Residents of Chechnya tell about forced attendance of mass New Year welcoming

Over 120,000 people gathered in central Grozny on the New Year's Eve, the Chechen authorities have reported. Employees of budgetary organizations had to participate in festivities under the threat of layoffs, Grozny residents have told.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that state servants in Chechnya had repeatedly complained about forced attendance of events organized by the authorities under the threat of dismissal; such events include sports matches, festivities, rallies, or subbotniks.

The New Year night passed in Chechnya without incidents, a source from the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the Chechen MIA, over 400,000 people took part in the New Year celebrations.

School employees of Grozny reported on December 31 that they were forced to participate in the New Year festivities, according to the publication of the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, on the Telegram.

The budget-funded servants were forced to participate in the holiday, Taisa, an employee of one of the republic's agencies, confirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "This year, there were really a lot of people at the New Year Tree this year. But this is not surprising. They drove all the state servants they could, and attracted students to the event," she said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 2, 2020 at 02:12 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.