Kadyrov’s Siloviki Seize Chechen Woman in Tatarstan and Forcibly Return Her Home

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 24 – Last summer, human rights activists were horrified when Chechen siloviki entered Daghestan to seize and return home a woman who had fled abuse from her Chechen relatives. Now, Ramzan Kadyrov’s government has shown it is prepared to do the same across Russia in the expectation that no one will object and Grozny will get away with it.

            (For a discussion of the first, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/chechen-siloviki-raid-womens-shelter-in.html; for a report on the latter, see newizv.ru/article/general/24-10-2021/krasnye-shapochki-i-kavkazskie-plennitsy-pochemu-nasha-strana-pikiruet-v-srednevekovie.)

            As horrific and wrong the first case was, it occurred within the Caucasus where tragically such things have become commonplace and where officials have good reason to fear reprisals from Kadyrov if they object. The latest incident is much worse: it is far from Chechnya and yet both officials in Tatarstan where the kidnaping took place and Moscow said nothing.

            Now, almost no one is safe from Kadyrov’s vicious use of force beyond the borders of his republic, something that highlights the favor he enjoys from Vladimir Putin and furthers the descent of Russia into something other than the law-based state that the Kremlin is always claiming exists.