Picket against political murders in Northern Caucasus held in Moscow

On August 13, in the Pushkin Square in Moscow, 35 persons held a picket in memory of Zarema Sadulayeva, leader of the NGO "Let's Save the Generation", and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov, who were found assassinated on August 11 in Chechnya, and journalist Malik Ahmedilov, who was shot dead in Dagestan.

"I spoke with my friend - a human rights activist in Chechnya. After Zarema's murder, having returned from her funeral, she said that for the first time over the last decades, even during the war, she felt fear. A range of murders of human rights activists is underway in Chechnya. The first feelings were pain and grief after losing these wonderful people. It's so awful and terrible and so much nastily and beastly for the gunmen and those who had ordered these murders. Only mean cowards could do it," Elena Sannikova, one of the picketers and an activist of the Committee of Anti-War Actions, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The posters prepared by the protesters ran: "Only cowardly cruds kill women", "Kadyrov has no right to supervise investigation, he should resign!", "Kadyrov - to resignation!", "War in Chechnya turned into war against own people", "Authority-murderer, you are not eternal, remember!"

In Ms Sannikova's opinion, the murders in Chechnya of Zarema Sadulayeva, Alik Dzhabrailov and Natalia Estemirova "could be committed only by persons close to the authorities." "Who exactly, I can't say - this could be an initiative of the Kremlin, Kadyrov's retinue or some other agency," she said.

"I find Kadyrov responsible for the regime that now reigns in Chechnya. This regime is purposefully hunting people engaged in certain activities and having certain views, namely - its opponents. At least, Kadyrov should retire for the period while these murders are investigated," the picketer named Irina who held the poster "Kadyrov - to resignation!" said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The picket lasted for 90 minutes, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. However, after its end, the people, having already rolled up their posters, did not disperse for a long time, discussing the situation in Northern Caucasus and future protest actions.