Lawyers assess prospects of punishing "Kadyrov's general" Tsakaev

General Alikhan Tsakaev should face administrative and criminal liability, but the outcomes of the check conducted by the Main Department for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has failed to fix the General's attempt to attack law enforcers, which is seen in the video. This casts doubt on the chances of punishing Tsakaev under the article of attempted assassination of law enforcers, lawyers have pointed out. No charges will be brought against Tsakaev, Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, according to the NCFD's MIA, the detention of the general was preceded by his driving in the oncoming lane, aggressive behaviour and an attempt to escape. The detainee also struck several blows at law enforcers. On April 22, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, posted a video of a meeting at which Tsakaev was present.

The general had no documents on him, the "Baza" Telegram channel* writes with reference to a source from the MIA who witnessed the incident. The detained general did not name his position and threatened the law enforcers. The source suggested that the detainee could have been drunk. After the conflict, his car drove straight on the inspectors.

In case of an objective inquiry into the incident, should it be proved that Tsakaev was a participant therein, he faces deprivation of his driving licence and freedom deprivation for up to five years, a lawyer for the "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence**, has stated, being sure that the fact that some facts recorded in the video were not reflected in the check outcomes indicates the bias and incompleteness of the inquiry.

The detainee's actions contain offenses under the article on the use of violence against state servants, Valeria Vetoshkina*, a lawyer for the human rights project "OVD-Info"*, believes.

Ruslan Kutaev sees no reason for Kadyrov to defend Tsakaev.

"They simply used this news feed to divert public attention from other issues," he has stated.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**On December 29, 2021, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, the Russian legal entities of the "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" were liquidated. Activists of the organizations have reported that both organizations will continue their work without forming legal entities.