Time to read: 16 minutes(s)

Two Chechnyas

Humiliation, repression, and torture for "their own," tolerance for "theirs." How did Chechens end up the most vulnerable group in their own homeland? 

Author: Beka Atsaev

March 2025. Lena Patyaeva from St. Petersburg holds a solo picket in central Grozny. She holds a sign reading "Where is Seda?" demanding an investigation into the kidnapping and disappearance of her Chechen friend, Seda Suleimanova. The protester is detained, "rather politely" interrogated at the police station, and let go Without drawing up a report, Patyaeva returns home to St. Petersburg. 

September 2022. Several dozen Chechen mothers attempt to stage a protest against their sons being sent to war in Ukraine. The square is cordoned off in advance, everyone who arrives is detained, and they spend about a day in the city hall building, where they are insulted by high-ranking officials. Soon after, they suffer a heart attack. dies An elderly man, the husband of one of the protesters, was forced to publicly beat his wife, and their 18-year-old son was demonstratively taken to war. 

The difference between these two episodes isn't the "gravity of the crime" or the mood of the repressive machine. The reason is so indecent and crude that it's embarrassing to voice: Lena Patyaeva is not a Chechen. 

This text explores the two parallel realities in which modern Chechnya lives under the leadership of the head of Chechnya (and, in fact, the governor of the Russian region) Ramzan Kadyrov. How did Chechens end up the most vulnerable group in their own homeland? Why are there public humiliations, repressions against relatives, torture, and illegal restrictions for "their own," while relative tolerance prevails for others? 

This was reported in a joint article by NeMoskva and the publication The entire Caucasus. 

Who is allowed to contradict?

A recent example of the privileged status of immigrants in Chechnya was demonstrated by officers of a local security agency during a road patrol. A recording of the conversation with them on March 15 опубликовала blogger Valeria Istomina. 

In the video, a man in military uniform and holding a machine gun asks, "Can I see your documents?" Istomina demands to know the reason for the inspection and insists she hasn't violated anything. She refuses to turn off the camera because "they're filming her too." After a short and relatively calm exchange, a second officer asks if the woman is "asserting her rights." At the end of the video, men laughing and saying in Chechen, "May she not leave me alone," can be heard in the background. A few seconds later, one of them shouts from afar, "Go ahead." 

Chechen viewers are shocked by almost everything in Istomina's video. Locals didn't know that armed Kadyrovites (i) (Kadyrovtsy is the unofficial name for the security forces (MVD, Rosgvardia) and military formations that are effectively subordinate to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov) They couldn't be filmed. They hadn't heard of their civil rights when confronted by law enforcement officers. They couldn't even imagine refusing a request to show documents or turn off a camera. And they certainly didn't suspect that they could return home after such a request. 

The story continued when Istomina's video was published by the Chechen opposition movement Niyso. Then, someone with the nickname khasaev.66 appeared in the Instagram comments. "That's me in this video. If anyone wants to talk about male (Commentators wrote that the police were "groveling like puppies" - author's note)"Get in touch!!!!!!!!," Khasayev urged in Chechen. With his message and call for a "showdown," he inadvertently confirmed accusations about the authorities' methods: dealing with newcomers by the language of the law, and dealing with their own by their own rules. The original short video likely also received criticism for its double standards: it is the only video on Istomina's YouTube channel with disabled comments. 

One might assume that this wasn't a matter of segregation policies, but rather that the authorities showed restraint in their conversations with the woman. However, women of Chechen descent face a different attitude. In 2019, the entire world saw this for themselves when footage was released of the working methods of the Chechen leader's second cousin, former Grozny Mayor Islam Kadyrov. Personnel, in which he hits women with a stun gun, insults them and threatens to kill them, were forced published pro-government television channel and presented to the public as an exceptional case. It was forced—because not long before, they were merged The TV channel rushed to get ahead of the opposition blogger with the publication. 

"Isa, are you not a man?!"

