Villagers explain new protests in Dagestani Chirkei by poor authorities' attention

The villagers' protest action against the construction of fish farms on the Chirkei Reservoir was caused by the authorities' insufficient reaction and fears that the above construction would still begin, residents of the village of Chirkei have stated.

On April 6, residents of several villages held a gathering against fish farming in the Chirkei Reservoir. Ullubiy Khanmurzaev, the acting head of the Buynaksk District, has assured that the trout farm in the village of Chirkei would not be launched without villagers' consent.

On January 6, 2023, Chirkei villagers spoke against the construction of fish farms on the reservoir, fearing that as a result its water would become undrinkable. Fish food is "a mixture of many chemicals," they stated. At their gathering in January, Chirkei villagers voted against fish farming. The representative of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery treated the villagers' fears as groundless and stressed that the issue of building fish farms had been finally decided, since authorities were interested in growing fish.

The reason for the new gathering was the absence of authorities' reaction to the allocation of land plots for trout farming, said Tagir Djamaldinov, a deputy of the Chirkei village assembly, adding that the commission on fishing sites includes no local residents.

On December 30, 2022, Shamil Khadulaev, a member of the Public Chamber of Dagestan, posted a video appeal of Akhatly villagers to Sergey Melikov, the head of Dagestan. They complained that land plots near the Chirkei Reservoir, which are attractive for the tourist business, were being transferred into private ownership without villagers' consent, while bureaucrats remain passive.