Ever Fewer Chechens want to Become Policemen Lest They be Forced to Fight in Ukraine, Observers Say

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 27 – Police forces across Russia are increasingly and seriously understaffed (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/11/russia-facing-increasingly-serious.html), but nowhere in that country is the problem greater than in the North Caucasus in general and Chechnya in particular.
    The reason is simple: While North Caucasians including Chechens in the past typically viewed service in the police as an attractive option because of relatively high salaries, Ramzan Kadyrov’s push to have police rotate to serve in the army in Ukraine has changed things, Chechens say (kavkazr.com/a/ocheredj-na-uvoljnenie-stala-boljshe-defitsit-silovikov-v-chechne-na-fone-voyny-protiv-ukrainy-/33327323.html).
    Ever fewer Chechens want to become policemen because of the risk they’ll die in Ukraine, and Grozny is struggling with a new problem because not only does that open the way to more crime but also to attacks on the repressive Kadyrov regime, two trends likely to feed on each other and destabilize the situation there.
    Neither Grozny nor Moscow publish any statistics on this problem, but statements by Chechen officials over the last three years and the observations of local Chechens and Chechen activists abroad strongly suggest that it is a growing one that will continue as long as Kadyrov seeks to win friends in Moscow by loyally providing cannon fodder to Putin.