Chechen man arrested while fleeing to Latvian border after video of him fighting Russian riot police went viral over weekend

A man who was filmed in a bare-knuckled fight against OMON riot police during last weekend’s Moscow protest has been arrested in a forest near the Russia-Latvia border. The clip of Said-Mukhammad Dzhumaev’s fist-fight went viral.

According to Telegram channel Life Shot, Dzhumaev was found in the Pskov Region, in the north-west of the country, where he was heading towards the border with Latvia. He was allegedly carrying two compasses and a map. The man tried to escape but did not put up any resistance once captured, the outlet reported.

Quoting a law enforcement source, the TASS news agency claimed that Dzhumaev was taken back to Moscow to be interrogated.

Dzhumaev, an ethnic Chechen, was previously offered help by Adam Delimkhanov, an MP in Russia’s State Duma. Delimkhanov announced that the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, would help him out if he revealed that he did not support the protests and handed himself in. On Tuesday, the MP’s assistant Tatyana Lazina revealed that the young Chechen had expressed remorse for his actions.

“What happened was an unfortunate set of circumstances. It has absolutely nothing to do with supporting Navalny and his political views,” Lazina said. “The young man repents for what he has done and regrets it.”

On Saturday evening, a video from Moscow’s Pushkinaya Square was shared thousands of times, showing the young Chechen fighting against heavily-armed OMON officers. At the end of the clip, Dzhumaev fell over, and was protected from cops by other protesters.

The fight broke out during a protest in support of opposition figure Alexey Navalny. His supporters are demanding that the anti-corruption activist be released from prison. Navalny was remanded in custody after being accused of violating the terms of a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence he'd received in 2014, when he was found guilty of embezzling 30 million rubles ($400,000) from two companies, including French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher.

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