Report on Human Rights Violations in Karachay-Cherkessia
August 2026
Hava Beshtoeva
In August 2026 the following key trends and facts in the sphere of human rights violations and monitoring of the legal situation were recorded in Karachay-Cherkessia:
Resident of Karachay-Cherkessia Aslan Erkenov sentenced under an “extremist” article, in the opinion of human rights defenders, without foundation
A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced resident of Karachay-Cherkessia Aslan Erkenov to eight years, finding him guilty of calls to terrorism, storage of an explosive device and extremism.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found resident of Karachay-Cherkessia Aslan Erkenov guilty of public calls to terrorism, illegal storage of an explosive device and participation in the activity of an extremist organisation (Part 1 of Article 205.2, Part 1 of Article 222.1 and Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to the investigation, from 2018 to 2022 a cell of the extremist religious association “At-Takfir wal-Hijra,” banned in Russia, was created on the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia. The convicted person, according to the version of the investigation, joined it in February 2020. From February of that year until February 2021 he allegedly participated in gatherings of members of the cell and studied extremist literature, it is stated in the message published on 31 July on the website of the court.
https://www.sova-center.ru/religion/news/extremism/counter-extremism/2026/08/d54283
It will be recalled that on 6 July 2026 it became known that a case under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organisation of the activity of an extremist organisation and participation in the activity of such an organisation) had been initiated in Karachay-Cherkessia. More than 60 persons suspected of cooperation with the organisation “At-Takfir Wal-Hijra,” banned in 2010, were detained.
Accusations of involvement in a number of religious associations in the North Caucasus, including “At-Takfir wal-Hijra,” elicit serious criticism from human rights defenders, lawyers and scholars of religion.
Critics of such judicial practice often single out the following arguments:
- Vagueness of formulations: Criminal cases under extremist and terrorist articles are often built on general formulations, the interpretation of which in the law leaves a wide field for abuses. The absence of clear legal criteria allows law-enforcement bodies to qualify as “participation in a banned organisation” ordinary religious practices, reading of literature or discussion of religious questions in private conversations.
- “Phantom” character of the structure: The original movement “At-Takfir Wal-Hijra” arose in Egypt in the 1970s and ceased to exist after the crushing of its core by the local authorities. Experts note that in the North Caucasus there has never existed an organisation with such a name that had a charter, fixed membership, hierarchy or headquarters.
- Ideology instead of organisation: The term “takfirism” describes a radical religious approach (accusation of other Muslims of unbelief). Legal scholars point out that the security forces erroneously (or deliberately) treat the theological views of individual groups or persons as participation in a concrete “international community” banned by the Supreme Court in 2010.
- Persecution for disloyalty: Researchers of the Caucasus emphasise that under this article observant Muslims who do not accept the spiritual administrations as structures of ideological influence of the Russian Federation and who do not support the political and aggressive military course of the authorities often fall.
https://www.svoboda.org/a/30940267.html
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/400589
Resident of Karachay-Cherkessia Alexey Kaplunov charged with high treason
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don handed down an unprecedented guilty verdict in respect of native of Karachay-Cherkessia Alexey Kaplunov, sentencing him to life imprisonment under articles on high treason and participation in a terrorist structure. According to a statement of the court’s press service, while in custody the prisoner engaged in the collection and transmission of information about the personnel of a correctional institution in Stavropol Krai, as well as about persons from among the special contingent being sent to participate in the special military operation.
Investigative bodies assert that in June 2024 Kaplunov, while serving a sentence in a colony, established contact through electronic correspondence with representatives of the banned and recognised in the Russian Federation as terrorist “Legion ‘Freedom of Russia’,” sending them a statement of intention to voluntarily join the ranks of the organisation. Subsequently, according to the version of the accusation, he accumulated and forwarded to curators confidential data about officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service who provided security of the institution and coordinated the selection of prisoners for the front, as well as personal information about the convicts themselves who had expressed a desire to sign military contracts.
https://www.interfax.ru/russia/1108492
https://x.com/echofm_online/status/2087125802554990636
The handing down of a life sentence to A. Kaplunov by the Southern District Military Court for the transmission of personal data of officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service and prisoners demonstrates an unprecedented toughening of punitive practice in cases of high treason. This precedent confirms the tendency towards an expansive interpretation of high treason, under which the collection of internal data about force agencies is treated by the court without alternative as activity against the security of the Russian Federation.
