Zulfiya Gadzhiyeva writes for RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service.
Popular Russian singers Yegor Kreed and Allj scratched concerts in the Daghestani capital after online threats and opposition from the republic's most famous athlete.
The wife of a well-respected doctor from Daghestan has asked President Vladimir Putin to help free her husband. The anesthesiologist was detained last year on accusations of participating in the murder of a local police chief. His brother-in-law, a prominent surgeon, was beheaded after being arrested on the same charges. Family and friends insist on the doctors' innocence and say the case highlights rampant abuse by law-enforcement agencies in Russia's volatile North Caucasus.
