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Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of the "Vayfond" Association that is in opposition to Kadyrov, has stated that during the last year he significantly reduced his activeness in social networks, but Chechen law enforcers have still kidnapped his maternal relatives.

Aslan Artsuev, the director of the organization "Human Rights Centre Ichkeria", has stated that Chechen authorities are trying to exert pressure on him by kidnapping four relatives, but this won't affect his political position and actions.

Chechen Press and Information Minister Akhmed Dudaev has insulted critics of the authorities for lack of respect for Ramzan Kadyrov and his followers. Thus, he has ignored the President Putin’s statement about the unacceptability of settling scores.

Today, a mother and a sister of a Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov’s wife have been kidnapped in Astrakhan, and three of earlier kidnapped relatives are also being held hostage in Chechnya, the blogger reports.

On the fourth day of their hunger strike in a SIZO (pre-trial prison), brothers Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev look exhausted, but they intend to continue their protest against the court’s refusal to send their case to a court outside Chechnya, employees of the “SK SOS” Crisis Group report.

Khasan Khalitov, a critic of Chechen authorities living in Turkey, has reported today about the kidnapping of at least five his relatives living in Northern Caucasus.

Six out of the nine relatives of Tumso Abdurakhmanov kidnapped in Chechnya have been set free; the whereabouts of his uncle, cousin and nephew remain unknown, the blogger has informed today.

In their publications about Ramzan Kadyrov's statement addressed to Recep Erdogan regarding the opening of the Dudaev Park, Turkish media have emphasized the tactless tone of the head of Chechnya.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger, has refused to stop criticizing Chechen authorities, despite repression threats against his kidnapped relatives.

The refusal to interrogate within the "Memorial"* case those who founded this organization and is working therein, as well as the witnesses from Northern Caucasus declared by the defence, indicates the court's unwillingness to impartially delve into the essence of the case, human rights defenders have commented on the outcomes of the next court session.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a Chechen blogger, had asked journalists to ask Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at his annual press conference held on December 23, about kidnappings of relatives, but this issue was not raised there.

Kidnapping of relatives of blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov and other critics of the Chechen authorities was committed against the background of the trials against the “Memorials”* NGOs, when the main attention of Russian and foreign human rights defenders is focused on those trials and somewhat distracted from Chechnya, human rights defenders note. They call the kidnapping of relatives a historically alien practice in the Caucasus.

Today, in a case on the liquidation of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial’*, the defence reminded the court that people affected by construction of the Irganai hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and migrants from Chechnya to Ingushetia received support from “Memorial”* in defending their rights in court.

According to the Spiritual Administration of Chechnya, the opening in Turkey of a park named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of Ichkeria, is at odds with the Muslim traditions that condemn terrorism.

Minkail Malizaev, a blogger criticizing Chechen authorities, has announced the kidnapping of his paternal and maternal relatives in Chechnya. Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who had also reported about kidnapping of his relatives, has posted a message that a similar fate had befallen relatives of Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of the "Vayfond" Association.