21:59, 29 October 2020

Russian TV personality claims receiving threats after her objection to Ramzan Kadyrov's statement

Screenshot of Ksenia Sobchak Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CG6-6aWgC0_/

Russian TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak received threats of violence after she noted that the leader of Chechnya was using medieval concepts in his dispute with Emmanuel Macron about freedom of speech.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the French president's decision to create "enlightened Islam" in the country and his refusal to condemn the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad provoked sharp criticism from the authorities of Chechnya. On October 27, Ramzan Kadyrov accused Emmanuel Macron of fomenting extremist ideas, and Chechen Mufti Salakh Mezhiev declared the French president "the terrorist number one."

On October 16, Samuel Paty, a teacher of history and geography, was beheaded in a Paris suburb. At a lesson on the freedom of speech, the teacher had shown caricatures on Prophet Muhammad from the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine to his pupils. The alleged killer was shot dead by policemen and identified as Abdulak Anzorov, 18, a Russian citizen of Chechen origin.

On Instagram page, Ksenia Sobchak supported the President of France, who at the funeral of Samuel Paty said that the publication of cartoons should be continued to defend freedom of speech. Meanwhile, she criticized Ramzan Kadyrov, who in response to the Emmanuel Macron's statement claimed that "a mocking attitude towards religion and scoffing at it" was not the use of freedom of speech, but an attempt on the other people's values. "It's a strange medieval understanding of an 'attempt on values.' That is, not accepting the other people's values means attempting on them? If you don't want to look at the pictures of the prophet, don't look at them," Ksenia Sobchak objected to Ramzan Kadyrov in absentia.

Later, she accompanied her post with a threat report. "UPD: after the publication of this post, my phone number is being attacked by unknown people who speak with a Caucasian accent and voice threats," Ksenia Sobchak wrote.

In her today's post on Instagram, Ksenia Sobchak has again reported about "actual threats" that come to her and her team via SMS.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 29, 2020 at 04:47 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.