Dagestan: residents are negative to overall fingerprinting

Activists of public and political circles of Dagestan have criticized the offer of Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia to take fingerprints of all residents of Northern Caucasus. In their opinion, the procedure would break the rights of residents of the region, which is a full-fledged part of Russia, not an enclave inhabited exclusively by criminals.

Thus, Svetlana Isaeva, head of the human rights organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", said that only a xenophobe could make this sort of statement. "Not only criminals and bandits live in the region. Unfortunately, we have to remind someone about such banal things. Today they take our fingerprints, and tomorrow they will start to drive us into reservations with special passes needed to go out," she said.

Lawyer Abdurahman Sheikhov supported the human rights defender: "I'm indignant. The statement is beyond any reason. Once Zhirinovsky declared that North-Caucasians are almost all inborn criminals, now we have Mr Bastrykin with his initiative."

"One should not think that this is exclusively his personal offer. I think that a certain part of federal bureaucracy is infected with theories of racial superiority," the lawyer believes. At the same time, he has noted certain pros in Bastrykin's idea. "If to hold fingerprinting of all Russians, operative-investigatory bodies will feel easier to work," said Mr Sheikhov.

In the opinion of Marina Abramkina, Deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan, Bastrykin's offer discredits the Russian leadership.

Gadjimet Safaraliev, Deputy of Russian State Duma from Dagestan, is a categorical opponent of fingerprinting. "Russia is not a totalitarian and not a fascist country. Northern Caucasus is not fenced by barbed wire, to raise the issue there in this manner. To tell the truth, I don't understand how such person can work for the Prosecutor's Office," said the MP.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that earlier human rights defenders, politicians and public figures of the NCFD voiced against the initiative of the ICPO head.

Residents of Northern Caucasus will perceive it as insult and discrimination on ethnic grounds; and it will affect extremely negatively the interethnic relations. This is the opinion of Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Liudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, agrees: "It is discrimination: why do they take a concrete region and suspect all its residents without exception?"

Alvi Karimov, press secretary of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, has stated that "technically, any idea is enforceable, especially if it is duly funded." However, in his personal opinion, hardly the residents of Chechnya, Stavropol Territory and other regions of the NCFD will feel happy being treated as knowingly unreliable citizens.

The Ingush oppositionist Magomed Khazbiev has treated the offers of the head of the ICPO as an attempt to "disburden his cares on other people."