Vladikavkaz resident accused of beating journalist Totrov

A resident of Vladikavkaz beat journalist Ruslan Totrov for posting critical articles, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reports its version today. The man has been charged with obstructing journalistic activities.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on January 21, Ruslan Totrov was beaten at his workplace in Vladikavkaz: the journalist got two of his teeth broken and his lip smashed. Ruslan Totrov said the attackers claimed they were dissatisfied with his critical posts about the President of South Ossetia. According to the journalist, one of the attackers was an employee of the South-Ossetian Ministry of Defence (MoD), “a person from among President Bibilov’s close associates,” and the second attacker was a resident of Vladikavkaz.

The 36-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz is charged under Part 3 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (obstruction of the legitimate professional activity of a journalist), the press service for the ICRF’s Department for North Ossetia reports today.

According to the investigators’ version, on January 21, the defendant came to the Ruslan Totrov’s office and “in order to obstruct his professional activities used physical violence against the journalist” for his posts with critical materials “against the defendant’s acquaintances.”

Let us remind you that earlier, Ruslan Totrov said it was unusual that a criminal case had been instituted under Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. “This is very exotic not only for the Caucasus, but also for Russia as a whole: within a year, in the whole country, only six or seven cases are processed under Article 144, let alone Part 3 of Article 144. Northern Caucasus knows no law enforcement practice [for Part 3 of Article 144] at all,” Ruslan Totrov told the “Caucasian Knot”.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 26, 2021 at 12:24 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.