Residents of Chechnya claim administrative pressure before elections

Under the threat of dismissal, teachers in Chechnya were forced to participate in pre-election rallies and were obliged to come to the polls, local residents have complained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that a few days prior to elections of Russian State Duma MPs and the head of Chechnya, similar pre-election actions were organized in many republic's districts, which were presented by state television as "citizens' gatherings."

Teachers of educational establishments in Grozny were obliged to be present, during all the three voting days, at those schools where polling stations are organized, a local resident said on condition of anonymity. "The school administration instructed everyone to be at the elections. They ordered to be present there during all the voting days, and to vote accordingly," a school employee told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the village of Djalka, local teachers were forced to attend campaign rallies under threat of dismissal, a school teacher said. "Yes, they forced us to go to rallies under a threat of dismissal. Everything is according to the traditional template; there's nothing new in this. There were schoolchildren and other civil servants; all the state-run institutions were told that 'tomorrow they should come; whoever fails to will be fired," the teacher told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 16, 2021 at 09:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.