On May 7, the online publication Kavkaz.Realii reported on another fine for distributing extremist materials. Derbent resident Artur Taibov was fined 1 thousand by the court for posting a song by Chechen bard Timur Mutsuraev on social networks.
As follows from the decision of the Derbent City Court dated April 10, in February 2023, Artur Taibov posted on his page on the social network “Vkontakte” an audio recording of the song “Chechnya on Fire,” banned by the Kurgan City Court in 2013 and included in the Federal List of Extremist Literature. The seditious recording was discovered by police officers in March while monitoring the Internet, and they drew up an administrative violation report. The case went to trial in April. Police Major M. Kerimov confirmed the circumstances stated in the protocol in court. Artur Taibov admitted his guilt and asked the court to commute his sentence.
Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation “Production and distribution of extremist materials” provides for punishment ranging from a fine to arrest for 15 days. Taibov received a minimum fine of 1 thousand rubles.
It is curious that, according to the website of the Derbent City Court, this is the third such court against Artur Taibov. In April 2019, he paid a fine of 2 thousand for posting on Vkontakte an audio recording of the song “Oppositionist” performed by Timur Mutsuraev. And in June 2020, he again replenished the Russian budget and improved the statistics on the detection of extremist offenses with Mutsuraev’s song “They Gone,” posted on the same social network. However, these three cases were considered by different judges.
Popular Chechen performer Timur Mutsuraev has enriched the Federal List of Prohibited Extremist Literature with dozens of songs. Among them are “Chechnya is on fire”, “They are gone”, “Tauhid”, “Strike of the blade”, “Shahid”, “Sold wings of jihad”, “And the gates will open...”, “Paradise is dimly visible in dreams and dreams” , “World, shudder and get on your knees”, “The Koran sounds, nahs listen to it”, “O Allah, the world is shrouded in a terrible darkness!”, “The streets of the Avar village are deserted”, “Aggressors in the village of Alkhan-Kala”, “Tribal prison , executioner empire”, “Get up Chechnya, it’s time to march!”, “Into battle, sons of the Caucasus, best sons” and many others.
For the love of Mutsuraev’s work, fines are paid not only in Dagestan. Thus, on March 31, 2023, the Nazyvaevsky City Court of the Omsk Region fined Anatoly Nesterov 1 thousand rubles for publishing the banned song “Peace, Shudder” on the Odnoklassniki network.
According to the SOVA information and analytical center, which deals with the problems of nationalism and xenophobia and monitors human rights in Russia, in 2022 and the beginning of 2023, at least 13 protocols were drawn up in seven regions for the publication of Mutsuraev’s songs. Three of them are in Chechnya, three more in North Ossetia and the Orenburg region, and one each in the Astrakhan, Samara, Rostov regions and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
At the same time, other Mutsuraev songs are performed at concerts in Grozny. And “Jerusalem,” which is recognized as extremist, is partially heard in Alexei Balabanov’s film “War.”
Timur Mutsuraev was born in Chechnya in 1976. He took part in two Russian-Chechen wars and was the chief of staff of Ruslan Gelayev. After being seriously wounded, he went abroad. In the summer of 2008, he called on his fellow countrymen to stop fighting and, together with Russia, build peace in Chechnya.
Mutsuraev's songs became widely known during the period between the two wars. Moreover, they were listened to and performed not only by Chechens, but also by Russian soldiers. For example, the song “Mom, take me from Chechnya,” supposedly written under the influence of an unsent letter from a murdered Russian soldier, was so popular that the Russian military command tried to ban it.
Currently, Mutsuraev lives in Chechnya, works in a cultural center in the village of Starye Atagi, and no longer records songs.