How a fighter from Dagestan defiled a Buddha. Reaction of Dagestanis to the Incident in Kalmykia: From Condemnation to Understanding

The Ministry of Sports and Youth of Dagestan has planned a series of educational meetings with local residents in connection with the incident with the desecration of the Buddha statue in Elista. Monks in Elista performed a ritual of purification of the Buddha statue and prayed for the detained Dagestani. However, information about the desecration of the statue was denied by a source in his team, who noted that he was not at the scene of the incident.

Athletes from Dagestan, walking along Elista on April 1, went to a Buddhist temple, where one of them relieved his need, and also kicked the statue of Buddha, "Rain" reports, noting that perhaps no one would have known about the incident if the athletes themselves did not broadcast their actions to the Periscope app. The footage posted on the Internet was seen by residents of Elista and came to deal with the wrestlers at the hotel where the team was staying. The fight was miraculously avoided, but the Dagestani had to kneel down on the knees to ask the angry Buddhists for forgiveness, the channel reports. It is noteworthy that videos about the events that followed the incident in the temple were posted on the network, including on the YouTube site. They only broadcast photos of a guy doing a stretch with his leg to the Buddha's nose.

The father of the detained fighter apologized to the Kalmyk people for this incident. The head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov also apologized, stressing that "what happened will not remain without proper response." The head of the Buddhists of Kalmykia, Shadzhin Lama Telo Tulku Rinpoche, expressed gratitude to the residents of Dagestan, who apologized for the incident in Elista.

The source denied information about the desecration of the statue of Buddha

The reason for the conflict between the Kalmyks and the Dagestanis was the fighter's hard-hitting words about the Buddha monument, broadcast on Periscope, said source in the Dagestan wrestling team ... He denied information about the desecration of a Buddhist temple.

“The fact that now they say that our athlete allegedly relieved his need in a Buddhist temple and hit the statue of Buddha is all untrue. Our athletes did not even go inside the temple. They were returning from dinner and stopped at the temple. The broadcast was carried out outside. , which is replicated on the Internet, where someone kicks the statue of Buddha, it is definitely not our athlete, "a source who did not want to be named told the" Caucasian Knot "correspondent.

He also noted that he was not at the scene of the incident.

According to the source, the Kalmyks gathered in front of the hotel were armed with clubs, fittings, and if they had not been taken out through the back door in time, many Dagestani athletes would have suffered.

Monakhs in Elista performed a ritual of cleansing the statue of Buddha and prayed for the detained Dagestani

"In the event of the desecration of Buddhist shrines, two rituals are usually held - 'tusol' [purification] and 'ramne' [consecration]," said the assistant to the Shandzhin Lama of Kalmykia Khongr Elbiev , noting that the procedures were carried out this time as well.

During the ritual, in which, in addition to the monks, local residents took part, the statue of Buddha was washed with spring water, its head and neck were covered with new gold paint. In addition, the sacred object was dressed in clean clothes, fumigated with juniper, after reciting the mantra of purification over it.

"These are very important rituals, they leave good imprints in the mind. With these rituals we paid tribute to the Buddha and, as it were, said that now the statue is clean of the dirt that was caused to it," Elbiev noted. He also added that the light rain in Elista became an "additional grace".

After reading the mantra of cleansing the statue of filth, the monks also prayed for the person who, according to their information, abused her, writes "Komsomolskaya Pravda in Stavropol."

Dagestan ministries of sports and youth have planned educational meetings with local residents and athletes

The Ministry of Sports and Physical Culture of Dagestan intends to discuss measures of educational work with all directors, coaches and students of sports schools in the republic, the department told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. The first event is scheduled for today.

According to the first deputy minister of sports of Dagestan Zainal Salautdinov, the meetings will be held in all four districts of the republic.

"On April 6, we will gather all workers in the sports industry, athletes and pupils of sports schools in the Central Territorial District of Dagestan at a meeting to discuss measures to improve the organization of educational work. The same meetings will be held in Derbent, Khasavyurt, Shamilkala," he told the "Caucasian Knot" Zainal Salautdinov .

According to him, about three thousand people will take part in these events.

"After the completion of all meetings, a document will be developed. We have not yet decided what format it will be. Whether it will be a program, a concept or a code of honor for athletes. But in it we will prescribe how a participant in all-Russian and international physical culture and sports competitions should behave." - said the official.

