Russian opposition politician to release a report on Chechnya's ruler

Opposition politician Ilya Yashin says he'll soon release a new report detailing the crimes of Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov. The report is titled “A Threat to National Security,” according to the newspaper Vedomosti.

Yashin plans to unveil the report on February 23. He says it focuses on Kadyrov's biography, including his time spent as a rebel in the 1990s. It will highlight political assassinations in Russia—in which Kadyrov may have been involved—and examine Chechnya's political regime.

The report is based on publicly available sources, but part of information was collected by Yashin's associates in Chechnya, he says.

An additional topic touched on in the report will be Chechnya's relations with the Russian federal center. The main question raised is Putin's role in the development of Kadyrov's regime. “The regime in Chechnya is a result of Putin's policies in the North Caucasus. We try to give a forecast of how the situation may develop, and how [this situation] creates threats for Russia's political system and national security,” said Yashin.

Vedomosti

• In May 2015, Yashin presented the report “Putin. The War,” which investigated Russian involvement in the eastern Ukraine conflict and Crimea. This report was originally a project by Boris Nemtsov. After Nemtsov was killed in Moscow on February 27, 2015, Yashin and others completed the report on his behalf.
• Nemtsov's supporters have repeatedly spoken about the possible involvement of Ramzan Kadyrov and his entourage in Nemtsov's assassination. Investigators never questioned Kadyrov. The Chechen leader also defended one of the alleged perpetrators, Zaur Dadaev.