Taramova's friend treats her video appeal as staged

The video appeal in which Khalimat Taramova asked to leave her family alone was recorded under pressure, her friend has suggested. Instagram users have called on to stop discussing Taramova's topic.

The new video was recorded not voluntarily, but under pressure – most likely from her relatives, Anna Manylova, Khalimat's friend, believes.

On September 2, Aminat Lorsanova, who had fled Chechnya, posted an appeal to Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), in which she stated that Taramova was in danger, since there was no information about her for more than two months.

Anna Manylova did not rule out that Khalimat's relatives were sick and tired of the resonance in the media; and they decided to use the video appeal to calm down the public and divert its attention from the incident.

According to Anna, in July Taramova's relatives contacted her and demanded to "leave the girl alone." Manylova did not rule out that Taramova "could have been so intimidated that she would no longer dare to run away," but expressed the hope that "everything would be fine."