According to the Deputy Minister, explanatory conversations with students have already been held in all sports schools.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs of Dagestan also intends to hold educational talks with athletes.

"Workers of the Ministry of Youth will visit gyms together with spiritual mentors and teachers and tell young people how to behave outside the republic," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told in the Ministry of Youth Affairs of Dagestan .

Note that members of the Dagestan youth freestyle wrestling team were in Elista in order to participate in the tournament named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Basan Gorodovikov. Sports competitions had to be canceled because of the incident, reports "Rossiyskaya Gazeta".

A resident of Dagestan who desecrated a statue of Buddha in Kalmykia was taken into custody for two months. The desecrated statue will be purified on Tuesday. In Kalmykia and Dagestan, they hope that after the apologies of Dagestani officials, the incident will not develop into an interethnic confrontation. Some experts consider both the arrest and the criminal case itself, initiated after the incident on the fact of insulting the feelings of believers to be superfluous: from their point of view, this legal structure, which appeared in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation shortly after the Pussy Riot action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, is not in itself completely elaborated and weakens the position of the accused in advance.

The Dagestani, who on the night of April 2, desecrated the statue of Buddha in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista, recorded his actions on video and broadcast it on the Internet social network, was arrested for two months. Elista city court authorized the arrest of a suspect in a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public actions expressing clear disrespect for society and committed in order to offend the religious feelings of believers, committed in places specially designed for worship, other religious rituals and ceremonies). The offender could face imprisonment for up to three years.

The incident with the desecration of the statue has caused outrage in Kalmykia, but has not yet developed into interethnic confrontation. Already on Saturday night, residents of Elista obtained an apology at the hotel where the athletes who came to the freestyle wrestling tournament stayed: the culprit of the incident himself had to apologize on his knees. At the same time, some residents of Elista complain about the provocative inaccuracies made by journalists and bloggers in their coverage of events. Users from other Buddhist regions of Russia, Buryatia and Tuva, willingly joined the virtual discussion, who generally approve of the harsh reaction of the Elista, who immediately demanded an apology from the guest. On the other hand, the Tuvan journalist Sayana Mongush is “embarrassed and upset” by her readiness for retaliatory aggression and recalls the burning of a Muslim prayer room near Elista in July 2014 as a “dubious feat”. “The feat is to keep your sanity in the face of incessant invitations to fight,” Ms Mongush believes. In turn, the majority of Dagestani commentators condemned the action of the fellow countryman, although there were many statements condemning the inaction of the police, which, according to users, allowed the athlete to be humiliated by the crowd. The most radical users, in the context of the authorities' inaction, also recalled the burning of the prayer room in 2014, as well as the desecration in 2006 of a mosque in the village of Prikumskiy on the border of Kalmykia with Dagestan and the Stavropol Territory, where a pig's head was thrown.

On the official Dagestan resources about the incident in Elista, there was no information until Monday (the statement of the chairman of the Dagestan Committee on Freedom of Conscience, Interaction with Religious Organizations, published on Sunday, was also removed from the website of the republican news agency).

On Monday, Kommersant received a comment from the representative of the Dagestan government in Kalmykia, Magomed-Rasul Umalatov. According to him, more than 20 thousand natives of Dagestan live and work in Kalmykia: most of them are engaged in animal husbandry, and the townspeople, as a rule, try to develop their business or get jobs in law enforcement agencies. Mr. Umalatov told Kommersant that after the conflict in Elista he did not receive any complaints from Dagestanis living in this republic after the conflict in Elista: “Local Dagestanis and fellow countrymen from Dagestan call me, and all as one condemn the act of this scoundrel” ...

The head of Kalmykia, Aleksey Orlov, said that the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov also apologized to the people of Kalmykia, who sent Abdusamad Gamidov, the chairman of the republic’s government, to Elista. In the presence of Alexei Orlov and representatives of the media, he made an official statement: “Our peoples have always lived like good neighbors. Thousands of Dagestanis live peacefully alongside the Kalmyk people. They live together, work, respecting the religious and spiritual values \u200b\u200bof our fraternal people. Therefore, we wanted to offer a deep apology. The actions of some young people disgrace our republic as a whole. Let us assure you that this fact will not go unpunished. " According to Mr. Gamidov, the coach of the national team, who brought the Dagestani team to the competition in Elista, has already been fired.

