Chechen TV viewers criticize report in memory of Pskov paratroopers

A story prepared by the "Grozny" ChGTRK (State TV and Radio Company) about events in memory of the Pskov paratroopers killed 20 years ago near Ulus-Kert provoked indignation among social network users, and a number of followers of the "Grozny" ChGTRK's page on Instagram decreased by 3000 people.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 28, official events took place in Chechnya on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the battle involving soldiers of the sixth squadron from the Pskov Airborne Division and militants. In that regard, local residents accused the Chechen authorities of cynicism and offered them to pay tribute not to the memory of soldiers, but of civilians killed during the Chechen military campaign.

By 11:45 p.m. Moscow time on March 1, the report about the events in Ulus-Kert on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the battle in which the Pskov paratroopers were killed, posted on the Instagram page of the "Grozny" ChGTRK, got 40,900 pageviews and 142 comments.

Meanwhile, over the past day, the number of followers of the "Grozny" ChGTRK's page on Instagram decreased from 648,000 to 645,000. In their comments under the report on the mourning event in honour of the Pskov paratroopers, some Instagram users wrote they would stop following the "Grozny" ChGTRK's page after the above report.

"Why don't the Russians arrange such events for the innocent civilians of Chechnya who were killed?" wondered user milanacom92. "We are very kind people: they came to kill us, and we mourn their deaths," user sairqqqqqq left a comment under the report.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 1, 2020 at 11:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.