crime in London: disappearance from London a brilliant Russian oppositional journalist Elena Tregubova. On April 23, 2007, Trebugova filed an application for political asylum to Britain’s Home Office, claiming her life was in “mortal danger” in Russia. She was under Yeltsin presidency in the Kremlin journalists pool reporting to Commersant newspaper. On April 2, 2008, she told Reuters that the request had been granted and she was allowed to come to London as a refugee. Tregubova, then, as the latest in a line of Kremlin critics given asylum in Britain, angering the Russian government which has accused London of providing a safe haven for “criminals” and people who “threaten its national security”. Since then nobody in London, as well in Moscow heard anything about her. Some versions that she went deep underground make no sense for such exremely courageous and high professional journalist, who wrote her anti-Putin best-sellers about the Kremlin Mafia couldn’t be silent. Another version soums more realistic: she was likely kidnapped by Russian agents in London and transferred to Russia via diplomatic connection, where she might become Putin’s personal pray.

Perhaps the FSB is so “successful” in London, since no crime committed there with alleged Russia’s involvement was investigated to an end: British authorities do not want to “offend” Putin in hope they would appease him and benefit from relations with Russia. Moreover, the British authorities even made a state secret most of evidence they gathered to actually prove the allegation of involvement of Russian state structures in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, while it is clear that the only way of getting polonium 210 for the murder is on the order of the country’s top leadership.

But London is not the only city targeted by Putin’s regime for assassinations abroad.

In the evening of May 22, 2013, in Ankara, a Turkish citizen Medet Onlu was assassinated in his office. He was an ethnic Chechen and assisted Chechen exiles. He even voluntarily took upon an unofficial position of Consul General of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government-in-exile, which is represented by Ahmed Zakaev, Akhyad Idiov and a few others. Medet Onlu was killed with three shots in his office from a gun with a silencer. Camera of surveillance revealed the killer – Turkish police identified him as Ruslan Kemal and declared him a suspect; however, soon the police said he fled to Russia. Chechen exiles are for Putin’s regime one of the primary targets.

In January 2009, Umar Israilov was shot dead in a central street in Vienna. Israilov worked as a security guard for Putin-appointed head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. While working, Israilov witnessed Kadyrov himself had been torturing innocent people. He fled and was preparing a lawsuit against Russia with European Court for Human Rights. His murder was retaliation and successful attempt to stop him.

“Cleansing” Russia of dissenters

Putin and the FSB fight to get rid of the regime’s opponents and dissidents with cruelty which is growing day by day.

In 2010, the second sentence was fabricated against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Russia’s most respected and credible member of business community, as well as a tough opponent to FSB regime. If in the first sentence ( for 8 years! ) charges were very questionable ( for tax cheating ) , in the second they were absurd . Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted of steeling all the oil that their big oil company called Yukos has produced from 1998 to 2003. The second trial began in March 2009 and ended in December 2010. The judge sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 14 years of imprisonment. The document itself was, according to his lawyer Miroshnichenko, an incredible “extrajudicial nonsense.” Khodorkovsky hase become one of the most ardent Putin’s “enemies”.

Suddenly, on December 20, 2013, Putin “pardoned” Khodorkovsky and exiled him from the country in a fashion reminiscent of expelling Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky and other dissidents of the Soviet times: Khodorkovsky was taken from his colony and without a word was sent to Germany on a private jet provided by Hans Friedrich Genscher, ex-Germany minister of foreign affairs, who was involved into confidential talks with Putin about Khodorkovsky.Perhaps Khodorkovsky was forced to make a pledge not to engage into politics or business. Some say that his presentations and interview were from “a to z” composed by Russian officials.

Many of other not so famous businessmen were kidnapped for ransom; dozens (!) were shot dead in broad daylight or poisoned in their homes or offices.

Shameful and tragic story about the arrest of two young women from the punk ensemble Pussy Riot became notorious all over the world. One of the women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, mother of a 4-year-old girl, in September 2013 went on a hunger strike protesting against humiliating treatment of the prisoners in the colony she served her term. She also claimed the colony staff attempted of poisoning her.

And now, just on December 23, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alehina from Pussy Riot were amnested, as three days before was Khodorkovsky. Nadezhda is in a very bad medical condition, and Maria, without even coming home to see her young son Philipp and her parents, rushed to Krasnoyarsk to meet Nadezhda.

