Investigators find extremism in Ramazan Utarbiev's video appeal

Experts have found attributes of incitement to ethnic hatred in the video appeal of Ramazan Utarbiev, who is searched on suspicion of involvement in the murder of the Moscow football fan Yegor Sviridov, reports a source close to the investigation.

"The searched suspect should understand that these statements can only aggravate his situation," the source said, not specifying, however, what particular point of the appeal were found extremist by the experts. "Only his voluntary surrender without any preconditions can give him some hope for sentence commutation in case he's found guilty," said the source as quoted by the RIA "Novosti".

So far, there is no official confirmation of this information.

In his appeal, Utarbiev also suggests that should Caucasians have been killed instead of Sviridov, it would not have caused any broad resonance. "Before coming to Moscow I thought it was an international city, where people are friendly to each other, like we are in Dagestan." According to the suspect, immediately after arrival he changed his opinion, having faced hostile attitude. "It's dangerous to walk alone in Moscow," writes Utarbiev.

Dmitry Filatov, a friend of Yegor Sviridov, who was killed in a fight in Kronstadt Boulevard, said that the facts given in Ramazan Utarbiev's video appeal have nothing to do with reality. Filatov was also in that fights and refuted Utarbiev's words that the fight was provoked by Sviridov and his friends.

According to Filatov, Utarbiev pronounces some prepared and remembered text, which describes the incident as an attack on natives of Northern Caucasus. "Our group had a Caucasian. It's illogical if we go with nationalist slogans in their direction, while having a non-Russian person among us," he explains. Filatov believes that the video appeal is an attempt to justify the fact that Utarbiev hides from the investigation.

The MIA of Dagestan is already involved in searching Utarbiev. Vyacheslav Gasanov, head of the Ministry's press-service, said that Dagestani militiamen paid attention to the noise of a train, audible on the video appeal. According to their story, it may help in locating the suspect.