Chechnya Seeks to Rein In Russian Community Organization and Moscow’s Migrantophobia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 7 – Mansur Soltayev, Chechnya’s human rights ombudsman, has asked the republic’s prosecutor to examine the activities of the “Russian Community” which has been harassing non-Russians, the latest sign that this group, which has close ties to the Russian authorities, is generating a backlash among non-Russians.

            (On this move, see kavkazr.com/a/ombudsmen-chechni-poprosil-pravoohraniteljnye-organy-proveritj-russkuyu-obschinu-/33146642.html; for background on the Russian Community see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/10/extreme-right-russian-community.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/russian-community-now-largest-extreme.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/clashes-between-ethnic-diasporas-and.html.)

            The fact that Grozny is now going after the Russian Community will likely spark concerns that Chechnya and perhaps other republics will use any new authority to form regional militias to create forces to oppose actions by the Russian Community and thus trigger violence (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/moscow-gives-heads-of-all-federal.html.)

            That seems especially likely in the case of Chechnya which already has its own military units and whose leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has launched a round of attacks on Moscow’s migrantophobic and Islamophobic policies (kavkazr.com/a/razocharovalsya-v-rossii-kadyrov-protiv-russkoy-obschiny-i-zapretov-dlya-migrantov/33151953.html).

            Kadyrov’s criticism of what Moscow is doing not only directly but via groups like the Russian Community organization has become so sharp that some in Moscow are likely to conclude that it is long past time to get rid of him, although taking any such action would likely trigger violence between the center and Kadyrov’s supporters.