According to Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, senior Russian authorities considered the threat to the lives of journalists and rights advocates “absolutely unacceptable” and expected the law enforcers to find and detain all attackers in order to ensure the safety of human rights activists and representatives of mass media.
The attack on several reporters from Russia, Sweden and Norway, and representatives of the NGO ‘Committee Against Torture’, took place on Wednesday night in the Republic of Ingushetia near the border with Chechnya. According to the victims a large group of masked people armed with wooden truncheons dragged them out of their car and set it on fire. Four people, including two foreign journalists, sustained injuries in the process. The attackers reportedly accused the NGO members of supporting terrorists.
Ingushetia police are investigating the attack as the premeditated destruction of other people’s property and hooliganism. The top authorities of the republic have promised to hold the probe under special control.
The head of Russia’s Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, has told reporters that he considered it extremely important that this case is thoroughly investigated and solved and all its perpetrators are duly punished.
However, some officials expressed skepticism over the statements of those who suffered from the attack. Chechen Human Rights representative Nurdi Nukhadjiyev said in press comments that the crime could have been masterminded by “forces interested in destabilizing the situation in the region and in the state in general” and named the chairman of the Committee against Torture, Igor Kalyapin, as the likely figure behind the scheme.
“I am not accusing him, but I say that this looks like his trademark style,” Nukhadjiyev emphasized.
https://www.rt.com/politics/335140-russian-officials-activists-voice-concern/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
