Residents of Chechnya criticize ChGTRK's report about "society of loafers"

Chechens would not work, despite many vacancies in the republic and high salaries, an official from the "Chechenstroi" said in a report broadcast by the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company). Residents of Chechnya have stated that in reality workers are often deceived by non-paying or paying lower salaries.

The 10-minute report "Are non-Chechens building Chechnya?" was shown by the "Grozny" TV Channel in the night news programme. "Chechens, the nation famous in centuries for their hard work, today are looking like a society of loafers, where even a high salary is not always a stimulus to go to work," the journalist said. According to the TV Channel, local residents have ignored hundreds of vacancies opened during the construction of the "Grozny-Mall" shopping and entertainment complex in central Grozny, and as a result, out of the 800 workers employed there, 70% are foreigners.

Chechen residents are not attracted even by relatively high salaries – 40,000 roubles or more, Khas-Magomed Dashkuev, an official from the "Chechenstroi", said on air of the TV Channel.

The information voiced out in the report is unreliable, said residents of Chechnya interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "They don't pay any salaries of 40-50 thousand roubles here. Moreover, people are simply deceived. For some time I worked at that 'Grozny Mall': the work is from morning till late evening, one day off in two weeks; and they paid just 25,000 roubles per month, and even that – with great difficulty and through a scandal. What about 40,000? I don't understand why they're openly lying that we have a lot of jobs with big salaries, but nobody wants to work," Isa, a resident of Grozny, was indignant.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 23, 2019 at 12:02 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.