Kidnapping of natives of Chechnya in Nizhny Novgorod was preceded by a deal with Telegram channel

The advocate of the natives of Chechnya, detained in Nizhny Novgorod, is in Gudermes, but has no information about his clients and could not meet them. Human rights defenders had discussed with the young men strict restriction of their contacts for security reasons, but one of them broke the rules, said David Isteev, an employee of the Russian LGBT Network.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported citing the Russian LGBT Network that two natives of Chechnya were kidnapped in Nizhny Novgorod. One of them is a 20-year-old Salekh Magamadov; the other one is a minor named Ismail. Law enforcers are bringing them to Gudermes in connection with their activeness in the oppositional Telegram channel, David Isteev, the coordinator of the emergency help programme of the Russian LGBT Network, has suggested.

The natives of Chechnya kidnapped in Nizhny Novgorod have not yet been delivered to Gudermes, David Isteev has told the "Caucasian Knot".

"The advocate is clarifying the situation on the spot; we are waiting for news. The norms of the law regarding the minor are absolutely clearly violated. So far, we have managed to establish that, probably, Ismail began exhibiting his activeness in oppositional channels monitored by Kadyrov's informers," Mr Isteev has added.

The Telegram channel "Osal nakh 95", as follows from the description of the channel, was re-created already after the arrest of Salekh and Ismail, in the evening on February 4.

The owner of the channel a day earlier "sold the channel to an unknown person, after which his person was identified," the publication says. "The buyers were Kadyrov's men, who reacted instantly and sent [local law enforcers] to the young men's apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. Later, the Kadyrov's agents themselves came to pick the guys up," the message says.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 5, 2021 at 10:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.