Loud and massive protests against mobilization took place in Dagestan, and not only in the cities.
On September 22, in the Babayurt district of Dagestan, protesters blocked the federal highway. Several dozen men gathered at the military registration and enlistment office and spoke out against mobilization. A video has spread across social networks, showing how an employee of the military registration and enlistment office is trying to convince them to fulfill their duty to the country, but those gathered tell her that this is “not a duty, but politics.”
On September 25, in the Dagestan village of Endirei, more than a hundred local residents, mostly men, went out to a spontaneous protest and blocked the Makhachkala-Khasavyurt highway. According to media reports, 110 reservists were called up from this village with a population of about 8 thousand people. Police fired into the air in an attempt to force protesters off the road.
On the same day, a protest rally took place in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. Several dozen people came to Concord Square in front of the government building in Nalchik.
The protesters in Makhachkala were mostly women. Gathering at the Puppet Theater in the center of the Dagestani capital, they chanted “No to war!” and “We are against mobilization!” Attempts by police to disperse protesters, disputes and fights were filmed on phones and spread across social networks, collecting hundreds of thousands of views. Among the dozens of detainees was journalist Murad Muradov.
On September 26, protesters gathered in the central square of Makhachkala, where police forces and the National Guard were deployed. They detained more than 120 people, and the arrests were carried out with unjustified use of violence. Thus, security forces beat an ambulance paramedic who was taking a patient to the hospital. It seemed to the police that the doctor was filming what was happening on his phone, they dragged him out of the car, beat him and took him to the police department. It later turned out that the paramedic had a concussion and had to be hospitalized.
About a hundred participants in the rallies were brought to administrative responsibility, 30 became involved in criminal cases.