In the first interview after liberation, Maria told about incredible cruel and inhumane conditions in her colony. That of course could be added to the FSB-regime’s crimes.

Here is a quote from her interview.

“Just this Thursday, a girl Irina Fedorenko was convoyed: She is HIV-infected , with cirrhosis, gained in a Mordovia colony IK- 2. She is very seriously ill, and if she is not released pretty soon, she will just die. When I shook hands with her, her hand was blue, as if boneless. This girl is impossible to watch at without tears, her face swollen and eczema covers all her body, I’m eager to help her. In her condition, she gave explanations to prosecutors and lawyers . Now she is taken to the hospital. She is just being transferred from place to place – from the hospital to the residential area and then back to the hospital, although everyone knows that they should simply open the gate and let her go; she has not long time left. It’s a very simple idea: There is a human being who is still alive, let’s give her a chance to die being free. “

This resembles terrible torturing in a prison of Vassili Alexanyan, another prisoner of YUKOS trial. He got ill with HIV in a colony. He was pardoned just several days before death.

This Thursday, a girl Irina Fedorenko was convoyed: She is HIV-infected, with cirrhosis obtained in Mordovia colony IR 2. She is very seriously ill , if she is not released o pretty soon, she will just die. When I shook hands with her , her hand was blue, as if boneless. This girl is impossible to watch without tears, her face swollen and eczema covers all her body, I’m eager to help her. In her condition, she gave explanations to prosecutors and lawers . Now she is taken to the hospital. She just goes from place to place – from the hospital to the residential area and then back to the hospital, although everyone knows that they should open the gate and let her go; she is seriously ill, and she has not long time left. It’s a very simple idea: There is a human being who is still alive, let’s give him a chance to die being free “

This resembles terrible torturing in a prison of Vassili Alexanyan, another prisoner of YUKOS trial. He got ill with HIV in a colony. He was pardoned just several months before death.

The political prisoners in Russia who did not get that “celebrity” status are doomed to abuses and absolute defenselessness.

On November 20, 2012 the apartment of an oppositional journalist Boris Stomakhin was searched. Seven police operatives broke in the apartment where he lived with his elderly single mom. Presenting an order on conducting a search, they, according to Boris Stomakhin’s mother, Regina Leonidovna, turned upside down the whole apartment and seized a computer , mobile phones and various print materials. Around 19:30 that day Boris Stomakhin and his mother were taken to Butyrskiy Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee in Moscow. They were transported as dangerous criminals, under strict security: from the house where they live, a convoy of three police cars took off. As Boris himself explained, the search took place in connection with the initiation of a criminal case against him on charges of “Publicly appeals for terrorist activity or justification of terrorism” and “Inciting hatred or hostility, and humiliation of human dignity on the grounds of ethnic origin, religion, or social group.” These charges sound cynically in the country where famous journalists on state-sponsored TV channels call against “people from the Caucasus”, inflicting xenophobia upon entire Russian audience. Towards whom Stomakhin incited hatred by his articles, sharply criticizing Russia for the Russian-Chechen war? Naturally, he defended the Chechen resistance. Such a hatred has been raging since 1994, when the war broke out with Russian troops invading and devastating Chechnya. Nobody heard about Stomakhin then. In the first Chechen war (1994-1996) about 150,000 civilians were destroyed; the second war added almost the same number. Or, the charges against Stomahkin mean he incited hatred between thje Russians and the Jews, since Stomakhin is Jewish and fervent advocate for Jewaryas as well as for Israel, protesting against anti-Semitism in Russia .

Articles of Stomakhin indeed include sharp expressions against Russia’s neo-imperialist trends. However, their only goal is struggle against the emerging newly totalitarian regime and wars, in particular, he is protesting against the destruction of Chechnya. In fact, Stomakhin calls for transformation of Russia from quazi empire to a democratic society. But even more important is that entire Stomakhin case fits into a trend of the Putin’s regime fervent crack down on the fundamental freedom of expression. That’s why Stomakhin should be qualify prisoner of conscience. Moreover, he has been arrested on the same charges for the second time: he already had served his 5-year term in 2006-2011. By definition, of yet another human rights advocate Andrei Derevyankin, ” Stomakhin is like the conscience of our time. Yeah, so that’s quarrelsome, uncomfortable and inappeasable . But it is what the conscience must be”