Moreover, this case clearly illustrates the practice of “double sentences,” which law-enforcement bodies and courts have begun regularly to apply inside the penitentiary system to inconvenient convicts. The initiation of new, maximally grave criminal cases (on terrorism or high treason) directly during the period of a citizen’s serving of his original sentence is in fact used by force structures as an instrument for the indefinite isolation of persons who have displayed disloyalty or oppositional sentiments inside the colony.
The Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia handed down a guilty verdict against a 27-year-old local resident, finding him guilty of rehabilitation of Nazism
The court established that in 2020 the accused published in a social network comments containing approval of crimes “established by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries.” Human rights defenders were unable to see the text of the published message. At the same time the interpretation of “rehabilitation of Nazism” itself is produced, as a rule, on the basis of the narratives of the Russian state interpretation of history, which often does not coincide with that generally accepted in the international scholarly community.
On the basis of such materials the instance found the man guilty of the commission of a crime under Part 1 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (rehabilitation of Nazism). He was sentenced to a fine in the amount of 400 thousand roubles, and a one-and-a-half-year ban on the administration of websites and internet resources was also introduced.
https://mvdmedia.ru/news/operativnye-novosti/zhitel-karachaevo-cherkesii-priznan-vinovnym-v-publichnoy-reabilitatsii-natsizma/
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8892142
The judgment in the case of “rehabilitation of Nazism” (Part 1 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) for internet comments six years old reveals two systemic problems of law enforcement:
- Retrospective character of persecution: The initiation of a criminal case for publications of 2020 confirms the practice of total monitoring by force structures of the digital archives of citizens. The qualification of old records as continuing offences deprives citizens of legal certainty and turns any past statements into a permanent source of criminal risks.
- Use of vague historical formulations: Accusations built on the assessment of the conformity of personal comments with the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal often criminalise any alternative historical discussions. This turns the criminal code into an instrument of rigid censorship of historical research and personal opinions on the network.
The imposition of a large fine and a ban on the administration of websites for comments of many years’ standing is directed at the strengthening of self-censorship in society and demonstrates the inevitability of punishment under ideological articles, irrespective of the age of the publication.
Former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov, serving a life sentence in the “Black Dolphin” colony, has declared a hunger strike
It will be recalled that on 27 December 2022 the Moscow City Court sentenced Rauf Arashukov and his father Raul Arashukov to life imprisonment. The appellate and cassation instances left the judgment in force. Raul Arashukov died in the colony in 2023.
In August 2026 several notable events occurred around the life-sentenced former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov, who is serving his sentence in the special-regime colony “Black Dolphin,” connected with the conditions of his detention and court claims:
On 1 August 2026 Rauf Arashukov declared a hunger strike, demanding improvement of the conditions of detention, cessation of provocations on the part of officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service and ensuring the possibility of full communication with lawyers. Later the hunger strike was terminated, since, according to the defence side, the colony agreed to fulfil the key demands of the prisoner.
At the beginning of August it became known that Arashukov had been placed in a punishment isolation cell (SHIZO) for 10 days for refusal of obligatory work. The former senator filed several claims against the administration of Correctional Colony No. 6, attempting to challenge the regular penalties and placements in the SHIZO. At the end of August the Sol-Iletsk District Court of Orenburg Oblast took the decision to consider these claims.
In the first half of August lawyer Dmitry Trubnikov reported that his client had sent official appeals to the State Duma and the Government of the Russian Federation. The aim of the appeals was to draw the attention of the authorities to the alleged violations of the rights of convicts in special-regime colonies.
Relatives of the life-sentenced Rauf Arashukov received in the spring a refusal of the request for his transfer from Orenburg Oblast to a colony in Mordovia. The defence of the former senator promised to appeal this decision.
https://news.newizv.ru/2026-08-03/eks-senatora-arashukova-otbyvayuschego-pozhiznennoe-nakazanie-otpravili-v-shizo-441978?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com
https://www.forbes.ru/society/566002-osuzdennyj-eks-senator-arasukov-ob-avil-golodovku?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com
Also in August the Sixth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Samara left in force the ten-year term and fine against the former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov in the criminal case of giving a bribe, TASS reports with reference to lawyer Dmitry Trubnikov.
