Teenagers' apologies to Dagestani MMA fighter Nurmagomedov spark discussions

Despite the resonance, the apologies of teenagers to Khabib Nurmagomedov will have no consequences for them, says Mikhail Roschin. However, the procedure itself is humiliating, said Alexei Malashenko.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 8, a video was posted, in which two teenagers apologized to Nurmagomedov for the video clip with insults at his address. After that, Abdulla Salimov, Deputy Mufti of Dagestan, urged to avoid rash statements in social networks, since this is fraught with public apologies. The leaders of Dagestani media believe that the clergy only urged not to create conflicts.

Public apologies are not common in Dagestan with its multi-national population, said Mikhail Roschin, an Orientalist. He has suggested that the teens filmed the first video, and then, realizing, they decided to apologize; or they just wanted to attract attention to themselves.

The "fashion for apologies" came to Dagestan from Chechnya, says Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civil Assistance" Committee. "Unfortunately, this is not the only negative fashion 'exported' from Chechnya," she said, citing attacks on the HRC" Memorial" offices in Dagestan and Ingushetia as examples.

In the opinion of Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", public apologies are normal practice in the Caucasian society, "if someone has been offended in vain." "But with new technologies, it has become a channel for the authorities through which they force those whom they dislike to apologize," he said, adding that this tradition in Chechnya is linked exclusively with Kadyrov's activities.