Almost at the same time when Stomakhin was arrested, 21 November 2012, a new law (signed by Putin) entered into force in Russia – the law on “foreign agents”, about NCO (non-Commercial organizations). It was already legislative confirmation of fight mainly against dissent and human rights protection , This is – a cynical substitution of concepts: NCOs have nothing to do with foreign agents, and the expression itself is taken from the sphere of intelligence. Also in Russia, this expression has the darkest connotation with the Stalin era, when anyone could be declared “foreign agent” (meaning “spy”), and thrown into GULAG. The new law requires NCOs when receiving any fund from foreign sources for so called “political activity” (which include even HR defense) to prepare a report and register as “Foreign agents”; those reports must be submitted in a special governmental agency. In addition, all information published of their names, must include a labeling “Foreign agents .”

Such labeling appeals to the darkest days of Stalin’s Great Terror, and this appeal resonates with the Russian mob brainwashed against “foreigners”. Just on the day of adoption of the law, several NCOs – including the Moscow Helsinki Group and the All-Russian movement ” For Human Rights” , were ” marked ” by crowd with vandalizing graffiti ” foreign agents ” on their buildings. On the building, which houses the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, the painting reads: “Foreign agent loves the USA.” The next day, Putin’s youth organization “Young Guard” staged a hostile protest outside the premises of the Russian branch of the international organization “Transparency International”, which fights corruption. Young “Putiners” demanded that the organization should registered as a “foreign agent “, although it is well-known international organization with branches in more than one hundred countries.

More aggressive action than just graffiti against Human Rights defenders was committed on the night of June 21-22 , 2013. Police officers stormed the office of human rights organization “For Human Rights” in Moscow. On Saturday, the previous night, human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin came to them, but he was not allowed in the office by employees of law enforcement body. OMON (the Riot police) showed clearly Lukin where his place is and who is here the power. In his comment, a Russian journalist Adagamov said : “” No illusions , please. Lukin cannot protect himself; what to say there about human rights. ” According to Ponomarev , law enforcement officers raided the organization’s office immediately upon leaving Lukin. ” In the office, we had a total of eight people. OMON broke in and acted monstrously cruel. Riot policemen dragged me down the stairs, and people in plainclothes kicked . They didn’t stand on ceremony either with the candidate for mayor of Moscow Mr.Mitrokhin , who cracked foot , “- said Ponomarev . Pretext for the invasion and the kiking them to the street was the supposedly ending in February contract for renting the building, although the employees claim that the rent paid for space until July 1, and their eviction was illegal. on the statements of lawyers that the judgment of eviction must be done by court commissioners , riot policemen said, ” the court – it is a long time “

On April 29, 2013, in Krasnodar, an apartment of a human rights activist and independent journalist Yevgeniy Novozhilov was searched . A laptop, various printed materials and electronic media (DVD?) were seized. After that, Novozhilov was taken to the Karasunsky police department, where he was presented their intention to bring him to criminal responsibility for his blog ” Russian Truth”, applying to him the same article of the Crimilal Code as to Boris Stomakhin ). Besides that, an attempt was made to declare him schizophrenic. This means that the so-called “Punitive psychiatry” , which raged under Brezhnev, comes back. Within a month Novozhylov was taken in Krasnodar Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital for “evaluation”. On June 10, he was presented with the results of the examination, which found paranoid schizophrenia , that required outpatient treatment. Novozhilov believes this diagnosis is fabricated, as the questions he was asked by the medical commission , held on May 22 were mainly of a political nature.

On Saturday, the previous night, human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin came to them, but he was not allowed in the office by employees of law enforcement body. OMON (the Riot police) showed clearly Lukin where his place is and who is here the power. In his comment, a Russian journalist Adagamov said : “” No illusions , please. Lukin cannot protect himself; what to say there about human rights.” According to Ponomarev , law enforcement officers raided the organization’s office immediately upon leaving Lukin. ” In the office, we had a total of eight people. OMON broke in and acted monstrously cruel. Riot policemen dragged me down the stairs , and people in plainclothes kicked . Do not stand on ceremony not only with me but either with the candidate for mayor of Moscow Mr.Mitrokhin , who cracked foot , “- said Ponomarev . Pretext for the invasion and the kiking them to the street was the supposedly ending in February contract for renting the building, although the employees claim that the rent paid for space until July 1, and their eviction was illegal. on the statements of lawyers that the judgment of eviction must be done by court commissioners , riot policemen said, ” the court – it is a long time “

