Members of Chechen and Dagestan communities apologize for soldiers after monument desecration

The military servicemen, who mocked at the monument in a military unit in the Krasnodar Territory, did not realize what they were doing, Muslim Magomadov, a member of the Council for Interethnic Relations under the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, has stated and apologized for them.

The two suspects were drafted from Dagestan and Chechnya, the press service of the Southern Military District has reported.

The video was posted in the Readovka Telegram channel. It shows a soldier practices power moves on a sculpture depicting two soldiers: he does chokeholds, kicks and slaps. Laughter is heard in the background. According to the channel, the video shows a monument to the fighters of the 10th separate brigade of special forces of the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) installed near the Molkino farmstead; it is dedicated to the feat of the Russian special officer Raushan Abdullin, who perished on August 8, 2008, in South Ossetia, when Russian troops entered the conflict zone.

Delegations from the Chechen and Dagestan Diasporas arrived at the military unit. They apologized for the behaviour of their fellow countrymen and had an educational conversation with the soldiers, the "Kuban 24" TV Channel has reported.

Magomed Nurutdinov, the representative of the Dagestani President for the Krasnodar Territory, said that what the soldiers did was "a loss of the authority of their parents."

Sergey Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said that residents of the republic condemn this cynical act, and stressed that it should not form a distorted opinion about the Caucasian youth in general.