Analysts dispute about Putin's responsibility for attempts on Chechen bloggers

The statement of the European Union (EU) intelligence service about the existing links of the attempts on lives of Kadyrov's critics with the Russian president looks credible, Ruslan Kutaev has noted. In their turn, Sergey Goncharov and Alexei Malashenko believe that Vladimir Putin is not responsible for the assassination attempts on Chechen bloggers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the EU's Intelligence and Situation Centre had stated that the Russian President and Chechen authorities were responsible for the assassination attempts on the Chechen blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, in Sweden and on other critics of Ramzan Kadyrov.

Sergey Goncharov, the president of the international association of veterans of the "Alpha" antiterrorist unit, has categorically rejected any possibility that Russian leadership was planning operations to physically liquidate Chechen bloggers.

"President Putin is not doing this; this is absolutely not his level. The roots of the Chechen showdowns should be sought in Chechnya," Mr Goncharov has stated.

On the contrary, Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, is sure that Putin gave the go-ahead to the assassination attempts. "In this sense, Kadyrov is absolutely non-self-maintained," he has stated.

Alexei Malashenko, a political analyst, sticks to an intermediate position. "This is not the level of the Russian president; yet he could agree, nod his head, but not initiate," he has noted, adding that the decisions on the assassination attempts were apparently made by special services at the "local level."