Social media users outraged by Kadyrov's threats to families of suspects of attacks on law enforcers

Amid the militants' attacks committed in Dagestan, the head of Chechnya has called for a "hard response" to attacks on law enforcers, by killing all the perpetrators' blood relatives.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 30, 2023, Ramzan Kadyrov stated that relatives of those suspected of extremism are responsible for their actions.

Any attacks on law enforcers' and state servants' lives would be harshly suppressed, Kadyrov then stated.

"I've called on every Chechen to be especially vigilant towards their closest relatives in order to protect them from the harmful influence of the terrorist ideology," Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram channel.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger, has posted a translation of Kadyrov's phrase that in the event of an attack on a law enforcer, all the attacker's blood relatives will be killed in retaliation.

"Whoever encroaches on one (of us) must understand: (we) will kill everyone who is related to him by blood! Father, brother, uncle ..." the head of Chechnya has stated.

Social network users have questioned the legality of such calls for extrajudicial executions. Some felt that such words spoken by the head of the region are unacceptable in the modern world; while others have pointed out that Kadyrov was demonstrating double standards regarding the responsibility of relatives for the actions of a particular person.

"Ramzan, you yourself said when sanctions were imposed against your family: 'What does my family have to do with it?' And now ... do you want to scare people through their relatives?" the Instagram* user gadjimataev_1989 has asked.

*On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.