While serving a life sentence, Rauf Arashukov became an accused in the giving of a bribe to an official through an intermediary for the commission of knowingly illegal actions on an especially large scale. According to the version of the investigation, the former senator through a lawyer transferred to an officer of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for Orenburg Oblast a bribe of 3 million roubles, and in total it was planned to transfer 6 million roubles for the creation of privileged conditions of serving the sentence in the colony.
The Leninsky District Court of Orenburg on 13 January sentenced Rauf Arashukov to 10 years in a colony and a fine of 120 million roubles in the bribe case; by cumulative sentences he was assigned life imprisonment and a fine in the amount of 120 million roubles. On 18 March the Orenburg Regional Court refused to satisfy the appellate complaints and left the judgment without change.
The declaration of a hunger strike by the person sentenced to life deprivation of liberty Rauf Arashukov on 1 August 2026 is an indicator of a systemic crisis in the realisation of the rights of prisoners in special-regime institutions (in particular, Federal State Institution Correctional Colony No. 6 “Black Dolphin”).
The fact of the termination of the hunger strike after the “achievement of a compromise” declared by the lawyers indicates that the administration of the institution recognised the well-foundedness of part of the demands or made concessions in order to avoid a deterioration of the prisoner’s health. The human rights community needs to carry out regular monitoring of the fulfilment of these agreements, since in the conditions of isolation of life-sentence colonies the declared changes often bear a temporary character.
The leaving in force by the Sixth Cassation Court (city of Samara) of the judgment of 10 years’ deprivation of liberty and a fine of 120 million roubles in the new criminal case of giving a bribe (Part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) demonstrates the rigid position of the law-enforcement system.
The plot of the case (an attempt to bribe officers of the correctional colony in order to obtain basic rights — telephone calls and visits) indirectly confirms the rigid deficit of these rights among those sentenced to life imprisonment in “Black Dolphin.” This actualises a broader problem: the forced law-breaking behaviour of prisoners because of excessive restrictions on contact with the outside world.
A tendency of “double” accusations (initiation of new criminal cases inside colonies) in respect of status prisoners is also noted, which is often used for their complete isolation and demoralisation.
The City Court of Cherkessk extended the measure of restraint in the form of detention under guard for the former minister of property and land relations of Karachay-Cherkessia Dmitry Bugaev
The City Court of Cherkessk left under guard for two months the former minister of property and land relations of Karachay-Cherkessia Dmitry Bugaev, accused of exceeding official powers.
It will be recalled that in mid-May the Cherkessk City Court seized 22 objects of immovable property and three automobiles from the former minister of property and land relations of Karachay-Cherkessia Dmitry Bugaev. More than 64 million roubles were also recovered from him. The City Court of Cherkessk extended until 7 August the measure of restraint in the form of detention under guard for Bugaev, accused of exceeding official powers with damage to the budget of 16.7 million roubles.
https://www.interfax-russia.ru/south-and-north-caucasus/news/eks-glave-minimushchestva-karachaevo-cherkesii-prodlili-arest-eshche-na-2-mesyaca
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8572884
Against the background of the protracted military conflict and the growing deficit of the federal and regional budgets of the Russian Federation, caused by the unprecedented growth of military expenditures, in Russian law-enforcement practice a toughening of internal policy in respect of civil servants and regional elites is distinctly traced. Criminal cases against officials of the regional level (a vivid example of which in 2026 became the arrest of the former minister of property relations of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic Dmitry Bugaev) are increasingly accompanied not simply by the isolation of the accused, but also by large-scale confiscation of their property in favour of the state.
Complaints of the alpinist Mikhail Semenov about the conditions of detention first in the pre-trial detention centre in Cherkessk, and then in the pre-trial detention centre in Moscow Oblast, remain without answer
It will be recalled that in July the security forces detained in Karachay-Cherkessia the 38-year-old alpinist Mikhail Semenov under the pretext of non-observance of the term of appearance in the colony. Semenov was detained without foundation, since at that time he was undergoing a programme of recovery, which, according to the legislation, is a valid reason.
