Kadyrov escapes party punishment amid Ignatiev's expulsion from Edinaya Rossiya

Mikhail Ignatiev, the head of Chuvashia, was expelled from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party after his call to "crackdown" journalists for criticism, while the demand of the head of Chechnya to "kill, imprison and intimidate" authors of negative materials was ignored by the above ruling party.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Evgeny Zinichev, the head of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) had criticized Mikhail Ignatiev, who made an MfE officer to jump up to reach the keys to a new fire truck at the handing-over ceremony.

The Presidium of the General Council of the "Edinaya Rossiya" has expelled Mikhail Ignatiev, the head of Chuvashia, from the party.

The initiator of Ignatiev's expulsion was Evgeny Revenko, the executive secretary of the party's ethics commission, who had earlier criticized the head of Chuvashia for calling to "crackdown" journalists for their critical materials, as Alexei Makarkin, the first vice-president of the Centre for Political Technologies, has noted. "The head of Chuvashia, Mikhail Ignatiev, got into a scandalous story for the second time within a month. He threatened journalists (then had to apologize), and made a strange joke on an MfE officer," the Telegram channel "Political Analysis by Experts of the Centre for Political Technologies named after Igor Bunin" quoted Mr Makarkin as stating on January 24.

The political analyst has noted that the situation with Ignatiev shows that Ramzan Kadyrov is allowed to "demonstrate his self." "Just now, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has predictably stated that last year Kadyrov's call to kill, imprison and intimidate those who sow discord on the Internet don't violate the law. But Ignatiev is an 'ordinary' head of the region; he has no special position like Kadyrov; and he has much fewer opportunities," the above Telegram channel has quoted Alexei Makarkin as saying.

Let us remind you that a meeting of the Chechen government on November 4, 2019 Ramzan Kadyrov demanded to identify the authors of negative materials about the republic, as well as social network users commenting on them. According to Kadyrov, "anyone who infringes on honor and dignity will be punished in a most severe way."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 28, 2020 at 08:46 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.