SMO participants from Dagestani village complain to Putin about seizure of land

The residents of the Dagestani village of Kurush, who take part in the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, have recorded a video appeal to Vladimir Putin complaining about the unjustified seizure of pasture land from villagers in favour of the national park. The servicemen ask Russian president to instruct law enforcers to check the actions of Dagestani authorities.

In April, Kurush villagers recorded a video appeal to Vladimir Putin and Sergey Melikov, the head of Dagestan, with a complaint that local authorities had unreasonably transferred the land on which they pastured their cattle to the national park.

"Residents of our small village are engaged in animal husbandry – this is our only source of income. Our lands ... had been transferred to form the Samur National Park. We understand that this may form the basis for the development of tourism in the republic. However, we should not sacrifice our bread," one of the SMO participants says in the video appeal posted in Shamil Khadulaev's Telegram channel.

The military serviceman has also accused officials of corruption. "The villagers have only one land left – the plots where our houses are located. In the future, this will force villagers to abandon the village, since they are taking our land away from us," he has explained.