Grozny residents report on detentions of youth party participants

After a publication of a video, in which Chechen young men and women demonstrate bottles with drinks, law enforcers identified and detained those young people. They were set free only several days later, relatives of the detainees reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2017, sale of alcoholic beverages in Grozny stores was restricted. After that, law enforcers began detaining local buyers of alcoholic drinks at exit from a store.

On November 6, a video was published on YouTube, which caused a negative reaction from residents of Chechnya. Links to the video were sent through WhatsApp. In the video, six young men and women were drinking from wine bottles, laughing and talking among themselves in Russian.

On November 22, a photo of six young men and six women standing along the wall appeared in WhatsApp. "Recently, the video was posted (on the Internet, ‑ note of the 'Caucasian Knot'), showing Chechen young women having fun. Got you," explains an audio message in Chechen attached to the photo.

A woman from Grozny told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that one of the young men in the video was her son. According to the woman, on November 17, law enforcers came to their apartment and without any explanations took the young man away with them. "They didn't say where they took him and what for. Policemen promised to sort it out and let him go. We spent almost a week waiting, and they did not set him free until yesterday," the woman said on November 24.

In total, 12 people were detained, and they spent several days at a police station, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Khamzat, a resident of Grozny.

The local resident noted that his nephew had been among the detainees. "He was not pictured in the video at all, but he had been in the room, and they took him away for that, like all the other guys and girls who had been there. Policemen promised to let him go two days ago, but did not release him until yesterday. No one was beaten, but verbal insults and humiliation took place," the local resident said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 24, 2018 at 04:08 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.