Meanwhile, already in the Sunday statement of the chairman of the Dagkomreligion Magomed Abdurakhmanov, there was a sharp condemnation of "an extremely unseemly act of the Dagestan athlete, expressed in insulting the religious feelings of the inhabitants of Kalmykia, where he was visiting": live representatives of the most diverse cultures and beliefs, neither age nor ignorance. However, the negative attitude towards the act of one person should not be transferred to the entire republic, where from time immemorial many nationalities with different cultural traditions and religious views have peacefully coexisted. " The chairman of the committee suggested inviting representatives of the Muftiate of Dagestan to the gyms so that they would lecture the athletes on religious tolerance.

On the morning of April 4, a statement by the press service and information department of the administration of the head and government of Dagestan “in connection with the events in Elista” was finally published: “This incident was unconditionally condemned by the Dagestanis. Ignorance, lack of culture, the extremely low level of education of some young people, unfortunately, entail actions that have no justification. A telephone conversation has already taken place at the level of the leaders of Dagestan and the Republic of Kalmykia. A government delegation headed by the chairman of the government of Dagestan Abdusamad Hamidov visited Elista. Corresponding work is being carried out by the law enforcement agencies, the parents of the young man apologized ... The incident will not remain without proper response. "

The experts interviewed by Kommersant believe that apologies could have been limited. Pavel Chikov, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC), does not agree with the qualification of the Dagestan fighter's actions at the current stage: “Without clarifying the motive of the accused, it is impossible to assert the fact of the insult, there must be direct intent. Whether he showed a banner or insulted Buddhists - this should be established, ”he told a Kommersant correspondent. In the opinion of the HRC member, the detention of the accused in this case is “clearly an excessive and unreasonable reaction”. “The very criminalization of insulting the feelings of believers looks excessive, and now they are also being deprived of freedom for it,” said Mr. Chikov. Ali Charinsky, an Islamic activist from Dagestan, believes that the conflict was settled when the fighter who insulted the Buddhists knelt down and apologized: “If he saved his friends from the massacre, then he did everything right. And the fact that everything was stopped so quickly is also true. I only hope that there will be no response from the Kalmyks to Muslims, this will be dangerous. "

The desecrated statue of Buddha will undergo a purification ceremony on Tuesday, Minister of Culture and Tourism Khongor Elbikov told reporters.

Yulia Rybina, Makhachkala; Badma Burchiev, Elista; Grigory Tumanov

On April 1, groups of athletes left Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and other republics of the North Caucasus for freestyle wrestling competitions in the Republic of Kalmykia. One of the athletes of the Dagestan team, walking around Elista, desecrated the Buddhist datsan. He put his feet in there, spat, and eventually relieved a little need there. All this was filmed on the phone and broadcasted on the famous social network Periscop. At the moment, the video has been withdrawn from public use. Local residents, who learned about this, surrounded the hotel and demanded that the defiler be handed over. Until he was issued, several new cars with Dagestan numbers following through Kalmykia were burned. A double-decker bus was hit by stones.
On the night of April 1 to April 2, 2016, the duty station of Elista received a message that in the city center there was a massive domestic conflict between companies of young people. On the spot, the police found that athletes from the Republic of Dagestan, who came to the republican freestyle wrestling competitions, participated in the conflict. Currently, the instigator of the conflict has been detained and taken to the police station for further investigation. Other Dagestani and Chechen athletes, in five teams accompanied by police officers, left the region. Judging from discussions on the Internet, athletes spoke unflatteringly about architectural monuments with religious significance. To investigate the incident, the Minister of Physical Culture and Sports of the Republic of Dagestan Magomed Magomedov and the Prime Minister of Dagestan Abdusamad Gamidov have already left for Kalmykia. “Residents of Elista, who saw the video, arrived at the hotel where the athlete was staying, dragged him out into the street, knelt down and forced him to publicly apologize. The athlete said the words of apology, but immediately made an indecent gesture. The further development of the conflict was stopped by the police who arrived at the scene, ”the heads of the republics also phoned.
A young man who has become the instigator of the conflict is threatened with an article for insulting religious feelings.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Dagestan Abdusamad Gamidov, in the presence of the Head of the Republic of Kalmykia Alexey Orlov and media representatives, apologized to the people of Kalmykia for the act of vandalism committed by an athlete of Dagestan the day before. “Our peoples have always lived as good neighbors. Thousands of Dagestanis live peacefully alongside the Kalmyk people. They live together, work, respecting the religious and spiritual values \u200b\u200bof our fraternal people. Therefore, we wanted to offer a deep apology. The actions of some young people disgrace our republic as a whole. Let us assure you that this fact will not go unpunished. To date, the coach of the national team has already been dismissed, who brought our guys to the freestyle wrestling competition in Elista. This is another reason for us to pay attention to the education of the younger generation, so that such incidents do not arise in the future. "

