Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 3 – Chechnya head
Ramzan Kadyrov, who earlier announced he would punish and otherwise put
pressure on relatives of those who engage in violence, has now extended that idea
to relatives of Chechens living abroad who protest his repressive regime, thus
transforming many into the republic’s population into hostages in the worst
Soviet tradition.
That action is dangerous in and of
itself, but it is especially worrisome because it is likely to become a precedent
for Vladimir Putin and thus make all Russians with relatives abroad, an
increasingly large number given rising emigration, hostages and give the
Kremlin leader a means of extending the reach of his repressive regime abroad.
If as seems all too likely Kadyrov’s
action will be ignored by most Western governments despite these implications,
it is almost certain that the Putin regime and its supporters will see such
silence as an implicit acceptance of this outrageous behavior and thus feel
confident that Moscow can use this kind of action with impunity.
On December 28, Kadyrov declared
that “we have a custom, a brother is responsible for a brother. I have given
the order to find out if those [who took part in a December 24 meeting in
Vienna protesting his regime’s actions] have a brother, father, or are part of
a taip … and why they permit themselves to speak out on the leadership of the
republic and the people” (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/275355/ and grani.ru/War/Chechnya/m.247508.html).
Kadyrov said that the authorities “will
use all resources: law, traditions, and religion” against those whose relatives
are demonstrating and seek to get them to disown them, a serious demand in a
family-based society like that of Chechnya. “If [such people] do not take
decisions on their own, we will demand them.”
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