File 126 (Disappearing in Caucasus) focuses on a decade of abductions that have taken place in Chechnya, and have now spread to the neighboring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan. It’s a book project I’ve been working on for a last year and half, soon be presented, as a part of a group exhibition, by Moving Walls, as brief multimedia projection in FotoFreo, as well as two exhibitions in Denmark (details to follow). This text should give you an idea about the book. You’re welcome to email me for further details at bastashevski at gmail dot com
Abduction as a concealment tactic, now most commonly referred to as “no body, no problem”, became prevalent in 2000, during the second Russian-Chechen conflict. Since then, it has become the signature of the Russian counterinsurgency regime, and has varied only in the severity of its application, and continues today. Due to the relatively small size of the nations composing the republics of Northern Caucasus, the abductions have touched the lives nearly every family in this region.
The legal vacuum surrounding the Russian counterinsurgency regime squarely places most of the civilians in North Caucasus outside of the system. The law is applied in such a way as to actively discourage the victim’s families from seeking assistance from within the state. Although families continue to file lawsuits with the police, both sides understand that it merely serves to create more paperwork - shelved as soon as it is signed. The majority of the last decade’s abductions remain uninvestigated.
In their current context, the abducted are incorporeal, as if they never were. They’re no longer with the living, but unlisted among dead. File-126 serves as a history and an acknowledgement of these atrocities and those who have suffered in their wake.
July 2009 Memorial Grozny receives information that a victim of abduction reported to Memorial earlier that year, Apti Zainalov, had been spotted in Atchko-Martan hospital with multiple bullet wounds. Apti was unconscious and being kept under strict surveillance. Memorial launched an immediate inquiry, but the organization lost access to Apti after he was relocated to a secure facility in Gudermess.
Batyr Albakov was arrested by police on the night of July 10th, 2009 remained missing for two weeks until his body surfaced in a Nazran morgue. Riddled with multiple bullet wounds the body also displayed signs of severe torture.
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