Human rights defenders suggest CTO in Nalchik could be staged

Human rights defenders interviewed by the “Caucasian Knot” note that there are examples in different regions of Northern Caucasus, when law enforcers kidnapped people and then reported their killing during detention and those examples speak in favour of the version of a staged special operation in Kabardino-Balkaria.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on July 3, a CTO regime was introduced in Nalchik and then in Baksan. The Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) has stated that during the CTO five militants were killed in Nalchik and in the vicinity of the village of Baksanenok.

According to Zaur Shokuev, a lawyer of the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre, the version that all five persons declared militants were kidnapped and then killed and that the special operation was staged, looks plausible.

“Earlier, there have been similar cases when relatives complained about the disappearance of a family member kidnapped by law enforcers and a few days later their bodies were found during a counterterrorist operation. And I think a staged shootout is necessary in order to make the staged CTO realistic,” Zaur Shokuev told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the NGO “Civic Assistance”*, trusts the version, according to which the people declared militants were kidnapped before the special operation.

“I trust Nadezhda Kevorkova, because she is a serious investigator. I am convinced that if she says something, then there are good reasons for that. Meanwhile, unfortunately, the situation when people are kidnapped and then they mysteriously turn out to be militants is ordinary,” Svetlana Gannushkina told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The human rights defender suggests the law enforcers might need to stage shootouts with explosions to report to their chiefs.

* The organization is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of foreign agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 5, 2021 at 06:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.