Rally participants find official statistics overstated

The police prevented the pro-government action held in Grozny from dispersing, eyewitnesses assert. The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has denied that the authorities applied coercion to the participants of the rally, which brought together, according to official data, 57% of the republic's population.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today a rally was held in central Grozny. Residents of Chechnya asserted that the authorities had obliged employees of budget-funded organizations and schoolchildren to come to the rally. The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has stated that the action was at least 800,000 strong.

The head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov said that the authorities did not force anybody to appear at the rally in Grozny.

"I believe that there were more than 800,000 there," said the president of Chechnya. According to his version, the participants showed their support for the Russian authorities, and their agreement with the development vector of the Chechen Republic.

Some participants treat the official figures as overstated. "We have the entire population, according to official data, less than 1.5 million. Is it really the fact that all of them, except elderly and children, came to the rally?" a local resident named Yusup asked.

According to his story, many left the square immediately after they were fixed by their bosses.

After about an hour after the start of the rally, the number of those leaving was so great that the police blocked Putin Avenue to prevent people from quitting the action, said another participant.

Let us remind you that the idea to hold the rally appeared after human rights defenders, opposition leaders, the Russian Ombudsman, and intellectuals had sharply criticized the statement made by the Chechen leader on January 12. Ramzan Kadyrov said that the non-systemic opposition should be treated "as public enemies and traitors," who are trying to stagger the situation in Russia.

On January 18, Maxim Reznik, an MP from Saint Petersburg, filed to the General Prosecutor's Office an appeal with a request to verify the Ramzan Kadyrov's statement for extremism. On January 19 the HRC stated its intention to send Kadyrov's words about "people's enemies" to examination.

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