Russian editor threatened by government official in Instagram post

 On 4 January the Speaker of the Parliament of Chechnya, Magomed Daudov, published a post on Instagram calling for violence against “Shved”, a clear reference to Grigory Shvedov, Editor-in-Chief of Caucasian Knot, an independent Russian news site that focuses on human rights violations and abuses of the rule of law across the Caucasus and Southern Russia.

The post, titled “How to untie the Caucasian Knot”, is accompanied by a picture of a drooling dog, and calls “for a vet to pull out [Shved’s] wisdom teeth and cut his tongue to size”. Shvedov is called cowardly and repeatedly compared to a dog.

In an interview with Russian daily newspaper, Kommersant, Shvedov stated that he considered the threat to be “a reaction to our work in general”, rather than in response to any specific article or investigation. Caucasian Knot’s lawyers now plan to submit an official complaint to the Investigative Committee on charges of obstructing journalism (Article 144 of the Criminal Code).