Security measures around football match in Grozny created much inconvenience, townspeople say

The match between the 2002 Brazil national team and the team formed personally by Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya and president of the "Terek" FC, was held under tight guards and unprecedented security measures. Blocking by power agents of the central part of Grozny resulted in numerous traffic jams on highways and caused serious problems for public transport passengers. Many fans were not allowed into the stadium by policemen, while those who saw the match say that Brazilians played half-foot.

Football fans were brought to the match in buses. Their number was much higher than the capacity of the stadium; therefore many of them could not pass through numerous cordons of the police and militaries. The actions of power agents to ensure safety of the players caused residents' irritation.

"Not only the whole centre was blocked for traffic, and police and military posts were deployed everywhere; suddenly they closed the "Berkat" marketplace <...>. It is some 500-700 meters away from the stadium; moreover, there are buildings in between. They just created problems for people - nothing more," said Seda K., a local resident.

Khasan S., a resident of the Naur District of Chechnya, said that he had specially made a trip to Grozny with his friends to watch the match, but the guards would not let them into the stadium.

Another serious problem for many people was also in transfer of the public transport stop from near the "Berkat" to Mayakovsky Street. It resulted both in numerous traffic jams and disruption of public transport. People had to wait for their fixed-route taxis and buses for 30-40 minutes, while the air temperature in the evening dropped significantly.

"If I had known that it would be like that, I wouldn't have gone out of home yesterday at all," said Ramzan Sh. a Grozny resident. "They say that the war is over long ago; and the militants are no more than 50-60 in number; but still, the police and militaries behave as if expecting a militants' attack any moment, like in 1996."

The policemen kept saying that they were just following instructions of their bosses.

"It seemed that the Brazilian team played half-strength; and in the second half they openly played in the give-away manner. Our players were unable to strike an empty net, and generally, after Gullit left the game, they were just running across the field after the ball. To say honestly, I expected much more," says Musa G., a football fan.

Well before the match, the user from Dagestan mamirgov, whose comment was put on the "Top-10 of the North-Caucasian blogosphere" of the "Caucasian Knot", wrote in his blog, commenting on the news about the football match: "Kadyrov is a king of PR-actions!"

Let us remind you that the friendly match between the Brazil national team and "Kadyrov's team" ended 6:4 in favour of the guests.