Dagestan: DSPU students’ protest was no hunger strike, experts say

The action held by students of the Dagestani State Pedagogical University (DSPU) against the intended merge of two departments, is not a true hunger strike, experts say.

The "Caucasian Knot" has informed that on October 21 over 200 full-time students of the DSPU began an endless hunger strike. On October 24, it became known that the hunger strike was stopped.

This strike can be considered as a political protest, and as an unsanctioned one, but not a hunger strike in a pure form, said Magomed Magomedov, an observer of the Dagestani weekly "Chernovik".

"A hunger strike or a strike is an action, when protesters withstand until victory or give up without achieving the goal. It is worth noting that on order to make the action public, they need to inform the media and announce the action," said the lawyer Elena Denisenko.

Despite the circumstances of the action, Svetlana Isaeva, the head of the organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", recognizes the action to be a hunger strike.

In his turn, Oleg Shein, a Deputy of the Astrakhan Regional Duma and the head of the regional branch of the “Spravedlivaya Rossiya” (Fair Russia) Party, said that hunger strikes have no legal regulation; they are just a form of protest. In his opinion, its success will depend on protesters’ ability to attract attention of the media and student groups from other Russian universities.