Grozny residents complain about enforcing to attend "Akhmat"-"Rotor" football match

The state servants, who receive their salaries from the budget, were obliged to attend the match of the Grozny "Akhmat Football Club (FC) with the "Rotor" FC from Volgograd under orders of their bosses, residents of Chechnya have complained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that authorities are regularly forcing Grozny residents to attend matches of the "Akhmat" FC under threat of firing or expulsion from higher schools if they are students. In March, when Chechen authorities had already voiced recommendations to avoid mass events, Grozny state employees and students were still forced to go to the stadium.

On August 19, employees of budget-funded organizations in Chechnya were forced to attend the "Akhmat"-"Rotor" football match as football fans.

"They sent us to the match, saying that we must support our team. Bosses claimed that they received the order 'from above'," Khamzat, an employee of one of the Grozny enterprises, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

“Nowadays, they attract not many people, because there are restrictions in force on the number of fans. Those who don't want to go to the match may send someone instead. The main thing is to gather the required number of people; and no one is interested in who exactly is present," Islam, a state servant, told the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 20, 2020 at 09:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.