Political analysts: attack on journalists discredits authorities of Northern Caucasus
An attack on journalists and human rights defenders on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya has hurt the reputations of the leaders of both republics and the Russian special services, involved in the region. This opinion was expressed by political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".
On March 9, in Ingushetia, not far from the border with Chechnya, a group of unidentified attackers beat eight human rights defenders, journalists, and a driver of a minivan of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) on their way to Grozny.
The attack on human rights defenders undermines the good reputation of the Russian special services, states Alexei Malashenko, a member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Carnegie Centre. He has called the attack an "independent action" of someone from the law enforcement bodies, not backed by orders from above.
Earlier, the experts have claimed that one of the goals of the attack on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia was to sow discord in the relations of recently reconciled Ramzan Kadyrov and Yunus-Bek Evkurov. However, the goal is unlikely to be achieved.
According to Sergey Markedonov, Associate Professor of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy of the Russian State University for the Humanities (known as RGGU), the attacks discredit the authorities of Ingushetia.
"These attacks have shown that the Ingush authorities are not able to control the situation," Sergey Markedonov has said.
Vladimir Eliseev, the vice-president of the International Association of veterans of the "Alfa" anti-terror unit, believes that the attack on the human rights defenders' office was not spontaneously committed after the attack on the JMG's minivan.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.