14:55, 29 May 2015

Film "The Family" outrages Chechen TV Companies

Grozny. Photo by Magomed Magomedov for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Chechen mass media have reacted angrily to the appearance of the documentary "The Family", telling about the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov and the issue of human rights violations in the republic. They treat it as an informational attack on Kadyrov, and, by means thereof, on president of Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that documentary ‘The Family’ produced by the "Open Russia", a public organization led by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was posted on the video portal YouTube on May 25.

The 26-minute documentary is dedicated to the Ramzan Kadyrov's place in the system of the Russian authorities, the cases of kidnappings and tortures in Chechnya, and the organization of the activities of the local law enforcement bodies. The film presents the analytical comments on the policy of Ramzan Kadyrov and the situation in Chechnya given by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of "Yukos" company, political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, Grigory Shvedov, the "Caucasian Knot" editor-in-chief, Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture", journalists Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Kseniya Sobchak and Kseniya Sokolova, and politician Ilya Yashin.

After the appearance of "The Family" documentary on the Internet, the State and Radio Company (STRC) "Vainakh" has screened its film named "Svora" (Gang), which accuses the authors of "The Family" of anti-Russian propaganda. Its authors state that "The Family" was sponsored by the USA. The video shows leaders of non-systemic opposition visiting the US Embassy in Moscow.

The release of "The Family" was also responded to by the STRC "Grozny", which has treated the documentary as "the film that failed to meet authors' hopes," which is "just an endless parade of faults" and contains deliberately distorted facts.

The STRC "Grozny" has called "The Family" "another blow in a total information war declared by Western intelligence services on Russia." According to the "Grozny", "the information attack on the Chechen leader, and, via him, on Vladimir Putin" was undertaken with the aim to arrange a Maydan in Russia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.