Experts claim Dagestan newspaper "Time of Actions" as extremist

The Department of the Russian Committee for Supervision over Communications ("Rossvyazkomnadzor") has finished the revision of the observance by the newspaper "Time of Actions", published in the Dagestan city of Derbent, of the legislation on mass media. According to the Department's conclusion, the paper had published articles with appeals to extremist activities.

The conclusion states that in the opinion of experts from the "Argument - Association of Linguistic Experts", the article "Bloody Boys in the Eyes" (published on July 24, 2008) "contains utterances imputing in the open form persons of one national identity attributes and fulfilment of the actions, which in the modern society are unequivocally perceived as negative."

According to the experts' opinion, the text of the article is directed towards criticism of the existing power.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan that "presently, the revision materials have been sent to the Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Dagestan for making a decision about criminal prosecution on the facts of revealed violations."

Magomed Khanmagomedov, editor-in-chief of the "Time of Actions", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the revision was initiated by the FSB Department for Dagestan.

According to Mr Khanmagomedov, the "Time of Actions" had faced problems after publishing materials with criticism of the authorities and individual bureaucrats.

After that, according to Magomed Khanmagomedov, the paper's sponsor and actual founder Magomed Sadulaev, Director of the Derbent Factory of Sparkling Wines, refused to finance the paper. The editor marks that Mr Sadulaev did not like the criticism of his friend Igor Tkachov, Public Prosecutor of the Republic. In late July, the "Time of Actions" was deprived of all office equipment and furniture, and employees stopped getting their salaries.