Incident with disappearance of Derbent residents worsened Chechen authorities' image

The police have failed to find the three residents of Derbent who stopped to get contacted during their trip to Grozny, said the wife of one of the missing people. Their disappearance undermines the image of Chechen authorities, the residents of Chechnya interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that relatives of Nillan Aliev, Seidaidin Mustafaev and Khakim Askerov, residents of Derbent, announced their disappearance on February 10 in Grozny. Prior to that, one of them had posted a video criticizing Ramzan Kadyrov.

On February 20, Nargiz Kazimova, Seidaidin Mustafaev's mother, said that, according to her information, the missing men were kept in one of Chechen power structures. However, this information was not confirmed by Nasiba Mustafaeva, Seidaidin's wife, who said: "Operative agents of the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have visited all divisions of the power structures in Chechnya, but haven't found them anywhere."

"The disappearance of three residents of a neighbouring region in Chechnya is, first of all, a blow to the image of the authorities and law enforcers. Moreover, the republic's leadership is actively inviting tourists and has declared 2020 to be the year of tourism. If desired, finding these missing men by our law enforcers could be easy. It's enough to track their phone calls. After all, they manage to find and punish authors of negative comments or other offenders even outside the republic," said Marina, an activist.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 22, 2020 at 03:46 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.