(In the photo — Arsen Magomedov preparing to record a video in support of Martin Kochesoko and Ivan Golunov)
Almost simultaneously with the arrest of Ivan Golunov in Moscow, which is currently attracting the attention of the entire Russian media, following the same scenario in Nalchik, another prominent public figure, but at the republican level of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic and at the national level of the Circassian people, was arrested. We are talking about Martin Kochesoko, the leader of the largest Circassian organization «Habze» (pictured below).
Like Golunov, Kochesoko was «found» to be on drugs (apparently the authorities want to convince Russians that all opposition figures in the country are drug addicts…). As in the case of Golunov, this happened after repeated threats against him, which he had repeatedly reported to the media. Like the Moscow journalist, the Circassian public figure raised extremely uncomfortable questions for the current system, in particular about the authorities’ opposition to the repatriation of the indigenous Circassian people to their homeland, which is particularly striking against the background of the mass granting of Russian citizenship to residents of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
Kochesoko’s arrest on such absurd charges has outraged not only the Circassian community, but the entire Caucasian public, whose representatives decided to show solidarity with him through individual pickets, as Moscow journalists did when they came to support Golunov. However, Arsen Magomedov, a well-known public figure, lawyer and head of the «Our City» organization in Makhachkala, was detained as he prepared to record a video in support of both Kochesoko and Golunov.
The two almost simultaneous arrests of prominent public figures in different parts of the country indicate that the system is moving toward mass repression of dissent.