Apologies for a comment on Instagram to prove Kadyrov’s unlimited authority

The apologies for an offensive comment addressed to Ramzan Kadyrov could be voiced by random people, and the leader of Chechnya needs something like that to demonstrate his force, human rights defenders suggest.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Ramzan Kadyrov threatened to “destroy” a social media user for the comment reading: “You are not a human being, you are just a shaitan (demon).” On May 19, the “Grozny” TV Channel posted a video with the apologies voiced by a father and other relatives of the Instagram user, a 15-year-old native of Dagestan, who wrote the comment in question. Instagram users believe the people were forced to voice the apologies.

Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, doubts that the author of the offensive comment had indeed been found. “To prove the unlimited authority of Ramzan Kadyrov and to show that he is able to find anyone, anywhere, the Chechen authorities could stage that they really found the user who wrote the comment,” Ruslan Kutaev stated.

The author of the comment on Instagram could be found based on the content or data on the social media platform, cybersecurity experts suggest.

Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the “Civic Assistance” Committee, did not rule out that the apologies were voiced by the people not connected to the actual author of the comment. If the teenager is really the author of the comment about Ramzan Kadyrov, then the apologies were voiced out of fear for the fate of the boy, the human rights defender believes.

Magomed Alamov, a lawyer from the Committee Against Torture (CaT), also believes that the voiced apologies were a result of the Ramzan Kadyrov’s threats.