After complaint to Kadyrov, analysts predict loyal attitude to volunteers

The volunteers, who complained to Kadyrov about problems with payments and medical care after returning from Ukraine, took this risk out of desperation, Ruslan Kutaev, a Caucasian expert, and Svetlana Gannushkina, a human rights defender, believe. In their opinion, given the fact that Chechnya needs new volunteers, the complainants will be supported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ramzan Kadyrov stated that "hundreds, if not thousands" volunteers arrive in Chechnya every day in order to get trained and sent to Ukraine. Magomed Daudov, Speaker of the Chechen Parliament, said that the total number of fighters sent from Chechnya to Ukraine totalled to 8172 people.

On June 13, Khasan Khalitov, a blogger, posted a video on his Telegram channel with an appeal to Kadyrov of two men who call themselves volunteers and who had arrived from the special operation zone in Ukraine. They complained that upon their return they are deprived of social assistance and denied medical treatment.

Commentators then suggested that the volunteers' complaint would soon be followed by their apologies.

Those who recorded the appeal took a risk, Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", is sure. However, he doubted that authorities would put pressure on the authors of the video.

Authorities usually forget about such people immediately after hostilities, Mr Kutaev has added.

The volunteers should have been ready for such a course of events, believes Svetlana Gannushkina, the chairwoman of the "Civic Assistance" Committee*, believes.

Since a special operation, not a war, was officially announced, there are appropriate restrictions, said Artyom Mugunyants, a lawyer for the "Antiprizyv.ru" resource.