Mikhail Semenov repeatedly complained about the unbearable conditions of detention in the pre-trial detention centre after his detention in Karachay-Cherkessia. According to information of human rights and information resources, in particular “Caucasian Knot,” the main complaints of the 38-year-old alpinist and his defence side concern the following violations:
- Anti-sanitary conditions and everyday conditions: In the cells of the isolator a critical shortage of sleeping places is recorded (the detained have to sleep in turn), absence of ventilation, dampness, as well as the presence of insects and rodents.
- Non-provision of medical assistance: Semenov was detained in a period when he required the undergoing of an obligatory programme of recovery after an injury. In the pre-trial detention centre the necessary medical procedures and proper examination are not provided, which worsens his state of health.
- Lack of foundation of the arrest: The defence insists that the delay in appearance at the settlement colony occurred for a valid medical reason. Accordingly, the very detention under guard in the pre-trial detention centre instead of independent following to the place of serving the sentence is an excessive and illegal measure.
All the complaints filed by Semenov and his lawyers with supervisory bodies and the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service remain at the present moment without effective reaction, and the conditions of detention do not change.
According to the words of the spouse of the convict, in the end everything finished with placement in a punishment cell after an ambulance brigade was not allowed to Semenov. “Mikhail is an invalid of the II group and has a heart disease. During detention in Cherkessk because of the state of his health an ambulance was called twice,” his spouse told “Caucasian Knot.”
She also related that, according to the words of her husband, the local Public Observation Commission did not treat his complaints seriously. “After Mikhail’s complaints he was visited by representatives of the Public Observation Commission (ONK). According to Mikhail, during the conversation the representatives of the ONK did not treat the circumstances set out by him seriously. No noticeable for Mikhail consequences of the check followed after the visit of the ONK,” the spouse emphasised.
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/426169
The situation with Mikhail Semenov clearly illustrates a systemic crisis in the sphere of observance of the rights of prisoners and demonstrates a dangerous tendency when lawful complaints about non-provision of medical assistance and unbearable conditions of detention in a pre-trial detention centre entail not the elimination of violations, but repressive measures on the part of the administration of the institution. The refusal to admit an ambulance brigade to a seriously ill prisoner who has disability of the II group, with his subsequent immediate placement in a punishment cell under a far-fetched pretext, is in fact a form of cruel and degrading treatment directed at the concealment of facts of negligence of the leadership of the isolator. This precedent requires a rigid reaction on the part of bodies of the procuracy and specialised agencies for the suppression of the practice of punitive application of disciplinary penalties in respect of vulnerable categories of citizens.
Real prison terms for leaving the unit during the period of mobilisation
The courts of the Southern Military District, which includes both Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia, stably appoint real terms of deprivation of liberty for leaving the unit. For example, in the spring of 2026 the court in Maykop sentenced the multi-child father and contract serviceman Muraz Salimov to 8 years in a general-regime colony for leaving the unit. Under the current legislation, if a serviceman is absent from the unit for more than one month “during the period of mobilisation”*, Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment of from 5 to 10 years’ deprivation of liberty.
In open access there are no data on judicial decisions in cases of unauthorised abandonment of the unit handed down in August 2026 by the Maykop and Pyatigorsk Garrison Military Courts (the latter has jurisdiction over military units and servicemen on the territory of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic). At the present moment no official publications or judicial acts on the indicated category of offences in these instances for the reporting period have been recorded in the information-telecommunications network Internet.
At the same time, on 21 September 2022 Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilisation, and on 28 October of the same year the Minister of Defence reported to the president on its completion; however, no corresponding decree followed. Lawyers came to the conclusion that for the completion of partial mobilisation a presidential decree is not required, the press secretary of Putin explained.
It is important that all the above-described incidents occurred much later than 28 October 2022, that is, after the completion of partial mobilisation.
On 24 September 2022 Parts 2.1, 3.1 and 5 of Article 337 on unauthorised abandonment of the unit or place of service during the period of mobilisation were introduced into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The amendments provide for deprivation of liberty for a term of up to 10 years. The toughening of the laws after the announcement of mobilisation led to harsher sentences for absence from the military unit.
