EU intelligence links assassination attempts on Chechen bloggers to Putin

The Russian President and Chechen authorities are responsible for the assassination attempts on the Chechen blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, committed in Sweden, and on other critics of Ramzan Kadyrov, says the report of the Intelligence and Situation Centre of the European Union (EU).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 11, 2021, a court in Sweden found Russian citizens, Ruslan Mamaev and Elmira Shapiaeva, guilty of attacking Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a Chechen blogger, and sentenced them to ten and eight years of imprisonment, respectively. The court has stated that the blogger's criticism of Chechen was the crime motive.

The Swedish state security service has concluded that the attempts on the lives of the blogger and other critics of Kadyrov had been ordered from Chechnya.

Besides, Russia and Chechnya are reported to have developed their tools for committing illegal executions. In this regard, the "Terek", a special unit of the SOBR (Special Rapid Response Squad) of the "Rosgvardiya" (Russian National Guard), is mentioned, and it is stated that attempts on lives of Tumso and other Chechen bloggers would not have been possible if President Putin had objected to them.

However, in the letter signed by "Russian President Vladimir Putin", the president's press service replied to the Swedish television that "it has nothing to do with the murders of these people in European countries."