Kidnapping and disappearing of people

After establishment of terrifying dictatorship of Kremlin-appointed head Ramzan Kadyrov, so far Russian and Kadyrov forces relentlessly abduct innocent Chechen civilians (mostly young men, who have no connection with wars and hostilities) , torture them, fabricating criminal charges against them or kill them. When the violence spilled over in North Caucasian republics neighboring Chechnya, abductions and disappearance spread out in these republics, mostly Ingushetia and Dagestan. Just last months it took a catastrophic scale. And only a small part of relatives of the abducted people have courage, sometimes risking their lives to report the abduction to Police, to Prosecutor (General) or to Human rights defenders. Thus, the HR defenders’ Center “Memorial” tried to find out details of killing of three women committed in the Chechen Republic on May 10, 2013. Witnesses and relatives of the victims refused to talk about what happened. This characterizes the climate of fear that was imposed on the residents of Chechnya under the supervision of the Putin puppet ruler Ramzan Kadyrov.

On may 20, a Chechen man Bibulatov Muslim Magomedovich , born in 1952, disappeared when he was crossing the Russian -Azerbaijani border. Witnesses claim that Bibulatov was arrested while passing the Russian checkpoint . The relatives asked the border guards ,what happened to him and got an answer: ” We did not know we do not have him .” Relatives still have no reports about his whereabouts. Also, there is no reports of his arrest in the Russian media. Bibulatov, who had fled Chechnya in the midst of the war and lived for a few years in Azerbaijan, under UNHCR protection, No. 786- 04S05614 . Bibulatov was a supporter of the independence of the Chechen Republic, therefore, there is a high probability that Bibulatov would be subjected tortures and extrajudicial execution.

On May 22, 2013, a resident of Grozny, Chechen Republic, Beslan Baidulaev, born in 1977 disappeared . The day before, Beslan came to a farmhouse in Yandi, where his family lived, to help them with the housework. Next day, early in the morning the villagers saw a large number of security forces near his house. Beslan never returned in Grozny. On May 23, Beslan’s relatives were called to the Achkhoy- Martan district police department. When they arrived, they were told that on May 22 the police tried to detain Beslan, but he escaped . Instead of clarifying the situation, the Police asked relative about Beslan’s whereabouts. Otherwise the police threatened to burn their house. Beslan’s relatives complained to human rights defenders (“Memorial”). They believe that Beslan could not flee since he was the only supporter of his aged and ailing father. Beslan had no weapons; no one in the day of his disappearance heard any shots. Relatives fear that he was kidnapped, illegally detained at an unknown location and subjected to violence.

On July 30, 2013 Mrs. Ruzmay Salihova complained to the Human Rights Centre “Memorial” that on May 20 her son Sahrab Abakargadzhiev , born 1990, a resident of Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, was kidnapped. On May 20 , at 18:00 , Sahrab drove his wife Rapiyat to her mother. After 15 minutes, his relative Ubaydula Ubaydulaev called on Sahrab’s cell phone. The call was picked up, but just a noisy dispute and screams were heard in the receiver. Ubaydulaev thought Sahrab argued with his friends . After another 15 minutes, Rapiyat called Ruzmay, Sahrab’s mother, and asked if Sahrab returned; Rapiyat could not get through to her husband , his phone was switched off . Ruzmay replied that he did not return. It seemed strange. They decided to check out the route that Sahrab had to return home. On the road, they saw Sahrab’ car and four policemen with two cars near it. The police told relatives that they came on call on a kidnapping. Security officials asked the family what Sahrab did for living. They replied that he had a small business: a bakery. Police officers didn’t allowed the relative to come closer to Sahrab’s car, but instead they recommended to go home and come to the police station in the morning. But when they arrived in the morning, they were told that they do not have Sahrab . Relatives began calling in all police departments and the prosecutor’s office. Late in the evening Sahrab’s father met with an investigator at the police station and filed a complaint about his son’s abduction. 20 days after the incident, the staff of the “Center to combat extremism” made a raid into Sahrab’s house. Nothing illegal was found. On July 17 the relatives received a message from the Interior Ministry of the Republc of Dagestan of a criminal case on the abduction of Sahrab . The same day they managed to speak to an eyewitness of abduction. The eyewitness saw two cars approached Sahrab’s car. Several armed masked men dressed in civilian clothes came out of the cars. They forcibly transferred Sahrab in one of their cars and drove away . Eyewitnesses said that Sahrab screamed for help.