At the same time, as of the end of June 2026 from the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine at least 470 servicemen from Kabardino-Balkaria, 204 from Karachay-Cherkessia and 141 from Adygea have been officially recognised as killed.
From the beginning of mobilisation in the autumn of 2022 an unprecedented historical maximum of more than 20 thousand criminal cases against servicemen on charges of refusal of service entered Russian military courts.
The absolute majority of these cases (more than 18 thousand) were initiated under Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — unauthorised abandonment of the unit during the period of mobilisation.
Hundreds of these cases fall on the garrison courts of the Southern Military District, including the courts of Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia and Stavropol. The military courts of the Caucasus demonstrate extreme cruelty, handing down real sentences of terms of up to 5–7 and more years of deprivation of liberty even for short-term abandonment of units by refuseniks.
These figures clearly demonstrate: Caucasian youth do not want to participate in this war. Before thousands of young people stands a tragic choice: to become accomplices in war crimes, to perish on foreign soil, or to receive a lengthy prison term.
And there are those who attempt to find alternative ways of solution, for which they also undergo criminal prosecution, for example:
- Serviceman Denis Babushkin was sentenced by the court in Nalchik to eight years’ imprisonment, having been found guilty of giving a bribe to the commander for the possibility of avoiding being sent to the zone of combat operations.
According to the case materials, serviceman Denis Babushkin in the period from 5 October 2024 to 26 May 2025 gave the deputy commander of the battalion of the military unit a bribe in the amount of 1 million 140 thousand roubles in order to avoid being directed to the line of combat contact and to perform service in the rear.
The Nalchik Garrison Military Court found Denis Babushkin guilty of giving a bribe on an especially large scale and sentenced him to eight years’ deprivation of liberty in a strict-regime colony, the press service of the court reported today on its page in the social network VKontakte.
https://vk.com/public215822488
In August 2026 it became known that the following will not return from Ukraine to Karachay-Cherkessia:
- Alexander Tarasenko (settlement Bavuko)
- Rasul Uzdenov (Malokarachayevsky District)
- Azamat Salpagarov (Ust-Dzheguta)
- Vladimir Zgonnikov (Cherkessk)
Thus, at least 203 fighters from Karachay-Cherkessia have been officially recognised as killed on the Ukrainian front.
https://xn—-dtbbip9adlm.xn--p1ai/geroi
https://200.zona.media/
https://svo.rf.gd/
Activists against the Special Military Operation
Many national activists have spoken out against the participation of their people in the invasion of Ukraine. Thus, the leading Circassian activist Ibragim Yaganov was the first to state this, declaring that “this is not our war.” In March 2026 similar conclusions were voiced by Aydamir Kazanokov:
“Circassians are not allowed to be a people — but they are allowed to be expendable material.
We are not allowed to be a people in our own home: we are not allowed to hold Adyghe Dzhegu – traditional games, we are not allowed to fully mark 14 March — the Day of the Circassian Language, we are not allowed to celebrate 25 April — the Day of the Circassian Flag, we are not allowed to honour the memory of those who fell for the freedom of Circassia on 20 May, we are not allowed on 21 May to go out on a procession on the anniversary of the end of the Russo-Circassian War of 1763–1864.
But under the same national-ideological and religious sauce — it is allowed to go to someone else’s war. It is allowed to die for the interests of a state that destroyed our country, scattered the people and to this day forbids us to restore historical memory and develop our own culture. Here is only the question: why are we not allowed to live as a people — but are allowed to die as a resource?”
https://t.me/The_Circassian_Times/14514
He also noted: “Recently calls to join volunteer battalions have been sounding more and more often. Newspapers, advertising of contract service and interviews with front-line soldiers create the sensation that young people should strive more and more to go to war.
The head of the volunteer unit ‘Elbrus’ calls to follow him and talks about ‘comfortable conditions’ at the front. When the zone of combat operations is described as a ‘sanatorium with a religious bias,’ a sensation of absurdity arises. Halal food and rooms for prayer are worthy conditions for life, but can they be an argument for participation in the heaviest military conflict?
