Conflict in Minvody was caused by problems in Stavropol Territory, experts assert

The incident in the city of Mineralnye Vody (Minvody), where a man died after a mass fight at the hospital and where his death was followed by mass protests, was the result of the complex problems in the Stavropol Territory. Meanwhile, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe the conflict should not be divided into interethnic and domestic sides.

According to investigators, at night of September 21, 32 people broke into the central district hospital of Minvody and started beating Anatoly Larionov, a 31-year-old young man. He was seriously injured and died on September 29. His friend Ruslan Abdulzhalilov and sick nurse Nina Stanka were also injured. The investigators detained 21 suspects.

After city residents held public gatherings and demanded to investigate the incident, a lot of top-ranking local officials lost their jobs in the Stavropol Territory.

According to Anton Chablin, a journalist ad a political scientist, the incident can be described by the term of "bloc conflict" introduced by experts of the scientific conflictological school of the North-Caucasian Federal University.

This term interprets any major incident as a result of the relationship between economic, social, and criminal problems in the region, the conditions of life of the opposing sides and effectiveness of local authorities.

The events in Minvody are directly related to the "extremely complex ethnic situation in the Stavropol Territory." This was stated by Andrei Serenko, the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Foundation for the Study of Electoral Policy. The expert has not ruled out that the contradiction can serve as "the basis for a large-scale conflict in the region."