Residents of Chechen Argun tell about forced participation in subbotnik

The Argun city authorities have held a large-scale subbotnik, the participation in which was strictly mandatory, local residents have reported. They have associated the subbotnik with the desire of the newly appointed city Mayor to advance before Ramzan Kadyrov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 26, Khas-Magomed Kadyrov, a 28-year-old relative of the head of Chechnya, was appointed Mayor of Argun. The city is one of the key points of the republic, therefore Kadyrov pays special attention to it, analysts believe.

"All the day, we cleaned and painted the curbs, removed the grass and removed garbage," said Isa, a local resident of.

In this way, the new Argun Mayor has proved himself before the republic's authorities, having demonstrated his ability to organize a large-scale event, residents of Chechnya believe.

Subbotniks with the participation of state servants are widely practiced in Chechnya, even in those spheres, where they are not very efficient, said Abusupyan Gaitaev, a lawyer. He has noted that by its very essence, a subbotnik can be only voluntary; such events are beyond the scope of the Labour Code.

Chechnya is the only region of the Russian Federation, where subbotniks organized by the authorities are practiced regularly, Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the Civil Assistance Committee, has noted.

Subbotniks are the best that Russian regions could borrow from Chechnya, Aset Malsagova, a Chechen human rights defender has stated.