Analysts treat Delimkhanov's promise to cut off heads as threat to kill

The promise of Adam Delimkhanov, a State Duma MP, to cut off Yangulbaevs' heads and of the translators of his threats into Russian can be treated as a threat of murder, especially in the realities of Chechnya; therefore, Russian authorities must react immediately, the Caucasian scholars and human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have pointed out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 1, Adam Delimkhanov, the State Duma MP and an adviser to the head of Chechnya, posted a video on the Instagram in which he threatened in the Chechen language the members of the Yangulbaev family with execution and punishment for those who translate his words into Russian. He justified his threats with the blood feud.

Delimkhanov's words "we have a blood feud" should be understood as a threat coming not only from him, but also from Ramzan Kadyrov, Alexei Malashenko, a chief researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), is sure. "That is, here we are talking about the retinue of the head of Chechnya. And if authorities fail to calm these people down, then they should expect their reaction with cutting off the heads of the people who are now being threatened," Mr Malashenko has stated.

The promise to cut off heads is a direct threat to kill, says Oleg Khabibrakhmanov, the head of public investigations at the "Committee against Torture" (CaT)*. "There are all the attributes pointing to the crime of 'a threat to kill', or even incitement to murder. This needs to be sorted out and investigated," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

* The “Committee Against Torture” (CaT) was included by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia in the register of NCOs-foreign agents in 2015. In this regard, leaders liquidated the organization and created a new legal entity: the “Committee for the Prevention of Torture”, which was also included in the list of foreign agents, and the organization was closed. At present, the “Committee Against Torture” operates as an unregistered public association.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 2, 2022 at 06:32 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.