On Thursday, Oct 24, near the village of Petropavlovskaya in the Grozny district of Chechnya, a member of Russia’s National Guard, the Rosgvardia, was killed and another wounded in an attack on a military vehicle by two gunmen.
In its post-incident report the regional authority said “Measures are being taken to find and detain the attackers.”
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The Chechen word “zachistka” which translates as “clean-up or cleansing” has a far more ominous meaning for its citizens of a certain age than it would suggest. It was the term used during the second ten-year Chechen war in the early 2000s for the rounding up, imprisoning or, frequently, the disappearance of suspected dissidents.
Two days after the Rosgvardia ambush, that long-forgotten term reared its ugly head once again as, according to the Russian “Memorial” human rights protection organization, Chechen security forces began a “cleansing” operation in the areas around the Chechen capital.
According to Memorial, the operation began on Oct. 26, with Rosgvardia and Interior Ministry officers conducting door-to-door visits, searching houses for unregistered occupants, checking personal and vehicle documents, and confiscating and checking the contents of cell phones.
Any residents of military age who had committed an infraction, no matter how minor, were immediately detained and taken to police departments. Many of the homes were visited more than once over the following ten days.
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The Memorial article gives an account of the outcome of one of the multiple visits carried out in the town of Argun, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of Grozny. They visited a house belonging to Rizvan Batyrov a 47-year-old man who lived there and cared for his 82-year-old mother and two small children. Batyrov was himself disabled following a traffic accident.
Unarmed Rosgvardia officers visited the home three times, starting on Oct. 31, and tried to take the man into custody despite his disabilities, but were prevented from doing so by his mother and neighbors.
On Nov. 2 they returned, this time supported by armed officers who formed a cordon around the house. They severely beat Batyrov and took him away. His fate is currently unknown.
The total number of those taken into custody is not clear, but Memorial says it could run into the hundreds, with the families of those being held reluctant to comment for fear of reprisals. They say that in one police station alone, in the suburb of Staropromyslovsky, they have confirmed that a group of 20 detainees are being held.
In each case those arrested are given a choice: go to the so-called “special military operation,” Russia’s term for the war in Ukraine, or face criminal charges.
Many of those charges involve the finding of anti-government content on phones or the possession of banned substances such as marijuana (even for those who claim they don’t and have never smoked).
It was earlier reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, had set targets for mobilizing troops for the war in Ukraine in response to demands made to all of Russia’s autonomous territories – this may be another “backdoor” attempt to meet Chechnya’s quota of "volunteers."
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