Relatives of those missing in North Ossetia don't let society forget about disappearances

The mother of Anna Tsomartova, an athlete from North Ossetia, who disappeared in Kaspiysk, has achieved a law enforcers' response to demands to check the actions of the press secretary of the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Missing people's cases become resonant thanks to relatives, who draw attention to their search, Agunda Bekoeva, the founder of the "Khotæ" movement against domestic violence in North Ossetia, and Alan Tskhurbaev, a journalist, have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 2, 2024, it became known that Tsomartova's mother had sent a complaint to the Dagestani MIA, in which she stated that Gayana Garieva, the MIA's press secretary, had disseminated false information about her daughter's suicide.

"We believe that she had no right to disclose the data of the preliminary investigation ... moreover to draw conclusions about Anna's psychological state, by grossly refuting the conclusions of the MIA's psychologists," the mother has stated.

"I followed all the recent disappearances and saw that a lot depended on relatives' reaction. For example, when Rimma Gagloeva disappeared, her nephew attracted a lot of attention to her case," Agunda Bekoeva, the founder of the above "Khotæ" movement against domestic violence in North Ossetia, has noted.

On February 6, 2022, Rimma Gagloeva, Gagloev's aunt, was travelling by taxi from the Grozny Airport to Ingushetia, and then stopped communicating. Georgy Gagloev, her nephew, suggested that the reason for his aunt's disappearance could have been in her fortune-telling and removing the evil eye. On January 15, 2023, it became known that Georgy Gagloev was found dead. Sources did not rule out that the reason for the murder was in the active search by Georgy, who is also a MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter, for his aunt, Rimma Gagloeva.

Relatives of the missing people wouldn't allow the society to forget about the disappearances, Alan Tskhurbaev, a journalist, has noted. In the search for Anna Tsomartova, her mother plays a huge role, he believes.

"I've written many times that in Ossetia protests have a female face – these are the mothers from Beslan, Zemfira Tskaeva, Oksana Sotieva ... Now we know a new name – Diana Tsomartova," Mr Tskhurbaev has stated.