The national environment, language and faith should unite and preserve the people, and not serve as a beautiful wrapper for attracting people into the zone of combat operations.”
https://t.me/The_Circassian_Times/14515
From the point of view of fundamental international law, the actions of the Russian Federation in mobilising the population for an aggressive war have no legal force and are criminal in their essence.
- Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) — Article 51: According to the norms of international humanitarian law, the occupying Power “may not compel protected persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces.” Any propaganda or pressure in favour of voluntary enlistment in the army is categorically prohibited.
- Hague Convention (1907) — Article 52: Directly prohibits requiring from the population of occupied or annexed territories participation in military operations against their own homeland or third states.
- The right to refuse military service on grounds of conscience: Enshrined in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Compulsion to participate in combat operations contrary to a person’s deep ethical, moral or religious convictions is a direct violation of the right to freedom of thought and conscience.
Russia, being a signatory of these conventions, commits international crimes by involving the population of territories occupied by it (as well as historically annexed republics with vulnerable indigenous status) in the conduct of an aggressive war.
Conclusions
In August 2026 regular monitoring of law-enforcement practice and observance of human rights in the Caucasian Republics, including in Karachay-Cherkessia, revealed a stable tendency towards the expansion of the scale and the toughening of the methods of repressive pressure on the part of law-enforcement and judicial bodies. The analysed period is characterised by the final formalisation of the “conveyor” principle of persecution both for current manifestations of civic disagreement and within the framework of retrospective control of the digital space.
A key feature of the month became the introduction by the state of the practice of “double sentences” inside the penitentiary system for the indefinite isolation of disloyal convicts, as well as the demonstrative use of the updated legislation on citizenship as an instrument of ideological control. Force agencies continued artificially to construct criminal cases against the national intelligentsia, ignoring basic procedural norms, the principles of chronological sequence and the presumption of innocence.
In parallel, an increase in pressure on the human rights community through extra-procedural detentions, informal interrogations and discriminatory filtration control at transport hubs of the macro-region is recorded. The presented report in detail records these violations, distributed by key analytical blocks, and contains their independent legal assessment.
An alarming aspect of the repressions became the more frequent cases of persecution of activists, as well as of the civilian population under “anti-war articles” and mass sentences for desertion (Article 337 of the Criminal Procedure Code) in the light of the policy of prolonged cultural colonialism.
In the Russian legal context “anti-war offences” in the first place include criminal accusations of dissemination of “knowingly false information” about the Armed Forces (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and repeated “discrediting” of the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Procedure Code), as well as the corresponding administrative offences. According to data of the human rights project “OVD-Info,” since February 2022 throughout the country more than 1,180 persons have undergone criminal prosecution in connection with an anti-war position. Human rights organisations single out the North Caucasus as a region with an exceptionally high density of persecutions in anti-war cases. In the North Caucasus hundreds of administrative cases under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences have been documented. Because of the legal mechanism of recidivism, repeated administrative offences often grow into full-fledged criminal accusations. Documented prison terms in these concrete districts are counted in tens, mainly because of comments in social networks, solitary pickets or dissemination of anti-war literature.
Residents of both the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasian Federal District are regularly entered into national registers of political prisoners. In addition, in the southern regions a sharp growth in the number of criminal accusations with high stakes is observed, including high treason, espionage and sabotage.
Political and anti-war persecutions in the North Caucasus have brightly expressed regional particularities. In addition to the standard laws on “fake news” and “discrediting,” the regional authorities actively use accusations of extremism, terrorism and attacks on officers of law-enforcement bodies. Moreover, punitive measures, as a rule, extend not only to individual persons, but also to the relatives of the accused.
Although summary regional judicial data for the North Caucasian Federal District and the Southern Federal District remain classified, human rights organisations invariably rank the North Caucasus among the regions with the largest number of cases connected with desertion on the scale of the whole country. By the middle of 2025 more than 18,000 criminal cases of desertion had entered Russian courts. A leak of data from the databases of the Ministry of Defence showed that only in the Southern Military District (Southern Federal District) more than 26,000 servicemen had been classified as having unauthorisedly left the unit or place of service.
Hava Beshtoeva,
Coordinator of human rights initiatives,
“International Circassian Center for Support and Assistance” (USA)