Non-Chechen citizens of the republic retain the right to express disagreement with government decisions without subsequent reprisals. In October 2025, ethnic Russian residents of Naurskaya protested against the renaming of a village in Nevra. At a meeting with the head of the district administration, they allowed They engaged in a very heated debate with the official, claiming, in particular, that the deputies who made the decision had no connection to the district. When the head of the administration asked him to stop filming, the author of the video refused. Authorities listened respectfully to the outraged residents and promised to take their demands into account (the settlement, however, was renamed anyway). 

Numerous Chechen residents were also present at the meeting, but none spoke. Judging by the video, all those who spoke were ethnic Russians. 

This story contrasts with another. A video of Valid Abdureshidov, head of the Urus-Martan district administration, went viral in the republic. yells at a local resident"Isa, aren't you a man?! Are you useless?! Are you negligent?! Are you a prostitute?!" Such an attack on a man's honor is unacceptable in Chechen society, even between enemies in conflict. 

But what did Isa do? He simply informed the municipal mayor that teenagers were damaging the bus stop and responding aggressively to his comments. Abdureshidov responded by suggesting that he beat up such teenagers. 

^{Source: Niyso Telegram channel}

The official didn't apologize for his insults, despite regularly forcing others to do so. For example, he once visited the home of local resident Zara Tepsurkayeva and, on camera, reprimanded She was accused of complaining to the head of Chechnya about her financial situation and inability to purchase food during COVID-19 restrictions. The mother of nine children and the wife of a disabled man apologized for her "misdemeanor" in front of a local television station. The report also showed the woman's two sons looking at the floor and trying to hide their faces behind the peaks of their baseball caps.

Another time, Abdureshidov gathered the elderly from the village of Alkhazurovo in the administration building and forced them in front of the camera to condemn and insult a woman who recorded a video complaining about water problems. There are no problems, and the woman complained due to her "lack of intelligence," the crowd declared. 

Video from apologies as a public humiliating practices in general have long been used by Kadyrov's men as a tool pressure on the Chechens. 

Fake hospitality 

Segregation has become routine in other areas of life as well. The republic continues to total ban on tinted car windows. The ban is illegal: according to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, tinting, albeit with restrictions, admissibleBut this is Ramzan Kadyrov's personal decision, which he explained by the fact that tinted cars can be used to transport "drug addicts and all sorts of other people." 

Now, traffic police in the Republic are forced, in addition to their duties, to carry out the work of separating drivers: into those who can be fined, scold, who can rip off Tinting film on a car or even confiscating the car—and on those who wish them a safe journey. The task isn't as simple as it seems: if a Chechen is driving a car registered in another Russian region, tinting is also prohibited for them—as stated at the meeting. said Kadyrov. Essentially, the regional leader, in front of cameras, ordered the ban to be enforced based on ethnicity, which violates Article 19 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law for all. 

Visitors often perceive the condescending attitude of Kadyrov's men as "Chechen hospitality." This is how blogger Rustam Leon called it. wordsA police officer at the entrance to Chechnya told him that window tinting was prohibited in the republic, but still let him through. In another video, a driver asked the officer directly: "Why aren't Chechens allowed in when everyone else can?" "I don't know," the uniformed officer replied frankly, answered affirmatively when asked whether this is part of Chechen hospitality. The situation at police posts in Chechnya is clear. demonstrated and Moscow lawyer Telman Sultanov, whose car wasn't even stopped, even though, according to him, it was tinted like a "bunker." 

^{Source: STZ Group YouTube channel}

Another unusual video on the channel of road blogger drongogo is also worth watching. "Good morning, Russians," Begins A young police officer is talking. "Are you Russian?" he asks the driver next, either trying to start an informal conversation or to determine which laws—Russian or Kadyrov's—should apply this time. During the conversation, the officer, less friendly now, says to someone in Chechen, "Go ahead, I told you to go." It's difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the video, but the emphasis on the driver's nationality is at best puzzling. 

