18:22, 17 March 2016

Putin's secretary links attack on Kalyapin with attack in Ingushetia

Igor Kalyapin after attack in Grozny. March16, 2016. Photo: Anton Nauumlyuk (RFE/RL)

The attack in Grozny on Igor Kalyapin is a continuation of the attack on rights defenders and journalists, committed on March 9 in Ingushetia, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian President.

On March 9, in Ingushetia, not far from the administrative border with Chechnya, a group of unidentified attackers beat eight rights defenders, journalists, and a driver of a minivan of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) on their way to Grozny.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the attack on Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC) and the head of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) was committed in the evening on March 16 near the "Grozny City" hotel, from where he was evicted. According to an eyewitness, the rights defender was attacked by about 15 people. After the attack in Grozny, Igor Kalyapin left for the Stavropol Territory.

"The attack on a member of the Presidential HRC, which is surely a continuation of a rather dangerous hooligans' attack, committed earlier on Chechen-Ingush border, is a very dangerous trend, which is certainly a matter of concern," the RIA "Novosti" quotes Dmitry Peskov as saying today.

Meanwhile, Mr Peskov has stated that he does not believe that "the attack on Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Presidential HRC, can somehow influence the decision on Ramzan Kadyrov's further stay on the post of the head of Chechnya."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.