Number of signatories to petition demanding Kadyrov's resignation exceeds 200,000

Within a week, the electronic petition addressed to Vladimir Putin and demanding the resignation of the head of Chechnya gained more than 200,000 signatures. In its turn, the count of publications with the hashtag #YapekhotinetsKadyrov (I'm Kadyrov's infantry soldier), launched as part of a response flash mob in support of Ramzan Kadyrov made a little over 400 within a day.

On February 6, the above petition addressed to Putin was posted on the Change.org portal by the opposition politician, Ilya Yashin. The number of votes to the petition can be increased by bots; therefore, the Kremlin doesn't take it seriously, Dmitry Peskov, the presidential press secretary, has stated. The Kremlin approves of Kadyrov's policies in Chechnya and wouldn't dismiss him, despite the popularity of Yashin's petition, political analysts have pointed out.

The outlet "Sobesednik" (Interlocutor) writes that Ekaterina Shulman, a political analyst, has noted that the collection of signatures for Kadyrov's resignation is progressing at a very high pace. According to her version, the Kremlin is trying to distance itself off the statements made by Kadyrov and Delimkhanov.

In his petition, Ilya Yashin has recalled the threats addressed by Chechen leadership to the Yangulbaev family. See the details about Kadyrov's conflict with Yangulbaevs in the analytical material entitled "How Yangulbaevs became Kadyrov's enemies" prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".