Rights defenders urge Bastrykin to react to Kadyrov's threats

The calls to kill, voiced by Ramzan Kadyrov, are undermining the authorities' prestige and can be perceived by subordinates of the head of Chechnya as a guide to action, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) have declared today in their statement to Alexander Bastrykin, the Chairman of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at a meeting in the Chechen government held on November 4, Ramzan Kadyrov voiced a demand to identify authors of negative posts about the Chechen republic and social network users commenting on them. In his speech, Ramzan Kadyrov attacked those who "violated the agreement between people, being engaged in gossip and contentions." The leader of Chechnya suggested stopping such people "by killing, imprisoning, and intimidating them," the BBC Russian Service quoted on November 7 on its website Ramzan Kadyrov as saying.

The HRC "Memorial" and the MHG have asked the head of the ICRF to check the Kadyrov's statements for crime attributes, says the report posted on the website of the HRC "Memorial".

"By his statements, the head of the Chechen Republic had publicly undermined the authority of the bodies of the republic's and federal power, demonstrated his disregard for the country's laws, constitutional principles and democratic values. We perceive these words as a direct threat that can have grave consequences for the life, health and safety of all those who are critically speaking about the authorities of the Chechen Republic," says the statement addressed to Bastrykin, the text of which is also posted on the website of the HRC "Memorial".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 22, 2019 at 11:06 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.