‘Prove that you really are men’

Kadyrov sends Chechen special forces to raid Urus-Martan after a violent clash between two law-enforcement officers

Late on December 11, Chechen special forces raided the republic’s Urus-Martan district, looking for eyewitnesses who had failed to intervene in a clash between two law-enforcement officers the day before.

The state-owned Chechen broadcaster Grozny reported that over 500 law-enforcement troops had “concentrated” in Urus-Martan. This was also confirmed by Idris Cherkhigov, head of the Chechen traffic police. The newly-arrived troops were stopping drivers and checking their documents. According to the Chechen opposition Telegram channel NIYSO, around 20 people had been arrested by 4:00 a.m. on December 12. NIYSO also claims that the troops had smashed the tinted windows in some vehicles.

The raid was precipitated by a violent clash that took place on December 10, between an Urus-Martan traffic policeman and another law-enforcement officer, identified as a National Guard serviceman or possibly a member of its reserve. Baza reports that the National Guard officer drove up to the traffic policeman, drifting in front of him and trying to “challenge him” over some unresolved past issue. As the conflict escalated, he slapped the policeman’s face. The latter, in turn, fired several shots into the ground.

None of the locals present the scene tried to intervene, writes Baza. According to The Insider, however, some of the onlookers tried to defend the National Guard officer. The Telegram channel NIYSO wrote that other National Guard troops soon arrived on the scene and drove off with the policeman in an unknown direction.

The Chechen traffic police told RIA Novosti that locals “responded aggressively to the Urus-Martan traffic police’s insistence on enforcing the traffic rules,” adding that “the main culprits” had been arrested on December 10.

The day after the incident, Chechnya’s Head Ramzan Kadyrov published a video addressing Urus-Martan residents in Chechen about their “behavior when gathered around the officers.” According to a translation published by Grozny-Inform, Kadyrov rebuked and threatened the residents with being sent to fight in Ukraine:

All of you who took part in this — do you really want to squabble and fight? You’ll have that opportunity. I’m giving an order to send members of the Chechen special forces to Urus-Martan tomorrow morning. You have a choice: either fight with them — or we’ll send you to the special military operation zone. Prove that you really are men.

Idris Cherkhigov, head of the Chechen traffic police, said that raids will continue in Urus-Martan, until “everyone who took part in that incident is caught, and until they learn to respect the officers, as well as traffic rules.”