Zakaev rejects Kadyrov's offer to return to Chechnya

Akhmed Zakaev, the head of the government of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, has treated the proposal to return home, made to him by the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, as propaganda and having no connection with the reality.

Since 2002, Zakaev have been living in London, since 2003 – as a political refugee. Akhmed Zakaev is accused by Russian authorities of organizing illegal armed formations, armed rebellion, involvement in the terror act at Dubrovka in Moscow and inciting ethnic hatred. In January 2010, the Russia's FSB put forward new charges against him – of an attempt to create "armed forces of Ichkeria". Zakaev denies this accusation.

"Akhmed has no reason to stay in London. Ichkeria ceased to exist since the referendum. People make an informed choice; everyone should respect this choice. Akhmed would have come home long ago, if the decision was up to him," Ramzan Kadyrov wrote today in Instagram after meeting Zakaev's relatives in Urus-Martan.

"I'm somehow able to figure myself, where and how to live. It's purely a propaganda statement, just like 'meetings' with my relatives in Chechnya," said Zakaev.

According to his story, Kadyrov's proposal has nothing to do with reality. Zakaev thinks it to be a sort of game – "maybe the pre-election one, or maybe some other."

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