A young man in Russia was forced to strip naked and "rape himself" in a horrific "apology" video after he dared to criticize the regime on social media, according to a news published by the Daily Beast.
Salman Tepsurkayev, 19, was the director of an anti-government Telegram channel that targeted the Russian republic of Chechnya, ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the site, Kadyrov and his militias are notorious for brutal persecution and forcing Russian citizens to publicly apologize for any articles, blogs, or even critical comments on social media.
But what happened on Monday night was shocking, as he published a video of Salman Tipsurkayev, a resident of Chechnya, apologizing in Chechen language and then moving away from the camera, taking an empty bottle and sitting on it.
Human rights groups said that Tibsurkayev was arrested earlier this month for his internet activism, as he was the director of 1ADAT, a Telegram channel, a group of Chechen citizens living in Europe and Russia.
Every post on the channel criticizes Kadyrov's rule, as well as the policy of the Russian president.
For her part, Ekaterina Sokirianskaya, long-time director of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention and Monitoring of Human Rights Violations in Chechnya, said that she received messages from Chechen citizens from all over the world, saying that they were shocked and humiliated.
"Many did not know how to go on with their lives with dignity. Kremlin officials must realize how much the Chechen people respect the traditions, many of them take this alleged public rape by the authorities personally, such a horrific violation as a provocation of violence," Sokirianskaya told the Daily Beast.