Chechen teenagers were forced to publicly apologize for criticizing the authorities in a telegram chat

In Chechnya, nine teenagers have publicly apologized for being on a Telegram chat and speaking critically about the government. This was reported by the "Caucasian Knot" and "Caucasus. Realities" .

In social networks, in particular in the telegram channel "Lane 95" , on April 6, nine videos with apologies appeared, where young people repent that they wrote "nasty things about the authorities" in the chat "Osal nah 95" (translated from the Chechen language, this means " Unprincipled people 95"). At the time of publication, the chat was renamed to " Konakhi 95" - "worthy men 95".

Some of them in the video repeat the phrases that the off-screen voice dictates to them in Chechen. A chat participant under the nickname "Bender" said that he had passed some information to the opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov. The blogger stated that he did not know the user under that nickname.

One teenager under the nickname "Noctis" in the video says that the security forces brought him from St. Petersburg. "Caucasus. Realii” note that the chat participant with the nickname “Loskutik” on the recording is breathing with difficulty.

As they write "Caucasus. Realii”, a member of the Human Rights Council under the head of Chechnya, Kheda Saratova, does not know where the members of “Osal Nakh 95” are now. An interlocutor of the publication under the nickname "Dra Kula", who introduced himself as a relative of one of the teenagers, said that the security forces detained the teenagers on April 4 and promised to release them after April 8. Parents were called for a preventive conversation.

According to local human rights activist Ruslan Kutaev, the authorities put pressure on teenagers in this way. “Lokutik, in my opinion, was beaten quite seriously. He is very scared. All clear. Free people expressed their independent opinion. In response, the authorities carry out such an operation in order to suppress even such "kitchen" free thinking. To completely turn young people into "vegetables", into cowardly lambs. I don’t know exactly what happened to them, but I’ll try to find out, ”Kavkaz.ru quotes. Realities” words by Kutaev.

The Chechen department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not confirm the information about the disappearance of nine minors.

• Chechens are often forced to make public apologies after asking for help from Ramzan Kadyrov. In August 2019, the Caucasian Knot published an overview of such cases.
• In September 2019, in Chechnya, two young people were publicly reprimanded for comments on a social network, and earlier free performers were detained for inconsistency of their songs with the Chechen mentality. Three women were forced to apologize for contacting Ramzan Kadyrov.
• In 2016, a resident of the Chechen village Ramazan Jaladinov, who wrote a complaint to Vladimir Putin, apologized for this to the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. Before that, Jaladinov's fellow villagers sent their apologies to Kadyrov .
• in Sweden in February 2020 by an unknown person The blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who criticized the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, was attacked . In Russia, Abdurakhmanov has been put on the federal wanted list on charges of participating in illegal armed groups in Syria. The blogger claims that he has never been there. The next day after the appearance of information about the attack "Kavkaz. Realii” reported that people in Chechnya were massively detained for liking Abdurakhmanov’s videos.