The laws are the same for everyone... Except Chechnya

This week the Russian media field shook up story with the beating of Nikita Zhuravel, detained for burning the Koran in Volgograd, by Adam Kadyrov (son of Ramzan Kadyrov) in the pre-trial detention center of Grozny. Corresponding posted a video the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov himself, stated that he was “proud of his son’s action” and “respects his choice.”
In addition to Kadyrov, the video of the beating of the prisoner was also posted by the Chechen Minister of National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information Akhmed Dudayev - in his video the beating is complemented by a video sequence of Chechen songs, and at the end of the video a portrait of the minor son of the head of Chechnya in a national costume with a dagger is shown.
The publication of this video raised several questions that many are afraid to say out loud: do the laws of the Russian Federation apply to Chechnya or does it live by its own special laws? Why can Chechens commit crimes with impunity that would be punishable in any other regions of Russia? We will discuss this in this material.
Why did Ramzan Kadyrov publish a video of beating a prisoner?
The first question that arises is: for what purpose did Ramzan Kadyrov show the public a video of the beating of the arrested Zhuravel?
After all, it is obvious that it contains not just elements of a crime, but in principle undermines the foundations of the constitutional rights of citizens and faith in fair justice. Adam Kadyrov comes to the pre-trial detention center with his father, beats the prisoner there (in the presence of police officers, the Federal Penitentiary Service, and someone openly films this action) and calmly leaves without any consequences. Law enforcement agencies pretend that nothing happened. This is clearly an abnormal situation.
The point is not even that Ramzan Kadyrov did not have the right to take his minor son with him to a pre-trial detention center (minors can end up in FSIN institutions only as children of the accused during a long visit).
Let's imagine that the situation occurred in another region of Russia - what does the reader think, would law enforcement agencies react to this? The answer is obvious.
You don’t have to look far for examples - in 2018, for example, a FSIN officer was arrested in Kaliningrad, suspected of beating a prisoner, and in 2021, FSIN employees were detained in Yaroslavl after a video of prisoners being beaten appeared on the Internet.
But let’s return to the question of why Kadyrov published this video.
He simply could not help but know what kind of reaction he would cause (good media people work for him).
The answer, in the author's opinion, is simple - the video was shown to show that the Chechens will get those they consider their enemies anywhere, including in a pre-trial detention center. And the laws do not dictate to them.
This was a kind of act of intimidation. This publication cannot be explained in any other way.
The reaction of the authorities is no reaction
How did government officials react to this publication?
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov I refuse comment on what happened:
“I will not comment on the story with Kadyrov’s son. Don't want".
Member of the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia Eva Merkacheva said that the publication of this video is a challenge to law enforcement agencies.
“The investigation now has video evidence, there is testimony from essentially public persons who represent the government of Chechnya. All this is enough to initiate a criminal case. We don’t know whether it will be aroused or not... Ramzan Akhmatovich assumes that nothing will happen to his son. Accordingly, he makes a challenge to the entire legal system of Russia, makes a challenge, it seems to me, to the legislative and executive authorities.”
Vice Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexey Kulesh said, that this is a creepy video, and it’s creepy because it is openly published by a representative of the regional authorities.
“Creepy video. And the creepy thing is not that a prisoner is beaten in a pre-trial detention center - we know that such cases are not uncommon. What is terrible is not that a person is beaten for reasons of religious hatred. And not by essentially beating a child, but with unchildish cruelty. It’s terrible that the head of the Russian region publishes the video, publishes it, internally rejoicing and approving of his son’s action, publishes it with the full understanding that nothing will follow this video.”
Military correspondent Alexander Kots, in turn, wrote that the video should be commented on by the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, by whose decision the case against Zhuravel was transferred to the investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Chechen Republic in connection with “numerous appeals from residents of the Chechen Republic with a request to recognize them as victims” ( the fact is that the fact of transferring the case to another region is illegal, since a criminal case is being investigated at the place where the crime was committed).
“In a rule-of-law state, crimes are punished by imprisonment, and not by beatings in the offices of a pre-trial detention center,”
– notes Kots.
It is worth noting that many government officials, as well as journalists, military officers and bloggers did not comment on this incident at all, pretending that nothing had happened.
As a conclusion, I would like to quote the author of one of the Telegram channels:
“What can’t the Chechen authorities do in the Russian Federation?
Where are the limits of their power - both in terms of permissible and in terms of geographical coverage?..
And what conditions will never be accepted?
Where are the limits of their power - both in terms of permissible and in terms of geographical coverage?..
And what conditions will never be accepted?
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