On September 17, 2013 two inhabitants of the Republic of Dagestan, brothers Islam and Israpil Valibagandov applied at the Human Rights Center “Memorial” . They reported that on August 22 in Makhachkala their brother Omar Valibagandov , born in 1975, was abducted by law enforcement officers. The criminal case of abduction was not initiated by November 13, as the relative informed “Memorial”. On August 22, at 11:15 , Omar Valibagandov went to his former work place in the company ” Design Service” to take the money owed to him. As he did not have a car, he took the car of his friend Rustam. But, as reported by employees of the company, Omar that day didn’t come to them. His wife, Patimat Magomedova, started calling Omar at 14:00 – his phone was turned off . His relatives got worried and began calling his friends and acquaintances. None of them knew where Omar was. The same day, at 16:37, a car’s owner Rustam received a text message from Omar’s phone: ” You can take your car at 15 Lomonosov street, I have a problem, I won’t be here for a couple of days; the keys are on the left front wheel spring .” At about 20:00 Rustam went to the address. He did find his car there and took it. The next day, August 23, Omar’s brothers came on this address and saw video camera on one of the neighboring houses. The guards of the building allowed them to watch the video from August 22. It was seen that at 12:26 Rustam’s car drove up to the house number 15; however, not Omar but an unknown to the brothers man sat behind the wheel. He carefully wiped with a cloth the interior of the car, door handles and glass. Then he called someone and left. At 15:50, another car drove up to Rustam’s car . The driver came out, looked attentively at the license plate of Rustam’s car, bent, put something under the front left fender and left. These were the keys to the car, as mentioned in the text message. On the same day, the relatives have filed a complaint of Omar’s disappearance in the district police department of Makhachkala. In the evening, a relative said to the brothers that, according to his friends, Omar is in a city hospital. Arriving there in the morning on August 24, they found in a journal of registration of patients that Omar Valibagandov was admitted to the hospital with gunshot wounds on August 23 at 6:00 am. A doctor who made the first aid to Omar, said that he was brought by the law enforcement officers and was wrapped in a blanket, his hands cuffed . He was wounded by non-lethal weapons in the shoulder , thigh and lower leg . In addition, cuts and burns from Taser were visible on his back . According to the nurses, Omar told in Dargin language [one of the numerous ethnic groups comprise Dagestan – V.P.] to one of the officers who were nearby at the time of first aid, that he was attacked by six masked men; they took him in an unknown destination and “severely tortured .” According to the doctor , an hour later the other security forces came to the hospital and took Omar. On August 30, the relatives applied about Omar ‘s abduction to the Investigation Committee. The decision to initiate a criminal case is not made until now. Relatives believe that Omar is at the hands of Law enforcement body and are afraid that he is subjected to new tortures, if he is still alive. They ask Human Rights defenders to help find Omar.

Not only in the North Caucasus but in Moscow abductions is common practice of so called “counter-terrorism fight.”

On September 12, 2013, two residents of Dagestan, temporarily living in Moscow came to the Human Rights Center “Memorial” . They reported that on the night to 11 September in Moscow their relative, Arthur Gadzhibekov born in 1984 was kidnapped. Arthur, as well as his family, has a permanent residence in the village Kug of Republic of Dagestan Since 2006, Arthur Gadzhibekov, who had a small business, used to arrive in Moscow and Moscow suburbs. In recent years he stayed in the village Novaya Moskva in Moscow suburbs, together with his cousin Alexey. According to the applicants , Arthur Gadzhibekov saw from the window of his apartment , that a large white car stopped next to his parked car, and a few men came out of it and looked over at Arthur’s car . He said to Alexey what he saw, took the documents on the car and went downstairs. Around 00:17 Gadzhibekov called Aleksey from a mobile phone and said that the people in the street showed him their police ID and forced him to the white car . Here the conversation abrupt; then, Gadzhibekov did not pick up, then the phone got disconnected. Alexey immediately informed his brother , Edgar Gadzhibekov, about the incident. He came over and together with Alexey inspected Arthur’s car and the place of abduction. They revealed DVR flesh card was removed from Arthur’s car; it could fix the time of the abduction . No other traces of abduction or witnesses could be found . Edgar and Alexey immediately contacted the local police department about kidnapping. There, they were told that the police did not detain Arthur Gadzhibekov . The relatives left a written complaint on the kidnapping with police department. They also visited a number of other police departments in South- West district of Moscow . Everywhere they were told that the staff of these departments did not detain Arthur. On September 13, Edgar filed a lawsuit to the district Investigation Department. Nevertheless, up to evening of Septemer 13, almost three days (!) after receiving the suit of the kidnapping, the police did not interview the applicants and not try to find possible witnesses to the abduction. Police did not even watched the records from CCTV cameras located in the area adjacent to the site of the alleged crime. It looks like they deliberately cover up their fellow kidnappers. What awaits Arthur, you can guess from the above cases. –