A major sectarian conflict nearly erupted in Russia over the weekend. The outbreak occurred in the previously relatively calm Kalmykia, and the confrontation arose between Muslims and Buddhists.

Buddhists are the smallest group of four traditional religions in Russia. They are concentrated mainly in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva.

There were no serious conflicts between Buddhists and Christians, but cases of confrontation between adherents of Islam and followers of Buddha were already noted in 2005-2007.

A new incident took place in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista, where the traditional free-style wrestling tournament in memory was to take place Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Basan Gorodovikov.

Athletes from all over the country came to the competition, including from the Caucasian republics, where wrestling is extremely popular.

Crime and Punishment

On the eve of the opening of the tournament, representatives of the Dagestan team decided to take a walk around Elista and get acquainted with its sights.

The walk turned out to be quite original - 22-year-old dagestani wrestler Said Osmanov bullied passers-by on the street, and then, together with a friend, looked into a Buddhist temple.

There, the athlete completely loosened up - he.

After that, the young people, satisfied with themselves, went to the hotel.

Perhaps this would have ended, but the hooligans were let down by their love of modern technology: they broadcast all their adventures on the Periscope social network.

The offensive trick of the wrestler was seen by Buddhists living in Elista. As a result, on the night of April 1–2, the Elista hotel, where the Dagestan delegation lived, was blocked by angry citizens who demanded satisfaction.

Police squads were urgently pulled to the hotel building. Meanwhile, Said Osmanov was forcibly taken out into the street and forced to apologize for his act, on his knees.

The head of the government apologized for the defiler of the shrine

Further developments on the night of April 2 were prevented. But the authorities of both Kalmykia and Dagestan took the incident very seriously.

The tournament in memory of Basan Gorodovikov was canceled. I urgently arrived in Elista head of the government of Dagestan Abdusamad Gamidovwho made a joint statement with the head of Kalmykia Alexei Orlov.

“Dear residents of the Republic of Kalmykia, in Dagestan, the news of the immoral act was received with very deep indignation,” Hamidov said. “On behalf of all Dagestanis, on my own behalf, I offer deep apologies to our fraternal Kalmyk people.”

According to the head of the government of Dagestan,.

The athlete himself was detained. A criminal case has been initiated against him under Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion). Said Osmanov faces real imprisonment.

Do extremists work as coaches?

Now both in Dagestan and Kalmykia, the authorities are doing everything to prevent radicals on both sides from using this incident. There are more than enough of them on social networks - on the one hand, there are words of approval addressed to Osmanov, on the other, calls for actions against Muslims.

Roman Silantyev, a member of the expert council for conducting state religious studies under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, in an interview with the radio station "Moscow speaking" did not rule out that the fighter Said Osmanov could be associated with ISIS (a terrorist group whose activities in the territory of the Russian Federation were banned by the decision of the Supreme Court).

“If he was in a sober state, then he was a fighter of the Wahhabis brothers. And the conversation with him will be quite difficult. That is, he will be imprisoned for sure, and not necessarily only for this. It will probably turn out that he also transferred money to ISIS, somehow supported them in social networks, in general, this may not end in two years, ”Silantyev said.

Member of the Public Chamber of Dagestan Shamil Khadulaev also concerned about the presence of extremists among the Dagestani fighters. In his opinion, in the structure of the Ministry of Sports of Dagestan today there are coaches who actually openly support radical militants in Syria and convey their views to young athletes. It is impossible to correct this situation without full re-certification of coaching staff.

"Actions that have no justification"

Minister of Sports of Dagestan Magomed Magomedov Head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov reprimanded "for improper educational work with athletes."

