Rights defenders: "spiritual certification" in Chechnya encourages informers

The Chechen authorities try to establish feudal control over the society by adopting a principle of collective responsibility under the guise of "spiritual and moral certification". This opinion was expressed by rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 18, the website of the Chechen Parliament reported that by the decision of the leader of Chechnya, in the republic, every person in the age from 14 to 35 years old should pass "spiritual and moral certification" and report about personal religious views and tribal affiliation. Ramzan Kadyrov himself denied the information and called it a fiction.

Nevertheless, according to residents of the republic, the Chechen authorities have not abandoned the idea of "spiritual and moral certification" of young people, and because of the public resonance, they are implementing it under the guise of questioning.

According to Lyudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Chechnya faces a "strengthening of feudal control."

"They (the authorities of Chechnya) are going to put everything under control, and this control is worse than the control which used to take place in the Soviet Union. They are going to introduce the feudal control when people can be persecuted for professing other faith, for belonging to other teip, and so on," the rights defender told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Committee "Civil Assistance", believes the questioning is being carried out with the purpose to "subject people to spiritual subjugation."

"The purpose of this questioning, like many other things taking place in Chechnya, is to unite people around Ramzan Kadyrov and to subject people to spiritual subjugation. Furthermore, for people, it also means denunciation of own relatives. And what else can I say, what kind of morality can we discuss here? It is absolutely an immoral action," Svetlana Gannushkina believes.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.