On July 13, 2013 in Russia citizens of Uzbekistan were kidnapped; thet were wanted at home on trumped-up charges of extremism. 23-year-old Alisher Fazilov and his brother , 30 -year-old Zhasurbek Fazil ov, natives of the town of Karshi (Uzbekistan), disappeared in the territory of the Kirov district of Makhachkala (Dagestan) . It is a well-grounded allegation that they were abducted and forcibly sent back to Uzbekistan – of course, in violation of all law procedures. In Uzbekistan, questioning and investigation by applying sophisticated tortures and then long term sentences are awaiting the “deported” citizens. Earlier , another citizen of Uzbekistan, Abdusamad Mirzaev, born in 1975, was deported to Uzbekistan from Bryansk, RF. Mirzaev was detained in Bryansk on June 1, 2013, during an ID check . Police reported that in Uzbekistan he is wanted on charges of involvement in religious extremist activities. Court authorized the pre-extradition arrest for one month. While in jail in Bryansk, Mirzaev , fearing tortures and conviction on trumped-up charges, appealed to the Federal Services of Migration of RF to grant him refugee status, but received no response to his request. On July 2 , he was taken from prison to the Soviet District Court of Bryansk and two hours later was set free. However, he was immediately detained by the agents of the FSM. On the same day Mirzaev appeared before the court for violation of the rules of staying in Russia. Referring to the fact that his term of registration ended June 19, 2013, the court found Mirzaev guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 2,000 rubles and administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation. Arguments that he could not renew his registration, since he was in jail, were not taken into account. The fact that the defendant has appealed for asylum was also ignored. In the evening July 3, fearing deportation to Uzbekistan, Mirzayev called the officer in the Human Rights Center “Memorial” Bakhrom Khamroyev, who the same night went to the Bryansk region. But it turned out that early in the morning Mirzaev was taken away by unknown persons. Probably on the same day he was sent to Uzbekistan. Mirzaev, as well as Fazilov brothers, according to the law of the Russian Federation on refugees could not be sent back until their appeals for refugee status were pending. However, the FSB conducted “secret extradition” , for which they apparently obtained informal reward from Uzbek “colleagues”. When human rights activist Bahram Hamroev tried to learn about the fate of Mirzaev, he was himself detained overnight by the police. The fate of the two brothers Fazilovs and Mirzaev remains unknown.

Since the autumn of 2012, special hunt for “extremists from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan”, on the territory of Russia continues, and such operations are often conducted with serious violations of the law. The fate of most deportees is not known and not mentioned in the media. People simply disappear without trace.

Human rights activists estimate that since 2012, several dozen civilians were abducted in Chechnya and other North Caucasus republics. Noteworthy is the fact that the security forces in recent years have increasingly reported about killed foreign fighters, as well as domestic, but human rights activists have reasons to think that this is the abducted and disappeared people who are being counted as fighters and terrorists.

In a country where every person can be kidnapped , tortured, beaten and thrown into prison or killed ( we brought only those facts that have received publicity), hundreds of thousands of athletes and guests are going to come to have fun and celebrate victories in the sports! They likely will be instructed, of course, for their own safety, not to go away more than 200 meters from the Olympics “space”, which probably will be surrounded by heavy security armor with tens of thousands of Russian soldiers. Would it be a real fun? I doubt so.

Victoria Poupko, Boston