Human rights activists assessed the effectiveness of complaints about border guard checks using the case of Khatazhukov as an example.

It is important to seek verification of the actions of border guards, who detained the head of the Kabardino-Balkar Human Rights Center, Valery Khatazhukov, for more than two hours, human rights activists indicated. They noted that, although a desired response to this specific case may not follow, addressing the Attorney General is important as it records a violation of constitutional rights.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", border guards at Mineralnye Vody Airport detained the head of the Kabardino-Balkar Human Rights Center, Valery Khatazhukov, for more than two hours, questioning him about his human rights activities and connections in Turkey. The human rights activist filed a complaint against the actions of the security forces with the Attorney General of the Russian Federation.

The chairperson of the "Civic Assistance" Committee* Svetlana Gannushkina* believes that Khatazhukov's appeal to the Attorney General is important to achieve an investigation into the actions of the border service.

Because sometimes border guards behave very strangely, and the FSB, which oversees the border guards, does not explain anything properly. There has been quite a large flow of complaints to us about people being denied passage through the border in Russia, in general, without any grounds. An eighty-year-old woman was not allowed through, despite having regularly lived in Russia, with her daughter - a Russian citizen. According to them, she represents "a threat to the defense capability of the Russian Federation". Can you imagine, a grandmother is a threat to defense capability. A student who was studying in Russia was also not allowed to return. In response to our new appeals, they finally replied: "We recommend trying to enter the Russian Federation again after the end of the special military operation," she said.

The human rights activist herself has faced certain problems with the border service of the Russian Federation more than once.

"I was detained for two years. Every time I left and entered, I was held at the border for 15 to 40 minutes. I appealed to the person sitting at that window. The person set my passport aside. Called some new comrade, who took my passport away. At the same time, there were no explanations. I filed a complaint, and they replied that they have the right to check what they deem necessary. But what they check remains unclear to me," Gannushkina* said.

She does not remember cases of punishment for border service employees for such actions.

"But in the end, they stopped bothering us when crossing the border. After we, along with our lawyer, wrote a letter to the FSB of Russia specifically. That here is an elderly woman, who travels to conferences, feels unwell, and for some reason, she is being held, with no explanations... There was some formal response, nothing substantial. But after that, it stopped," Gannushkina* noted.

The representative of the KBR Human Rights Center Zaour Shokuev believes that the likelihood of identifying specific officials involved in this incident during the prosecutor's investigation, as practice shows, is extremely low.

"However, hypothetically, based on the nature of the actions of these employees, if their identities are established and their guilt is proven, punishment may range from disciplinary action (reprimand or dismissal) to criminal prosecution if their actions are deemed to constitute a crime, for example, abuse of office (Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)," he said.

According to the human rights activist, the significance of the prosecutor's assessment is determined not by the private nature of the incident, as Khatazhukov points out in his statement, but by the systemic nature of the border guards' practices.

"This practice goes beyond their competence and violates the constitutional rights of citizens. That is why the assessment of this episode may subsequently serve as a basis for curbing similar abuses," Shokuev concluded.

The human rights activist Olga Begretova reported that the responses to her complaints "all boiled down to some state secret." "They said there were grounds, but what grounds - that’s a secret. This was a long time ago, and I didn’t pursue it further," she told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot".

She noted that the cassation complaint regarding the actions of the border guards due to forced fingerprinting was left without satisfaction.

Activist from Nalchik, Olga Begretova complained about forced fingerprinting at Mineralnye Vody Airport in November 2022. The investigation found no violations in the actions of the border guards. Begretova appealed to the military court in Pyatigorsk, demanding that the investigation be obliged to initiate a case against the border service employees, but the court recognized both the actions of the border guards and the refusal of the investigation to investigate the incident as lawful. After that, the activist demanded to recognize the refusal of the republican FSB to provide the information collected about her as illegal. The Nalchik City Court, citing state secrecy, denied the claim, and the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld this decision. In November 2024, Begretova demanded an investigation to resolve contradictions in the statements of representatives of the Border Management of the FSB of Kabardino-Balkaria. She received no response and complained to the Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Southern Military District about the inaction of the 55th Military Investigative Department.

* included by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.