Chechnya gets ready to celebrate Orthodox Easter

For celebrations of the Orthodox Easter, Chechnya expects arrival of plenty of its former residents. A special working group has been set up to cope with all the activities associated with this holiday.

Now Chechnya completes the preparations to celebrate the Easter. A number of subbotniks (voluntary and free work on weekends) were organized with the aim to bring in proper order the Orthodox cemeteries in Grozny and other regions of the country; apart from local residents, soldiers of the federal troops stationed in the country took part in them.

"Like in previous years, we expect arrival for the Easter of our former compatriots from other regions of the country, who had left Chechnya at different times. This year we expect that at least 500 of them will come. A special working group set up under the order of the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov will be in charge of reception and accommodation, and activities associated with the Orthodox Easter," said the spokesman of the Grozny administration.

According to his story, all the Russian-speaking guests arriving in the republic for the Orthodox Easter will be provided with free-of-charge transportation and opportunities to visit the graves of their deceased relatives.

"All the expenses associated with the celebration of the Orthodox Easter will be born by the Regional Public Fund named after Akhmad-Hadji Kadyrov," said the source.

In the past few years, the Chechen leadership was organizing trips to the republic for the Easter celebrations for the Russian-speaking residents of the republic, who had had left it in different years. The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2010 the celebration of the Orthodox Easter in the Chechen Republic passed without incidents. Last year, over 100 former residents of Chechnya came here. In 2009 the holiday was attended by about the same number of visitors from different regions of Russia.