Chechen residents criticize attempts to justify Ramzan Kadyrov's threats to rights defenders

The Chechen TV has announced the full Kremlin support for the Ramzan Kadyrov's statements against rights defenders. The authorities actively try to justify the scandalous statements voiced by the Chechen leader, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by local activists.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 22, Ramzan Kadyrov described as enemies of Chechen people the rights defenders who criticized the activities of the law enforcement bodies after a series of attacks on policemen committed in the Chechen Republic. In his speech at a meeting with law enforcers, Ramzan Kadyrov put the rights defenders on a par with militants and announced that he forbade them to visit Chechnya, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" translated from the Chechen language and quoted Ramzan Kadyrov as saying.

At night on August 25, the GTRK (State TV and Radio Company) "Grozny" showed a story reporting that the Kremlin supported the Ramzan Kadyrov's statements about the rights defenders, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported.

The speech of presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, in which he suggested to differentiate rights defenders, was mentioned as a sign of the support for the Ramzan Kadyrov's statements. Dmitry Peskov said that the leader of Chechnya did not speak of "all rights defenders."

Local observers drew attention to active attempts of the authorities to justify the Ramzan Kadyrov's words. They noted that the statement voiced by the Chechen leader about the ban on the appearance in Chechnya for rights defenders should be considered a real threat.

"The leader of the region has clearly spoken concerning rights defenders. He compared them to terrorists, and now everything is thrown to justify somehow what has been said. They say the leader spoke only of 'about some' rights defenders and besides, the Kremlin supported Ramzan Kadyrov in that issue. That looks ridiculous," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Rizvan, a local resident.

The comments of Dmitry Peskov contained no support for the Ramzan Kadyrov's statements, although that was announced by the Grozny TV, noted Milana, a local activist.

"I read the comment voiced by the Russian presidential press secretary. There is not a single word in support of the actions [of the leader of Chechnya]. Dmitry Peskov only said that it was necessary to differentiate rights defenders and that many of them really did the right job and were respected. Meanwhile, our TV announced that the Kremlin unequivocally supported Ramzan Kadyrov. And the threats voiced against to rights defenders are quite real," Milana told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 26, 2018 at 04:25 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.