15 February 2019, 17:29
Umarov offers making Abdurakhmanov Chechen authorities' envoy in Poland
The videos criticizing the authorities of Chechnya, which the Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov posts on the Internet, spoil the image of the Chechen people, Djambulat Umarov, the Minister for National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information, has stated. He invited the blogger to present a concept for the implementation of Chechnya's foreign relations, promising to solicit for him to Ramzan Kadyrov.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who was put on the federal wanted list in Russia, tried to get asylum in Georgia and Poland, but was refused in both countries. In December 2018, Polish border guards told the blogger that he should leave the country. On January 3, the international human rights organization Amnesty International urged Poland to cancel Abdurakhmanov's extradition.
According to Chechen law enforcers, Abdurakhmanov had links with militants in Syria. However, the blogger claims that he had never been to Syria, calling a conflict with a high-ranking relative of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, as the reason for his criminal prosecution in Russia.
In his YouTube channel, Tumso regularly criticizes the Chechen authorities and their policies.
On February 14, the above Minister Djambulat Umarov, posted, in his Instagram account, an appeal to Tumso, in which he noted that the image of the Chechen people was suffering from such criticism.
Mr Umarov proposed to appoint Tumso Abdurakhmanov the head of Chechnya's envoy in Poland. "Let him draft a concept. I will personally petition to Ramzan Kadyrov that the blogger has completely global plans for implementing external relations of the Chechen Republic," Minister Umarov has promised.
He has expressed his confidence that this would not happen. "It's not because he doesn't want. The public opinion that he had created around himself will not allow him to do it," said the minister said.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 15, 2019 at 12:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
