Resident of Dagestan claims defence of honour and dignity against Zhirinovsky

The Meschanski District Court of the city of Moscow has accepted to consideration a claim from a resident of Makhachkala Shamil Sheikhov about protection of honour, dignity and business reputation and demand to collect compensation in the sum of 100 million roubles in equal halves from Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Chairman of LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia) and vice-speaker of the State Duma of Russia, and from the editorial board of the newspaper "LDPR". The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Mr Sheikhov himself.

The claimant asks the court to recognize the data contained in Zhirinovsky's article entitled "All Caucasus Is Large Cherkizovo Marketplace" published in the "LDPR" No. 7 in 2009 to be false and slanderous, discrediting the honour, dignity and business reputation of Dagestanians, and to oblige the LDPR leader to apologize to the Dagestan people in the "LDPR" newspaper and one of federal TV Channels.

The court session was appointed on February 15. Mr Sheikhov said in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Zhirinovsky had been kindling interethnic enmity for a long time.

"He states that mountain residents do not want and cannot work, they just got used to war only. Zhirinovsky believes that even if mountaineers are given all the conditions, they will fight all the same," said Sheikhov.

In his opinion, the politician's statements can tell on his own fate either. "I'm a Russians, same as Zhirinovsky, but, when I go out of Dagestan, sometimes I face manifestations of everyday nationalism, based, in particular, on Zhirinovsky's provocative statements," he said.

He also informed that by his appeal to court he wanted to create a precedent.

"It's no secret that Kremlin has enough people with nationalist views, who cannot, by virtue of certain reasons, be frank. Zhirinovsky's just taking the signals from the top," said Ahmed Azizov, Deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan.

"Zhirinovsky is a clever and a far-sighted politician and man. He is tolerant to all the nations, including the Caucasian ones; however, he and his party need to take their place within the political spectrum, while the society anti-Caucasian moods are, unfortunately, widespread; and Zhirinovsky tries to manipulate them," said Khizri Shikhsaidov, Deputy of the State Duma from Dagestan.

"Zhirinovsky is a sort of a small neuropathologist's hammer in the hands of the federal power, which is used to knock 'the knees of the society' to see the reaction," said Arthur Mamaev, a journalist of a Dagestan weekly.

The Dagestan regional branch of the LDPR refused to give comments, while the press service of the LDPR gave no answer to the call.