Experts associate women's march in Grozny with complaint about extrajudicial executions

An action of Chechen women, seeking the return of their children and grandchildren from Syria and Iraq, has been organized by the authorities against the background of appeals to European rights defenders from mothers of young people disappeared in the republic. This was stated by Tatiana Lokshina and Alexei Malashenko.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 13, in Grozny, Chechen women went to a march with a call to the authorities to help return from Syria and Iraq the children taken away from Chechnya.

According to Tatiana Lokshina, the programme director of human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) in Russia, it is very likely that the action in Grozny was "a PR move arranged by the authorities." "However, the story of the boy's return home is really very important, very lively and positive," Tatiana Lokshina expressed her point of view.

As for the situation with the appeal from the Chechen women to European rights defenders, the Chechen authorities are now interested to "prevent spreading of any information about the people's disappearance beyond the borders of the republic," noted Tatiana Lokshina.

In his turn, Alexei Malashenko, the chief of scientific research at the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute, believes that when appealing to European rights defenders, women from Chechnya "committed a very courageous act."

"They actually noted that they did not trust Ramzan Kadyrov. The Chechen leader had to react to it somehow. It was useless to excuse oneself or deny it. So, he chose an asymmetric answer to prove he cared about children. But about what kind of them? About children to be returned from Syria and Iraq to their homeland in Chechnya," said Alexei Malashenko.

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