Lokshina and Jemal doubt secretive removal of extortionists to Chechnya

Chechen policemen did not kidnap from Surgut the alleged swindlers, who imitated the voice of Kadyrov, and asked their local colleagues to close their eyes to the detention and removal of suspects, suggested the journalist Orkhan Jemal. Illegal practices are being spread beyond Chechnya, Tatiana Lokshina, a rights defender, has added.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced the detention of two Chechen natives, who, by imitating his voice, tried to extort money from a businessman from Surgut for the Akhmat Kadyrov Fund. The police of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (KhMAO) said they did not take part in the detention.

According to Tatiana Lokshina, the programme director for Russia of the Human Rights Watch, "she is concerned about the situation, when some people have tried, under the guise of the name of the head of Chechnya, to commit a swindle."

Orkhan Jemal, an observer of the "Snob" magazine, said that he "sees no legal problems in moving the alleged extortionists to Chechnya." He stressed that "the relationships of police departments are often bureaucratic and defined by the presence of papers, rather than logic."

In 2014, Ramzan Kadyrov also reported in his Instagram that a group of swindlers was exposed in Chechnya, who presented themselves as people from Kadyrov's retinue and extorted money.

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