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Ramazan Dzhalaldinov (left) had to flee Chechnya after he uploaded a video on the Internet urging President Vladimir Putin to personally intervene in a row in his home village.
Ramazan Dzhalaldinov (left) had to flee Chechnya after he uploaded a video on the Internet urging President Vladimir Putin to personally intervene in a row in his home village.

Masked men whisked away the family of a Russian whistle-blower and then burned down their home in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, according to media reports.

Ramazan Dzhalaldinov, who was not in Chechnya at the time, had recently complained to President Vladimir Putin about corruption in the region.

Dzhalaldinov, currently in the neighboring Russian region of Daghestan, said in a video on the website of the Chernovik newspaper on May 13 that masked men entered his house overnight and took his wife and three daughters away in a car, telling them that they were in danger.

The men, he said, then left them several kilometers away, saying that their house was in flames and warning them not to make any complaints.

When Dzhalaldinov's wife and daughters returned home by foot they found their house severely damaged by fire.

Dzhalaldinov, an ethnic Avar, had to flee Chechnya after he uploaded a video on the Internet on April 14 in which he urged Putin to personally intervene in a row in his home village of Kenkhi, where he said residents were forced to pay bribes to local authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 13 that, if the reports about the men burning down Dzhalaldinov's house were true, law enforcement would intervene.

Based on reporting by Chernovik, RIA Novosti, and Kavkaz-uzel.ru

A Russian opposition activist, who was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric clinic in the southwestern city of Voronezh, has been freed.

Lawyer Sergei Loktev told RFE/RL on May 12 that Dmitry Vorobyevsky was released from the clinic after a local court rejected a request by doctors to keep the activist in the psychiatric clinic.

Police and medical personnel forcibly moved Vorobyevsky to the psychiatric clinic from his home on May 6.

Police said that Loktev was forced to the clinic after unnamed neighbors complained about his behavior.

However, Loktev says his client does not look like a person who may hurt other people or himself.

Vorobyevsky is well-known for taking part in anti-Kremlin protests.

In the Soviet era, authorities forcibly placed individuals to psychiatric clinics to crackdown on dissent.

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"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

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