Three Chechen residents publicly apologize for incident with taxi driver in Moscow

The Chechen authorities returned three young people to the republic and convinced them to apologize in public for refusing to pay for a taxi ride in Moscow.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that residents of Chechnya regularly make public apologies, including on air of the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company), for their complaints about officials, criticism of the authorities, and inappropriate behaviour.

On March 31, in its nightly news, the "Grozny" TV Channel showed a story with apologies voiced by three Chechen natives. The TV story was also posted by the "Grozny" TV Channel on YouTube under the title reading: "Police detain three natives of the Chechen Republic who deceived a taxi driver in Moscow."

According to the TV story, in late 2019, Moscow taxi driver Rafis Kamaletdinov posted on the Internet a video record from his DVR installed inside his car. The video released then by the "ChGTRK" (Chechen State TV and Radio Company) depicts three passengers starting a quarrel with the driver and then getting out of the car with the refusal to pay the fare.

In the TV Channel's report, young people are shown standing with their heads bowed in front of State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, the adviser to the leader of Chechnya.

In the TV report, Adam Delimkhanov addressed residents of Moscow and other regions and apologized for the behaviour of his fellow countrymen. "I want to apologize for these people, if I may call them people," said Adam Delimkhanov.

The detainees also begged pardon in the Chechen language for their behaviour, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported.

Some residents of Chechnya doubted that top-ranking officials should be involved in resolving such conflicts. "It's an ordinary everyday case, like thousands happening in Russia every day. And the State Duma member is being involved in resolving of such an ordinary conflict ... I don't understand the things like that," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told, in particular, by Milana, an employee of a public organization.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 1, 2020 at 11:43 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.