Russian authorities move to close newspaper critical of police in volatile Caucasus province

Independent newspaper faces closure in Russia

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — An independent newspaper in a Russian province near Chechnya is facing closure on charges of carrying extremist statements — an accusation its editor denounced as an attempt to stifle criticism of police brutality.

Authorities have accused the weekly Chernovik of sympathizing with Islamic militants who have been launching almost daily attacks against police. Last week, a sniper killed Dagestan’s top law-enforcement official, feeding fears that the southern region may be spinning out of control.

Chernovik editor Nadira Isayeva said, however, that officials were seeking to shut down the paper because they were angry over its exposure of police brutality and corruption — police conduct she said had helped swell the number of Islamic militants.

“The main reason behind the persecution of the newspaper is our journalists’ opinion about the activities of law-enforcement structures, which differs from the official view,” Isayeva told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The newspaper faces a preliminary court hearing on extremism charges next week in the provincial capital, Makhachkala.

In filing the lawsuit, authorities cited a July article that quoted a rebel warlord denouncing Dagestan’s authorities, saying federal law bans the media from spreading “extremist” statements.

The law has been used elsewhere in Russia to close down independent newspapers.

A deputy regional head of the federal agency overseeing the media said the lawsuit was a legitimate response to what he described as the paper’s attempt to justify the militants’ actions. “They can write about violations by some police officers, but they shouldn’t blacken the Interior Ministry as a whole,” Saidbek Magomedov said.

Rights groups have said growing Islamic militancy in the North Caucasus has largely been rooted in a brutal police crackdown on Muslims who follow non-mainstream branches of Islam. The crackdown has included abductions, arbitrary arrests, torture and killings of people suspected of having links with militants.

The crackdown has coincided with a steady rise in violence in Dagestan and other nearby provinces, though Chechnya has become more stable after two separatist wars in the last 15 years.

Chernovik had warned that many Muslims were joining Dagestan’s insurgency either to avoid arbitrary arrest or torture by police, or to take revenge for heavy-handed police tactics.

Isayeva said the newspaper had a responsibility to inform about police abuses, saying “law-enforcement structures mustn’t delude the media and the public about the methods they use against suspects.”

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged Russian authorities to drop the charges and stop efforts to close the paper.

“The attempt to silence one of the few remaining independent voices in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus region is deeply disturbing,” Nina Ognianova, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement. “Using accusations of extremism and incitement to hatred in politicized lawsuits has become a favored tactic of repression.”

Arsen Mollayev has covered Dagestan for The Associated Press since 1999.