A high-profile incident occurred in Moscow last Sunday. The participants in the wedding motorcade, which was made of nine cars, several of which had the Dagestani numbers, opened fire at the cars, which were trying to outdrive them. According to some available reports, even the police patrol cars came under fire. About 15 participants of the fire escapade were detained.
The Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported that the webbing motorcade was stopped not far from the Kremlin. The investigation continues to find out whether the offenders had a license for traumatic guns. The owners and drivers of nine detained cars are also under investigation. They are charged with violation of the traffic rules, particularly the shaded windows, nonstandard numbers, unjustified loud beeps. The driving of such motorcade can be made equal to an illegal march under the new laws. The residents in several republics in the North Caucasus have a custom to fire in the air from all types of weapons in honour of any remarkable event, the newspaper reported. But the residents in these republics do not get accustomed to outdriving the webbing motorcades, no matter with what speed they are driving. Probably this was the reason for the fire spree.
The Kommersant daily reported that, however, the police do not have any special claims to the detainees. But the protocols were filed against the Dagestani detainees for violation of the traffic rules for making loud beeps (a fine of up to 100 roubles) and violation of the rules of the shaded glasses (a fine of up to 500 roubles). One more police protocol was filed for violation of the rules to use the traumatic guns. Murat Agaldarov confessed that he fired from the traumatic pistol in the air, but claimed that he did so in the countryside. Bridegroom Artur Alibekov refused that he opened fire in the city.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily interviewed a neighbour of the bridegroom. “Artur is a very decent person,” resident named Tash from the Moscow district Yasenevo said. “He is an ordinary manager and moved recently to a flat to his bride in another Moscow district. He does not have a Ferrari car, which was rented for the wedding party, but an ordinary Opel car. He is an absolutely normal person. The problems in the families of the Caucasus natives, who live in Moscow, emerge particularly when their relatives come to them from the Caucasus villages. They are usually trying to make them go home quicker. But the marriage cannot be celebrated without them. They do not just realize that it is forbidden to fire in the air in Moscow and not to let the cars outdriving the webbing motorcade. So, the conflicts spark up,” he said.
“The Caucasus natives have a tradition to fire at the wedding party,” chief scientific fellow of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor Kuznetsov said. “There the weapons are a symbol of an adult man, and the gunshots in the air are just a sign of welcome without any aggression. But people began shooting in the cars! In the Caucasus rural regions, this is a tradition not to outdrive a wedding motorcade. When these people saw someone outdriving them, they reacted to this act as an insult and began waging the fire in the cars. I believe that they even do not realize that there are other laws here and they just live on the laws of the Caucasus highlands. Most Caucasus natives live in Moscow for a quite short period of time so far, therefore, they still remember and observe their customs absolutely unsuitable for the city. The second factor is vanity. The driving in the centre of Moscow, waging the gunfire in the air is prestigious. They will have something to tell about to their relatives at home,” he noted.
The newspaper quoted Dagestani President Magomedsalam Magomedov as saying, “If the Dagestani natives opened fire, they violated the unspoken constitution of the highlander.”
“No one has the right, no matter who has a wedding party, to open fire in downtown Moscow or anywhere else. These actions are illegal. Moreover, from the legal point of view and just the rules of legal conduct. I cannot approve of anyone, no matter who opens fire, this is condemned and punishable,” the Dagestani president underlined.