Suspect of beating Totrov detained in Vladikavkaz

One of the attackers on the North-Ossetian journalist has been detained; the other has fled abroad and will be put on the wanted list through the Interpol, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has announced.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 21, Ruslan Totrov, a blogger and a journalist of the "OsNova" edition, was attacked at his workplace in Vladikavkaz: his two teeth were broken, and his lip was smashed. Totrov said the attackers had claimed they were dissatisfied with his critical publications about the South-Ossetian president. Republic's authorities have assumed that the attack on Totrov was a provocation organized by the opposition.

The North-Ossetian MIA has stated that it had identified the attackers on "a journalist from one of the republic's media outlets," says the official statement posted in the MIA's Instagram page today. Ruslan Totrov's name is not directly mentioned there.

Only one attacker has been detained. "He is a 40-year-old resident of the village of Oktiabrskoye. Also, operative agents have found that the second attacker had disappeared outside Russia and will be put on the international wanted list through Interpol channels," the MIA has reported.

In North Ossetia, a pre-investigation check is being conducted on the report of the attack on Ruslan Totrov. Investigators agree that "the attack had to do with Totrov's critical statements he made about the leadership of South Ossetia during the performance of his professional activities," says the post placed on the website of the North-Ossetian Branch of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) on January 22.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 23, 2021 at 01:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.