Police in Russia's North Ossetia have launched an inquiry following a campaign of online harassment targeting women through the Telegram channel Kavkazskaya Obshchina ("Caucasian Community"). The channel's administrators published women's personal information, insulted them and issued threats of violence over behaviour they claimed violated Caucasian traditions.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Alexander Umantsev to 19 years and 6 months in prison. He was found guilty of attacking the Novolaksky District of Dagestan during the second Russian-Chechen war.
According to investigators, Umantsev, a member of the unit of field commander Shamil Basayev, attacked employees of the Novolaksky District Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on September 5, 1999.
"Umantsev fired aimed shots from a machine gun. As a result of the attack, three police officers were killed," the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation said in a statement.
A criminal case was opened against the man under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: participation in an armed group and an attempt on the lives of law enforcement officers.