Tête-à-tête in the midst of a scandal: Putin and Kadyrov met in Moscow

The press service of the head of the Chechen Republic does not report the date of the meeting, however, the news about the event is dated at 0:07 on February 3, it is illustrated by a joint photo of the two leaders in the interiors of the Kremlin. However, when downloading a photo, an indication appears in the file name that the photo was actually taken almost five years ago, on April 19, 2017.

“The presidential press service did not report on the meeting. On February 2, the Kremlin said that Mr. Putin had "no plans" to meet with the head of Chechnya", - Kommersant notes.

The news about the meeting between Putin and Kadyrov on the official portal of the head of Chechnya follows the message about the mass unsanctioned rally that took place the day before in Grozny under the title: "Participants of a large-scale rally in Grozny sharply condemned the statements of the Yangulbaev family".

However, when you try to open this news, the website of the head of Chechnya gives an "error 502". Errors in this series usually indicate problems on the server side, which may not be able to cope with a large number of requests. The page is accessible through the cache of search engines. The report, in particular, cites the words of Salakh Mezhiev, Mufti of Chechnya, uttered at the rally:

“The Yangulbaevs tried to discredit the name of the saints and spoke very dirty. No one allowed himself to be so mean. Today we have gathered to show our love for Allah Almighty. We curse these atheists”, - he said.

During the action, the chairman of the Public Chamber of the Chechen Republic, Ismail Denilkhanov, read out an appeal on behalf of the audience to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to “stop the activities of Novaya Gazeta, the Dozhd TV channel (recognized as a foreign agent) and the Committee against Torture (recognized as a foreign agent), as well as facilitate the extradition members of the Yangulbaev family from the countries in which they are in hiding.”

The rally participants beat with sticks the portraits of Judge Yangulbaev and his sons, covered with the inscriptions “Shame on the Nation”, and then publicly burned them at the stake.

Human rights activists called a rally in Chechnya calling for blood feud against one family "a spit in Putin's face" and expressed bewilderment at the Kremlin's lack of reaction to the atrocities taking place in the republic.

According to Chechen media, more than 400,000 people gathered for the rally. It is indicated that the mass public protest action that took place in the Chechen capital at the height of the coronavirus pandemic was not officially approved.

Initially, the Kremlin said that a meeting between Putin and Kadyrov was not planned against the backdrop of what was happening. However, the opposite information soon appeared.

“President of Russia Vladimir Putin held a working meeting in Moscow with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov,” the press service said. “R. Kadyrov reported on the socio-economic situation… He said that the demographic free regasification, the republic is today in the top three leaders in the country…”, the report says.

At the same time, not a word was officially said about the scandal with the officially announced campaign of state persecution of the family of retired judge Saydi Yangulbaev, the story of the persecution of which by Kadyrov and his entourage has been on the pages of the federal and foreign media since January 20.

The day before, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would be informed of a letter from the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, Alexei Venediktov, in which he asked the president to intervene in the situation with the judge's family.

On January 20, Chechen security forces abducted seriously ill Zarema Musaeva, the wife of retired federal judge Saidi Yangulbaev, from an apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. She was dragged barefoot through the snow in a 10-degree frost, and upon delivery to Grozny, she was arrested for 15 days for allegedly attacking a policeman on the way. Then she was arrested in a criminal case initiated on the same grounds. Z and allegedly committed by her "violence against a representative of the authorities", according to Part 2 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Musaeva, who suffers from severe diabetes and needs to take 5 injections of insulin daily, faces up to 10 years in prison.

Kadyrov said that "this family is waiting for a place either in prison or underground". A part of the "United Russia" State Duma deputy from Chechnya, Adam Delimkhanov vowed to "kill" and "behead" Yangulbaevyh members of the family with whom "in the Chechen nation" supposedly has a "feud".