Chechen practice of public apologies finds response in Dagestan

By its support for public punishment of the teens, who have confessed to committing vandalism in the Kizlyar City Park, the society of Dagestan has shown the adherence to the Chechen practice of public apologies. The republic has a demand for public condemnation of the offenders, journalists believe.

Public apologies are nothing new for Dagestan, especially when there is a social demand for them, says the journalist Svetlana Anokhina. As an example, she cited the case of 2017, when a resident of Dagestan insulted Ramazan Abdulatipov.

Mr Anokhina has explained such a reaction of the society "by the desire to unite in the general indignation" against someone.

The case of teenagers in Kizlyar is interesting because the punishment has become public in nature, says Milrad Fatullaev, the editor-in-chief of the RIA "Derbent". According to his story, such forms of public punishment are popular in Dagestan.

"This meets the mentality and the collective consciousness of Dagestanis," he has explained. However, Mr Fatullaev believes that now laws should work in Dagestan.

"In the conditions of impunity, when laws fail to work, the public is forced to invent other mechanisms for regulating the public order," says Gadjimurad Sagitov, the editor-in-chief of the "Novoye Delo" (New Cause), noting that in Dagestan, there used to be the practice of public condemnation of those who commit resonant offenses.