On January 24, the European Court of Human Rights issued a decision in the case of Kutaev v. Russia. He satisfied the complaint of the applicant - a Chechen politician, human rights activist, deputy prime minister in Maskhadov's government, chairman of the Assembly of Caucasian Peoples Ruslan Kutaev, who served four years on trumped-up charges of drug possession.
The court found that the Russian authorities violated the Human Rights Convention in relation to Kutaev in terms of the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial, freedom and security of person, and awarded him 52 thousand euros in compensation.
The reason for the persecution of Ruslan Kutaev in 2014 was the conference he organized in Chechnya - it was held on February 18 - dedicated to the anniversary of the deportation of Chechens and Ingush in 1944. This event caused dissatisfaction with the leadership of the republic, which at that time pursued a policy of hushing up the memory of the deportation.
     On the second day, February 19, on Kadyrov’s instructions, Magomed Daudov, the then head of the administration of the head and government of the Chechen Republic, summoned all the conference participants. Ramzan Kadyrov, as it became known later, scolded those gathered. However, Kutaev refused to appear before the head of the republic and on the same day left his home in the village of Achkhoy-Martan to relatives in the village of Gekhi.
On February 20, armed men in black uniforms worn by special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Chechen Republic burst into the house in the village of Gekhi where Ruslan Kutaev was, as Memorial writes. Ruslan Kutaev was grabbed and, without allowing him to get dressed, he was taken away in slippers in an unknown direction. Relatives and neighbors saw that the kidnappers arrived in six black Toyota Camry cars with registration numbers of the E...EE series (only government vehicles have numbers of this series in the Chechen Republic). Only the next day R. Kutaev was taken to the Department of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic, where a criminal case was opened against him under Part 2 of Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. On February 22, he was charged under this article.
The Memorial human rights center recognized him as a political prisoner.
Commenting on the ECHR decision to the Kavkaz.Realii publication, Ruslan Kutaev noted that the main result of the process for him was the legal basis for expunging his criminal record and the recognition that the case fabricated against him was politically motivated.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe, as a result of which Moscow does not implement ECHR decisions made after March 16, 2022. However, Kutaev expressed hope that his decision will still come into force in the near future, when “democratically minded forces” come to power in Russia.