HRC "Memorial": KBR residents missing in Anapa are under administrative arrest

Murat Tkhagapsoev and Astemir Khagazheev, residents of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), whose disappearance in the city of Anapa was declared by Tkhagapsoev's wife, were arrested three times for 15 days by the court. Their third term expires on March 1; however, they were not allowed by policemen to notify their relatives, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports. In the opinion of rights activists these arrests are linked to the Olympic Games in Sochi.

Every time the men were found guilty of disorderly conduct (minor hooliganism), which was expressed, according to the police, in their swearing obscenely at passersby. Murat Tkhagapsoev had lodged written complaints to the prosecutor's office and the HRC "Memorial" about illegal actions of the police.

The absurdity of allegations that the two visitors over and over again, as soon as they were at large, immediately began swearing obscenely at passersby, is more than obvious, says the message issued by the HRC "Memorial". Rights defenders associate the arrests of the KBR residents with the Olympic Games held in Sochi, noting that at the time of the event, the police of the coastal cities used to detain – under any pretext – any natives of North-Caucasian Federal District NCFD) they disliked.

Earlier in Dagestan, believers who confess Salafism reported that during the Olympics policemen banned their travels out of the republic, while in Ingushetia the local TV spread appeals to local residents to refrain from travels to Sochi during the Olympics.