Telegram users criticize idea of "Akhmat" Friendship Academy

The Peoples' Friendship Academy should not be set up created under the auspices of "Akhmat", since Russia is a multinational country, while methods of the Chechen authorities and the incident with Adam Kadyrov cast doubt on the successful children's upbringing in Chechnya, Telegram users have stated. In his turn, Apti Alaudinov had blamed opponents of the idea as fascists.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Dmitry Kuznetsov, a State Duma MP, had stated that the "Akhmat" Children's Academy of Peoples' Friendship can be engaged in educating young people.

His post was accompanied by a video of Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the "Akhmat" Special Forces, who criticized opponents of the creation of such an academy. "Everyone was very much offended by the fact that at this 'Akhmat' Academy of Peoples' Friendship, we are going to raise children on the normal universal principles of love for the motherland and love for God," commander Alaudinov has stated, treating all the academy's opponents as "fascists." He asserts that the "Akhmat" Special Forces are an international unit; and he himself is, first of all, a citizen of Russia.

The subscribers to Dmitry Kuznetsov's Telegram channel were surprised by the propaganda of this idea. "I am against any patriotic camps in Chechnya, where they are going to gather children from all over Russia. I am not against Chechens or any other nationality, but there are big questions for Chechen leaders about the beating of a prisoner at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) and no responsibility for this," the user Fuji Snail has written.

"Calling a people's friendship academy 'Akhmat' is an infringement and humiliation of other nations, who have their own national heroes. Such academy should not be named after a national hero of only one nation. Moreover, the state-forming nation in Russia is still not the Chechen one," the user Vlada has written.

Such an initiative may be related to the plans for the power transfer in the country, the user Serhikos has suggested.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has expressed his bewilderment over the fact that the Kuznetsov's proposal to set up the "Akhmat" People's Friendship Academy had sparked "a lot of negative reaction." "The revival of this good tradition in its modern form will certainly strengthen the harmony among Russian nations," Ramzan Kadyrov said in his Telegram channel.