Rights defender point to risks for blackmail victims of intimate photo in Northern Caucasus

The victims of blackmailing by means of intimate photos are facing threats to their lives in Northern Caucasus. At the same time, Russian social networks fail to react to demands to remove the photo; while policemen are not always ready to investigate blackmail cases, human rights defenders assert.

Cases of blackmail and extortion under the threat of posting defamatory photographs are increasingly common in Kabardino-Balkaria, especially among young people, Aslan Beshto, the head of the NGO "Kabardian Congress", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Publication of defamatory photos or videos almost never pass traceless for their victims, said the blogger, Maryam Alieva. "The consequences depend on the family. Somewhere – in Ingushetia or Chechnya – it may be an 'honour killing'; somewhere the mildest thing that they can do – beat up and lock at home for a while; there will be scandals; or the victim may be taken from an educational establishment," she said.

The blackmailers who threaten the girls with the publication of their intimate photos are only interested in money, they have nothing to do with fighters for morality, the journalists and public figures interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" are sure.

Victims of violence sometimes face problems of protecting their rights also when they turn to the police, Ms Alieva added.

"There was a case when a girl committed suicide after information about her was spread in social networks. Most often, girls are afraid to turn to their relatives, because they doubt that the latter will take their side," Katya Neroznikova, a volunteer of the "Marem" initiative crisis group, believes.