13:08, 28 January 2014

Chechnya: state servants and students report about being forced to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay

Grozny residents go away with folded flags after the celebrations on the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay. January 28, 2014. Photo by the "Caucasian Knot"

Grozny residents argue that civil servants, employees of budget-funded organizations and university students of the republic were forcibly recruited to participate in the celebrations on the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay in Chechnya.

"We were warned back on Saturday that on January 28 we would have to take part in the festivities around the Olympic Torch Relay. Our boss immediately declared that no excuses would be accepted, because he was ordered to ensure the attendance," a female employee of one of the republic's ministries told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the leader of a local NGO, the Chechen authorities once again, by using the method of "voluntary coercion" gathered tens of thousands of people in Grozny to welcome the Olympic Torch Relay.

"In recent years, this practice has been mastered and, we can say, brought to perfection. So now they can drive not 60-70 thousand people but much more to the streets of Grozny," an activist told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On January 27, when the Torch Relay was welcomed in Makhachkala, students of the Kaspiysk Medical College said that they had been sent to the ceremony at the "Anji-Arena" for creating a crowd of spectators.

Author: Muslim Ibragimov

Source: CK correspondent