“Ignorance, lack of culture, an extremely low level of education of some young people, unfortunately, entail actions that have no justification,” says a statement published on the website of the Head of the Republic of Dagestan.

I would like to believe that adequate people in both Dagestan and Kalmykia will be able not only to extinguish the current conflict, but also to prevent new similar cases in the future. After all, it depends on this what the future awaits Russia.

There is a lot of information in the media and on the Internet about the details of the April Fools' incident, it seems to us that it is even too much. Interest in this fades, and rightly so ... There is nothing good here. But here's a look from the outside: the federal media give an assessment to the representatives of both republics, police.

The competition was canceled, and all other Caucasian athletes, as many as five teams from different republics, were urgently taken out of Kalmykia, accompanied by law enforcement officers, out of harm's way. Fortunately, the border is only a couple of hours.

The Minister of Sports of Dagestan has already rushed towards the evacuated athletes to Elista. A little later, a whole delegation from Makhachkala, headed by the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Abdusamad Hamidov, arrived at the neighbors. On Sunday at the end of the day, together with the head of the Republic of Kalmykia, Alexei Orlov, they made a statement, where they dotted all the i's. Namely: savages and scoundrels are found in every nation, but their actions cannot shake the centuries-old friendship between Kalmyks and Dagestanis. The Kalmyk people were asked for forgiveness, they were assured that the culprit would be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Politicians stood against the backdrop of national flags and a statue of Buddha. The video was instantly posted on the Internet, and it was there that the main passions seethed.

On the same day, the press service of the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov disseminated information that the parents of the young man also apologized to the residents of the neighboring republic, the team's coach was fired, and the Minister of Sports was reprimanded. Each of the peoples of our country has its own customs of reconciliation, when the offender tries to make amends and show the unintentional nature of his act, the desire to make amends. Such customs exist in the Caucasus even to end blood feud. For hundreds of years, folk wisdom has helped families and entire nations to maintain peace and harmony. In this case, we saw some modern version of an ancient custom where the essence was preserved.

The incident, which threatened to aggravate the interethnic and interfaith situation in the south of the country, can be considered settled. Although one should not exclude the possibility that they will try to "wind up" the situation. Only there are not enough trump cards for such a promotion. And first of all, because the local authorities, perhaps for the first time in recent years, have demonstrated the competent behavior of anti-crisis managers. They did not hide the very fact of the conflict - balanced information quickly appeared on the official news resources of Kalmykia, and not only on social networks. When the problem is admitted openly, it is more difficult to weave into it fables under the guise of "the authorities are hiding the truth."

When it became clear that the situation was trying hard to give ethno-confessional outlines - supposedly the Dagestanis deliberately wanted to offend the Kalmyks, because Muslims themselves do not respect Buddhism, the head of Dagestan very promptly sent his representatives with a high status for an official apology. This is seriously different from the behavior of Dagestani politicians in 2011, when they in every possible way denied the guilt of the fighter Rasul Mirzaev in the death of a person in Moscow and demanded his urgent extradition to the republic, since in the region where the crime was committed, the court would be against the accused, allegedly, it was unfair precisely because of ethnic background. In this case, the suspect in the crime remains in Elista, and there is no talk of transferring him to the Dagestan pre-trial detention center.

The fact that the organizers of the tournament found the courage to cancel it because of an offensive incident and very quickly took the rest of the Caucasian participants out of the region is also a very correct step.

With the heat of passions that was at the hotel at night, not only spectators from among fans of free-style wrestling would probably come to the competition.

In a word, this time private crime could not be inflated to the scale of the second Pugachev or Biryulev. And this is very encouraging. This is a real victory. This means that with the joint work of the authorities and journalists, you can competently get out of difficult situations. To what extent the system of monitoring the interethnic situation of the FADN of Russia worked in this case and what is its role in resolving this particular situation is still unclear. On the agency's website, its position on this incident at the time of publication was not reflected in any way, and a source of "NatsAkcent" in the department said that it would refrain from official comments for now.

Perhaps the situation in Elista will become one of the cases for the situation center being created in the FADN of Russia, which, as its creators assume, will allow "real-time information about emerging conflict situations and ensure the implementation of measures aimed at preventing the escalation of conflicts."