Khamzaev demonstratively secured public support in his conflict with bloggers

State Duma Deputy Biysultan Khamzayev, who came under fire after a conflict with bloggers visiting Dagestan, has enlisted residents of the republic to record video messages of support, including Murtazali Gasanguseynov, the father of the shepherd brothers killed by security forces.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," residents of Dagestan affected by the flood admitted that they received no assistance from bloggers and other public figures, and that the aid promised to them by the authorities is not enough to compensate for all their losses.

Biysultan Khamzaev also accused Chechen blogger Askhab Tamaev of "hype on misfortune." He came to Dagestan to distribute 20 apartments purchased for victims by a sponsor he had found. Tamaev subsequently interrupted his charitable mission.

In Dagestan, Askhab Tamaev managed, among other things, to hand over the keys to an apartment to a woman who lost her home in a flood, as noted on April 14 by a reader of the "Caucasian Knot" with the nickname cherry.

“Such statements from your fellow countryman offend me. I swear, I had no intention of capitalizing on this disaster. I need neither hype nor money. I'm going home, brothers,” the Chechen news agency Grozny-Inform quoted the blogger as saying on April 15.

A commentator on the "Caucasian Knot" noted that, following Tamayev's winding down of his campaign, an appeal to bloggers, athletes, and other public figures from Chechnya who were helping Dagestanis had spread on social media: they were asked "not to neglect their brothers" and to send aid to ethnic Chechens in three villages in the Khasavyurt district affected by the flood. “Three villages, all of whom are Chechen, were flooded. I'm not talking about Chechnya and the harm we suffered.” "I'm talking about three Chechen villages that are part of the Khasavyurt district," the author of the appeal noted.

Residents of Dagestan criticized Biysultan Khamzayev for attacking visiting bloggers and ridiculed his personal contribution to helping flood victims, recalling that the deputy saved a kitten from the water. Khamzayev himself stated that "many residents support his position," Mash wrote on April 14.

Confirming public support, on April 17, Khamzayev published video messages from two people on his personal Telegram channel: the father of Murtazali Gasanguseynov, the shepherd brothers killed by security forces, and Aminat Abuzhanatova, a mountain woman whose husband and son were killed in military action in Ukraine. Both spoke out in support of Khamzayev, lending their public authority to various aspects of his accusations. Bloggers.

Gasanguseynov called Khamzaev a "true patriot" in a video who "does everything possible for Dagestan." "The first lawyer said to me, 'Where are you going against a tank?' I replied, 'So that other sons of Dagestan don't get killed!' And what are you doing today? Promoting what's killing our children. Energy drinks are bad, alcohol is bad, drugs are bad. What did Sultan Khamzaev say wrong?" he said.

Abuzhanatova, in turn, said that she "having lost her husband and son, gained a brother in Khamzaev." "Today, my brother is being attacked, asking what he did. I want to remind you that a man shouldn't talk about his good deeds; that's our tradition. (...) They made a comedy out of this poor cat. "You're asking, 'What did Khamzaev do? Where were you when we needed you?'" the woman said. In the introduction to the video, the deputy indicated that Abuzhanatova "is asking this question to all those who created this mess on the mountain of Dagestan."

Dagestani journalists, commenting on the scandal surrounding Khamzaev and the bloggers to "Caucasian Knot," expressed confidence that sincere people will continue to provide assistance to the republic's residents. "If some bloggers, under the pretext of a scandal, want to refuse their promised assistance, that's their own business." "Perhaps this could serve as some kind of obstacle for those who decided, as they say, to 'hype' it," believes Idris Yusupov (listed on the Russian register of foreign agents). His colleague added that "by the time the scandal erupted, a system of interaction between bloggers, activists, foundations, and the republican government had already been developed."

"Everyone was already working and interacting on the ground." And Khamzaev's interference in this work, who identified himself there not as someone who had come to help, but as someone who had come for PR and to "inspect" someone else's work, and by criticizing Litvin, provoked such a sharp reaction from society," the journalist explained.

Dagestani analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" named ill-considered development of territories, natural factors, and the deplorable state of hydraulic structures among the causes of the devastating flood. At the same time, they Unanimously considered the volunteers' contribution to the flood relief effort significant. The Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences previously attributed the regular flooding in Dagestan to a combination of natural processes and anthropogenic impacts, which increases the scale of natural disasters and increases the risks to people.

The "Caucasian Knot" has compiled materials on flooding in the republics of the North Caucasus Federal District in the spring of 2026 on the thematic page "Flooding in the North Caucasus".