Khatazhukov complained to the Attorney General about the actions of the border guards at Mineralnye Vody airport.
Border guards at Mineralnye Vody airport held 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 defender reported the unlawful actions of the security forces in Mineralnye Vody in a complaint to the Attorney General of Russia, Alexander Gutsan.
On August 2, Khatazhukov was returning from Istanbul after surgery to remove a malignant tumor. According to him, he answered all questions about the purpose and circumstances of the trip and presented medical documents from the Turkish clinic. The border guards found this insufficient and began to question Khatazhukov about his work at the human rights center and whether he had visitors from Turkey at the clinic.
The officers refused to provide their names or show identification, limiting themselves to a conditional code “VN-0071,” and explained the need for verification by citing a military operation, according to the complaint published today on the website of the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center. Khatazhukov notes that no procedural decisions regarding his administrative detention were made, and there were no signs of an offense.
He regarded the actions of the border guards as a violation of Articles 22, 23, and 24 of the Constitution of Russia regarding freedom and personal inviolability, the inviolability of private life, and the prohibition of collecting information about a person without their consent. The collection of information about human rights activities and personal contacts is not related to the objectives of border control as defined by federal law, and the detention itself does not meet the grounds for administrative detention, the human rights defender pointed out. He believes that, given sufficient grounds, the incident should be classified as abuse of office.
Khatazhukov requests a service check and the identification of the officers acting under the code “VN-0071.” Copies of medical documents from the Istanbul clinic are attached to the complaint.
Such checks at Mineralnye Vody airport are systemic and regularly affect residents of Kabardino-Balkaria, as well as Russian compatriots from Turkey and other countries, the human rights defender claims. Selective attention to those returning from abroad, in his opinion, damages Russia's reputation as a rule-of-law state.
As reported by “Caucasian Knot,” earlier, an 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 compelled to initiate a case against the border service officers, 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 secrets, 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 Control 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.
“Caucasian Knot” currently has no comments from representatives of the Border Control of the FSB and the Attorney General's Office regarding Khatazhukov's complaint.