Lawyer Denis Shapiro, who is also deputy commander of the Akhmat special forces, told the agency: RIA NewsHe said he sent a statement to the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Justice General Alexander Bastrykin. The statement includes a request to initiate criminal proceedings for inciting ethnic hatred and discrediting the Russian army.
The basis for submitting the application was the publication of voice messages on one of the Telegram channels containing information about the alleged inter-ethnic conflict within the Akhmat special forces on an ethnic basis.
“I sent a statement via email to General of Justice Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin with a request to open a criminal case regarding the attempt to incite ethnic hatred and discredit the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” Shapiro said. He also added that he appealed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov with a request to take the case under personal control.
Shapiro believes that these actions can be characterized as public actions aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the article, the maximum penalty is imprisonment for up to 7 years. “The information disseminated on the telegram channel is false and defamatory regarding the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in particular the Akhmat special forces, which are part of the second corps of the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation; ” Shapiro noted.
He said the voice messages were fake and said they were created by people “actually acting in the interests of the Ukrainian army, trying to provoke internal conflict in the Russian contingent in difficult war conditions.” According to the lawyer, law enforcement needs to identify everyone involved in this “despicable act” and fully understand the situation.
Akhmat special forces commander Apta Alaudinov told RIA Novosti that all soldiers in his unit are equal, regardless of nationality. “They all bravely fulfill their duty and for me they are real heroes and patriots of Russia. “Akhmat” and other units include Russians, Chechens, Buryats and representatives of other nationalities,” Alaudinov explained.
Previously in Chechnya stopped It issues foreign passports to “young people under the age of 30 who are not accompanied by their parents.”