18:25, 8 April 2020

Residents of Chechnya rebuke officials for ignoring security measures

A meeting of the operational headquarters on fighting the COVID-19 crisis. April 7, 2020. Screenshot of the video at Ramzan Kadyrov's offical page at VKontakte https://vk.com/ramzan

Chechen authorities and most officials ignore using protective means even during their sittings, despite the tough measures because of the threat of coronavirus spread. Following their example, some residents of the republic refuse wearing medical masks and gloves, while others continue using them.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 3, Chechen leaders made their namaz (prayer) in a mosque, despite the ban on collective prayers announced for the same reason.

In Chechnya, local residents noticed that officials and most law enforcers fail to wear protective masks. Some respondents said that recently they had done the same and also abandoned masks.

"After the quarantine was announced and everyone was demanded to wear masks and gloves so as not to become infected with coronavirus, no one was seen wearing medical masks in reports with the participation of Chechen leaders. But law enforcers are forcing us to wear masks, and detain people in streets. Some were beaten up with plastic pipes," said Suleiman, a resident of Grozny.

Breaking their own bans is a common practice of the Chechen authorities, said Ruslan Kutaev.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 8, 2020 at 07:28 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: CK correspondents