On January 8, the Chechen opposition telegram channels 1ADAT and NIYSO reported mass kidnappings by security forces in the village of Alkhan-Kala, located 15 kilometers from Grozny. According to the chairman of the United Force movement, Dzhambulat Suleymanov, Kadyrov’s supporters could consider the villagers an “anti-government cell” because of their interest in an “unreliable” Internet resource.
The NIYSO channel published the names of the 14 abducted. They are all relatives and neighbors. These are Side-Magomed Ayubov, Turpal Batsaraev, Magomed and Ramzan Vatsievs, Samad and Muslim Gerikhanovs, Adlan Isaev, Usman Musaev, Usman, Akhyad and Bekhan Khatuevs, Khamzat, Khalim and Adam Solsaevs. It is known about Adam Solsaev that he is the director of rural secondary school No. 3.
On January 18, the Memorial human rights center, citing its own source, reported that mass abductions in Alkhan-Kala began on the evening of January 7 and continued for several hours. This is how the Russian military usually acted during the second Russian-Chechen war, called the counter-terrorist operation (CTO). In total, 25 people, mostly young people, were kidnapped and taken away in an unknown direction.
The security forces refused to tell the residents of Alkhan-Kala which structures they belonged to.
“The news of the abduction quickly spread on social networks. After this, raids were carried out in the village every day, during which security forces checked the contents of the young people’s phones, trying to find out who exactly was distributing this information. In addition, all these days, young people who were familiar with those previously abducted were identified and brought to the regional police department, the Memorial Center for Human Rights reported. “There is unofficial and unconfirmed information that all those abducted are illegally detained in the Oktyabrsky district police department of Grozny.”
According to the NYISO channel, the abducted were taken to the Grozny police department and tortured there.
The online publication "Kavkaz.Realii" reported details about the two abducted - brothers Khamzat and Lecha Solsayev. As their relative living in Europe said, they were brutally tortured for criticizing the leadership of Chechnya. According to him, the brothers had never been prosecuted before; the older one was selling telephones, the younger one was unemployed. After the abduction, they were kept in the basement of the Grozny district police department, and then transferred to the center for countering extremism.
“They are not officially charged with anything. But we learned that they were tortured with extreme cruelty. The security forces have a particular grudge against them because of their critical attitude towards the authorities. We’re not even sure that the brothers are alive now,” said their relative, keeping silent about the source of information.
As Memorial notes, local security forces systematically use this method of putting pressure on suspects: immediately or after a while they kidnap their loved ones and use them as hostages in the hope that the first detainee will become more accommodating and give the testimony the kidnappers need out of fear for their relatives.
Security forces in Chechnya often detain relatives of those who have gone abroad and criticized the Chechen authorities from there. The detainees have to renounce the “traitor” and curse him. The principle of collective responsibility is even applied in cases of hooliganism or violation of traffic rules - the parents of hooligans and those responsible for road accidents are invited to the police and forced to apologize on camera. Relatives of those accused of extremism or disrespect for authority may even be “lost” in one of the secret prisons, the existence of which Ramzan Kadyrov denies.
As a result, the Chechen region became the leader in the number of missing persons. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2022, 1,601 people were put on the wanted list in the republic. Only Moscow and the Moscow region have more missing people, but the population there is not comparable to Chechnya. At the same time, missing people are found less often in Chechnya than anywhere else. Over three years (2019-2021), according to police data, 4,984 people went missing in the republic.