Kadyrov’s Chechnya – Where for Many Death from the Coronavirus is ‘the Lesser Evil’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 12 – Given that Ramzan Kadyrov has equated those suffering from the coronavirus with terrorists and demanded that they be pursued and punished in the same way, many Chechens now feel that it is better to hide their illness than to report it to the authorities because for them, death from the virus is “the lesser evil,” Elena Milashina reports.

            “The coronavirus,” the Novaya gazeta journalist says, “has paralyzed the entire population of the republic, except for its head.” Kadyrov and his suite constantly move about and act in ways that violate the rules on self-isolation, even as he attacks those who don’t or who have fallen ill (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/04/12/84851-smert-ot-koronavirusa-menshee-zlo).

            “Having prohibited the population from praying and having closed the mosques,” she continues, “Kadyrov with a large group of his comrades in arms goes by day to his personal mosque and by night together with elders prays at holy places located throughout Chechnya.”

            The massive illegal detentions which have characterized his rule continue. The virus has not had any impact on that. Supposedly hundreds of Chechens have been tested, but one must ask, Milashina says, whether in fact anyone has been except for Kadyrov and his immediate entourage.

            Chechens almost unanimously say they are obeying the quarantine rules, adding that even if they feel sick, they are afraid to go to the doctors lest they be diagnosed with an illness Kadyrov has “publicly equated to terrorism and called for employing the same methods to fight against it.”

            In short, the Moscow journalist says, for Chechens, dying from the coronavirus is “a lesser evil” than trying to save themselves by going to a doctor or hospital because in that event Kadyrov might find out and they would suffer the consequences. That may keep the number of reported cases down, but unfortunately it does nothing to contain the number of deaths.

            Not surprisingly, Kadyrov lashed out at this report, suggesting that the Moscow paper, which he initially confused with Ekho Moskvy, was funded from abroad and thus intended to blacken the reputation of Chechnya and of the Russian Federation as a whole (capost.media/news/politika/kadyrov-responded-to-the-article-death-from-the-coronavirus-that-causes-the-lesser-evil/).

            The republic head called on Russia’s special services to track who and how such “diversionists are being financed on the territory of our country.”  And he asked rhetorically, “why are there no Russian human rights papers in the United States? Forgive me if that is not so.”