Unknown persons take documents away from Ingush MP Yusup Kostoev

At about midday, at the exit from Magas, the service car of Yusup Kostoev, a Deputy of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia, was stopped. Three men armed with submachine guns, one of them in mask, without presenting themselves, asked Kostoev to show documents. Then they fled with the documents on his car.

"I always drive very carefully; and in this I made no traffic rules violations. Besides, being a Deputy, I have the right not to show documents; moreover, none of them introduced him. But still I gave them the ID of the MP and documents on the car. There, among the documents, there was also the technical passport on my personal car," Yusup Kostoev told the "Caucasian Knot".

"They returned the Deputy's ID.'You'll get other documents at the GAI post. Follow us,' said one of them. They got into their car and drove away at high speed," said Kostoev.

According to his story, the unknown persons, who took away his documents, had shadowed him from eight o'clock in the morning; they were Ingushes and drove a black Priora car. "It was impossible to discern their number plate - the car was all in mud," said Kostoev. "I spent three hours visiting all the GAI posts and checkpoints. But nobody saw my documents there, and the black Priora never drove up to them."

According to Kostoev, he contacted the Acting Interior Minister of Ingushetia Isa Gireev and asked him for help in searching documents. "However, his efforts in this regard proved to be unsuccessful. One of the MIA agents 'enlightened' me by saying that such cars are used by the guards of the head of the republic," said the source of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

So far, the administration of the head of Ingushetia and power agencies made no comments on the information.

Yusup Kostoev is sure that this demarche with confiscation of his documents has to do with his article "Crisis in Ingushetia Was Provoked by Authorities", published on the website "Northern Caucasus" on April 7-8, and then replicated by Ingush sites. Currently, the article is no longer present on the "Northern Caucasus".

"I knew that after publication of this material the pressing will start, and I'm ready for it," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.