^{Small talk on the Chechen highway. Source: YouTube channel drongogo} 

Violating the window tinting ban is yet another reason to send local residents to war against Ukraine, judging by a recent WhatsApp recording from Magomed Muzayev, head of the Duba-Yurt village administration. "I'll tell you about the punishment that awaits you. No one will be saved until they help those in Ukraine. And it's unclear whether he'll ever see his car again," threatened Muzaev in Chechen. 

In addition to restrictions on tinted windows, Chechnya remains the only region in which, when obtaining a Russian passport, required Bring a "guarantor" with the same last name. This illegal measure has been in effect for at least the past ten years and applies exclusively to Chechens. According to the Federal Migration Service of the Republic, the restriction was allegedly imposed at the request of Chechen residents themselves, whose relatives have joined armed groups in Syria. The "guarantor" leaves their information and signature on the form and serves as a "guarantor" that the holder of the new passport will not join any militias. This practice is informal: there is no text on the form, only fields to be filled in. 

Human rights activists count them., that the principle of collective responsibility, honed over the years, is clearly evident here. The holder of a new passport is made to understand: "If anything happens, we'll get the guarantor involved." 

Invite for tea or undress

Clothing requirements, as well as the consequences of poor clothing choices, also differ in Chechnya for visitors and locals. If visitors to the Republic are wearing clothing that is revealing by local standards (short shorts, skirts, dresses, sleeveless T-shirts, revealing, tight, or see-through items), they shouldn't be criticized, but rather invite for tea and "politely explain" that it is not appropriate to dress like that, Ramzan Kadyrov instructed at a meeting with the government. 

When it comes to Chechens, the head of Chechnya prefers other methods. "I'm telling you: a woman who comes out in black clothes, with her chin covered... We'll take that woman away and check her... We'll make her take off her clothes, her pants..." said In September 2014, Kadyrov ordered his threat to be shown on a local television channel. 

Shortly after Ramzan Kadyrov took office as President of Chechnya, men could be persecuted for beard paired with a shaved mustache or cuffed trousers. Kadyrov saw such people Threat - because of the external resemblance to the "Wahhabis". This specific term with an extra letter "s" Kadyrov for many years used to designate a wide variety of categories of people: supporters of Chechen independence, members of the armed underground, followers a different point of view In religion, critics of the regime. Today, the term has practically disappeared from Kadyrov's speech.

In December 2013, Apti Alaudinov, then Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs for Chechnya, gave his subordinates full authority to deal with Chechens who bore the slightest resemblance to "Wahhabis." 

"I personally took this upon myself, I personally said to mow them down. Whoever can be jailed, jail them. If there's an opportunity to plant something, something in a pocket, do it. Do whatever you want and kill whoever you want. The Padishah [Ramzan Kadyrov] said to do this, and I support it," Alaudinov says on famous video. 

^{Alaudinov's speech about “Wahhabists”. Source: Urus-Martan regional TV channel “UM-TV”} 

"We only need Chechens"

Segregation also exists within the walls of secret prisons. Reports of Kadyrov's men beating and torturing detained Chechens tougherMaxim Lapunov, an ethnic Russian who was illegally imprisoned, spoke to Russian and international media more than anyone else. He was among those kidnapped in 2017 as part of a wave of persecution of LGBT people.

At the Novaya Gazeta press conference, Lapunov stressed, that, unlike the Chechens, he wasn't tortured with electric shocks, but was only beaten on the first day of his abduction. During his 12 days in the secret prison, Lapunov counted at least 30 other captives: "There was a very brutal beating there. […] They could be beaten for several days in a row." Lapunov also quoted one of the kidnappers: “We don’t need you, we only need the Chechens.” 

Lapunov was eventually released. At least two Chechens who shared the basement with him met a different fate: they were killed and then handed over as members of the armed underground who had been eliminated during a special operation. "I was released two days before they were executed," Lapunov claims. showing photographs of the corpses of two men from a criminal case. 

