Residents of Dagestan actively discuss blogger's critical photo report about visit to Makhachkala

Ilya Varlamov, a photographer and blogger and one of the organizers of "Urban Projects, who visited Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, has treated the city as dirty and unkempt, and disliked by local residents.

Ilya Varlamov posted his photo report about his trip to Makhachkala on February 2 in his page on the LiveJournal in the post "Bad Makhachkala".

He points out that city residents blame the authorities of all the sins: "These bureaucrats are doing nothing, just stealing money, and generally they don't care about people. Well, let's say it's so; but what prevents from stopping throwing garbage out of windows? The authorities in Makhachkala are same as people – they all live under same rules," Ilya Varlamov has concluded.

The photo report and comments of Ilya Varlamov about his trip to Makhachkala have triggered a strong reaction in social networks. Some residents of Dagestan acknowledged the truthfulness of the description, others try to find pros in the city or accused the blogger of bias.

"In Makhachkala, we have a lot of shortcomings, as, indeed, everywhere; and there are also pluses, as everywhere else. It all depends on whether there is prejudice or not. Varlamov, when he was on his way here, already wrote on his website: "I'm going to bad Dagestan", or something like that; that is, he was already going there with a negative attitude, with the intention to write bad about us. God will judge him!" Zhanna Abueva wrote.

"There's of course plenty of dirt; but it's interesting that this person, who has no direct attitude to Dagestan, show dirt, while he could show mountains and sea, and many more interesting things; on the other hand I support him in that our people are proud, although, they tolerate too much," said Magomed Nikamagomedov.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.