Police deny detention of money extorters on behalf of Kadyrov

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has announced the detention of two Chechen natives, who, imitating his voice, tried to extort money from a businessman from Surgut into the Akhmat Kadyrov’s Fund. The video posted by Kadyrov shows the detainees’ confession. The police of the KhMAO (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, where Surgut is located) said they did not take part in the detention.

According to Kadyrov, the entrepreneur Zubair Zainadiev, who is living and working in Surgut, turned to the police stating that someone was calling him on behalf of the head of Chechnya and demanding to donate his car and money into the Regional Public Fund named after Akhmat Kadyrov. "The malefactors are detained; they are natives of Azamat-Yurt, Gudermes District of Chechnya,” the head of Chechnya wrote on his page in the Instagram, adding that upon arrival in Grozny the young men denied the extortion, saying that they were just joking.

The video, posted on the Instagram, shows two men; one of them first in the Chechen, and then in the Russian language presents himself Zelimkhan Khasimikov and says that he wanted to embezzle the money he claimed from the entrepreneur: "I extorted money from him, saying that it will go to the Kadyrov Fund, but actually I wanted to pocket the money with my accomplice," the hero of the video has confessed.

However, as the press-service of the KhMAO’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported, the police of the city of Ugra had not taken part in the detention of the men, who, allegedly, tried to extort money from the entrepreneur by imitating Kadyrov’s voice. According to the MIA, neither in Surgut, nor in the Surgut District they did not receive such complaints, the information portal “URA.ru” reports.

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