See also: Forgotten Graves. "Honor Killings" in Chechnya: From Demonstrative Reprisals before state approval

Internal carte blanche

The policy of double standards is not new for the authorities of the Chechen Republic, says Sergei Babinets, head of the Team Against torture i (The organization had been operating in Chechnya since the early 2000s, documenting complaints of torture, abductions, and extrajudicial killings in the post-war republic; Babinets personally worked in the Grozny office of the Joint Mobile Group, which opened in November 2009; it was subsequently burned down and then ransacked by unknown assailants) He claims that the agreement between Kadyrov and the Kremlin initially entailed carte blanche in Chechnya in exchange for a solution to the problem of armed resistance, whose members the Russian side labels terrorists. 

The head of the Chechen Checkpoint calls the statistics of sentences for cases of abuse of power—and it is under this article that torture in the police is classified—“disappointing”: in more than 15 years of work in the Chechen Republic, human rights defenders failed bring to justice not a single police officer accused of torture. 

The Chechen security forces' permissiveness toward Chechens is not limited to the region, Babinets points out: 

"This is especially telling in the cases of Zarema Musayeva and the Magomedov brothers, for whom Chechen police came to Nizhny Novgorod. It became clear then: if necessary, Chechen security forces are ready and able to come for "their own" even in another region of Russia. I don't recall any such actions against non-Chechens." 

There are exceptions to the segregation policy. Perhaps the most famous is the case of Nikita Zhuravel, convicted for burning the Koran. The decision was made to transfer him to Chechnya to serve his sentence. was taken head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin and supported personally by Putin. 

"Apparently, any crimes related to the desecration of a symbol sacred to Muslims also blur the boundaries of what is permissible, and federal authorities agree with this approach," the source comments. 

Apparently, the boundaries of what is permissible are also blurred in relation to those who personally insulted the head of Chechnya. Three natives of Derbent, Dagestan—Seidaydin Mustafayev, Khakim Askerov, and Nilan Aliyev—went missing after a visit to Grozny in February 2020. Mustafayev maintained a social media blog where he made offensive comments about Kadyrov. In one of his videos, the blogger names official as a "bearded puppet," calls for "walking like a mortal, [together] with the people." According to Kavkaz.Realii, all three were beaten at Kadyrov's residence. The Ministry of Internal Affairs for Dagestan and the Investigative Committee for Chechnya have issued a missing persons alert. Relatives have appealed to Kadyrov for help finding the men, but there has been no news of them so far. 

See also: A private army for a rainy day. Why did Ramzan Kadyrov create the Russian Special Forces University and what role does it play? he may play in the future

The problem of segregation in Chechnya doesn't receive the same media attention as Adam Kadyrov's latest medal, his new position, his expensive watches, and his wedding processions. Or the Chechen leader's illness and the number of his wives. A problem that, due to its medieval nature, should have eclipsed everything else, remains in the shadows. Representatives of the Chechen opposition movement Niyso are practically the only ones who regularly speak out about this policy in the public arena. 

At the same time, according to Babinets, practice has changed over the years: 

Security forces in Chechnya—as in other regions, but most clearly in Chechnya—are testing the boundaries of what's permissible and what's not, trying new methods to combat those they consider criminals or enemy elements. Sometimes they get a slap on the wrist, and then they temporarily retreat. 

---

In most countries, belonging to the titular ethnic group is considered an advantage. In modern Chechnya, it becomes an additional risk factor. 

The Chechen women mentioned at the beginning of this article were probably well aware of the consequences of their choice. They knew they couldn't expect a "restrained attitude" from the authorities for attempting to protest the mobilization. And so it happened. The male relatives of the detainees were brought to the Grozny mayor's office and forced to beat the women in public, because "otherwise we'll do it—and it will be worse." The next day, Ramzan Kadyrov called out protesters were enemies of the people, receiving money from certain “Western organizations.” 

Disproportionate force and repression for disloyalty became the regime's primary tool for suppressing the will of the Chechen people. This mechanism proved so effective that the protest against sending their sons to war became a unique precedent—probably the only protest organized by Chechens against the authorities' actions during the regime's existence. A desperate act by mothers breaking their long-standing silence.