The head of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, has responded to former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who asked him to release from criminal responsibility the participants of the riots at Makhachkala airport.
“We have athletes respected by all of us, here, for example, Khabib Nurmagomedov,” Melikov said, speaking to reporters in Makhachkala. “He says, ‘You shouldn’t break the fates of young guys and punish them in a showy way so that others are afraid. It doesn’t work here. It’s time to realize this already and get into an open dialog with the people. On the contrary, show a gesture of kindness, that you are going towards them, and if it happens again, punish more severely'”
“I deeply respect Khabib, I know him personally and I welcome his appeal, but I understand that he made this statement after reading some context of my statements. And who demands that everyone who was at the airport that night be punished? There were both those who flew out and those who flew in. Should everyone be penalized? No, of course not. There are probably some comrades who really got there by accident. That is, two people were traveling in a car, they put the third one in, and he was not happy that he was there. And if he did not carry out any illegal actions, if he did not affect the safety of the airport, if he did not injure police officers, did not smash shop windows, who says that he will be prosecuted?”.
“But you see, we have a system of forgiveness in Dagestan. As an example, the summer situation – 36 people died. With a certain cynicism some people say on the third day, after they detained the owner of this facility where ammonium nitrate was stored – ‘He had nothing to do with it, the authorities are to blame, because the authorities did not organize an inspection of the presence of nitrate in this warehouse!’ The authorities are to blame for everything – this has become traditional for Dagestan. In the case of the airport, Melikov is to blame again. I had the impression that I was marching ahead of him with a Palestinian flag to seize the airport”
On the eve of the press service of the Supreme Court of Dagestan reported that fifteen people were arrested in the case of mass riots at Makhachkala airport, although initially it was said about fifty detainees.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33046-glava-dagestana-otvetil-khabibu-po-povodu-besporyadkov-v-aeroportu.html?rand=19907
