The authorities of Dagestan have confirmed the detention of some civil servants in Makhachkala and Buynaksk, the press service of the Dagestani government said.
"The head of the Republic of Dagestan has been informed about the operational activities of the security agencies, which took place in Buynaksk and Makhachkala on August 2. Today Ramazan Abdulatipov will take appropriate measures to ensure the rule of law," TASS cited the agency as saying.
According to preliminary information, the head of the administration of the Buynaksk district, Daniyal Shihsaidov (son of the chairman of the parliament of Dagestan Khizri Shihsaidov) and the head of the District Engineering Service were detained in Makhachkala and Buynaksk.
A member of the Russian Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations, Maxim Shevchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that there is a "deliberate campaign being carried out by the federal law enforcement agencies to clear out the Dagestani elite, which has ruled in Dagestan for many years." "Shihsaidov, Murtazaliyev and Vinogradov are different people, but they are part of the criminal-political system which has developed in Dagestan over the past couple of decades. I can say that there is no person with power and would be unblemished," he said.
"So the question is not how to find those who are guilty, but on whom you can rely on to establish a normal, modern, open, economic, democratic society on the territory of Dagestan," Shevchenko added.
He also stressed that Andrei Vinogradov and Sagid Murtazaliyev are in a better situation. "Terrorism is a clause that cannot be proved and it's hard to refute as well. And any Russian official can be accused of corruption," the expert said.
"If there is a confession, then it is terrorism. If there is no evidence, there is no terrorism. Therefore, I believe that the accusation of terrorism is purely virtual," Maxim Shevchenko concluded.
A senior scientist of the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Ahmet Yarlykapov, also believes that "it is no random coincidence." "And I think that what is happening now is a continuation of that struggle, it is quite logical and perfectly understandable. The federal center is doing it so slowly to avoid serious shocks. But I think that all the corrupt officials in the republic were given a signal that the federal center is serious about it," he said.
According to the expert, these detentions will not have a significant effect on the situation in Dagestan. "I think that they will not seriously shake the situation in the republic. And I think that many people in the country understand perfectly well that such actions cannot affect this strategic choice of the federal government in relation to Dagestan. I repeat once again that Moscow is acting rather cautiously," Ahmet Yarlykapov noted.
