Maksharip Aushev: my escape from kidnapping was a miracle

Maksharip Aushev, a member of the Expert's Council of the office of Russian Ombudsman, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent the details of the attempt of his kidnapping, undertaken on September 15 in Ingushetia.

According to Mr Aushev, he entered the building of the republic's government at about 5:00 p.m., left it at about 6:10 p.m. and drove in direction to Nazran. A large jam was at the entrance to the city. It was seen from afar that the road was partially blocked by two ATCs and a "Gazel": they passed only one lane of traffic.

"I grew suspicious and began calling the deputy chair of the Security Council, but I couldn't get him. Then, I called my relatives. The traffic was controlled by the ATCs and "Gazel" approximately one hundred meters before the stationary RPS post. As soon as I got into that corridor for cars, I was stopped, and at once some people in masks, black uniform and with arms ran up to my car. None of their cars had any IDs. The second ATC, located a bit further, completely blocked the view of the road from the RPS post. The GAI employees, on duty at the post, could not see what happened on the road," Maksharip Aushev said.

He has noted the details, which seemed strange to him: the ATC was coloured atypically for the machinery of the militaries and militia deployed in this region. There was also an UAZ there, and later, already after the incident, the employees of the GAI told him that such car was not registered in Magas at all. Their colleagues from the FSB later told Aushev that the vehicles did not belong to the FSB of Ingushetia either.

"When I was stopped, I half-opened my window. A person in black military uniform came up and asked for documents. He told me that my car was registered as hijacked."

Then, Aushev, according to his version, got out of his car.

"I saw: some 5-6 persons in uniform were close to me, ready to tie me up as soon as I get to the door of their car. All of them were in masks. Should I've got half-meter closer - they'd have tied me up, and I'd have disappeared without traces," Mr Aushev is sure. "When I saw that, I said that I'd now stop the engine of my car and come back, and tried to leave the place. They grasped me by the jacket, now it's torn; I managed to break away and ran to the road, where I saw cars with people, and stopped a car."

According to Maksharip Aushev, his relative happened to be in that car. Maksharip stopped other cars as well. Guys from the civil cars from the column immediately surrounded him by a sort of a "live shield". Persons in black uniform also started to group together, preparing an attack, but at that moment a man from the republic's government, who was on his way home, got out of his car.

"He showed his ID to the people in uniform and presented himself as assistant of the chairman of the government and demanded explanations," Maksharip Aushev continued. "The people in uniform said: 'His car was hijacked.' He answered: 'Let's go now to the post, and if the car had been hijacked - we'll leave it there and clear out the issue." And he asked me to drive my car to the post."

When Aushev arrived to the post, employees of the GAI were present there. "One of them said that he was standing on the second level of the building of the post and saw how they tried to kidnap me; he said that I could escape by a miracle and noted that when those ATCs made a sudden stop, we understood at the post that they want to detain someone. The situation here is such that when someone has an ATC and firearms none is any more interested who these people are. We have so many power agencies here that it's impossible to understand who is who," he said.

According to his version, "the unidentified persons from the ATCs were in uniform," some in the black clothes, others in camouflage; all were in masks. They spoke clear Russian. According to Aushev, for some ten minutes militiamen and power agents studied his documents; then, they went out and said that there were no problems with his documents.