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Akbar Novruz

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Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov has instructed the heads of the republic’s security agencies to intensify monitoring of residents considered suspicious by the authorities, just days before the upcoming elections.

Speaking on Wednesday, Kadyrov called on law enforcement officers to identify people who could allegedly pose a security threat or hold views considered undesirable by the authorities. He urged officers to “go from house to house” and check on suspicious residents, without specifying what conduct would constitute grounds for a security visit or detention.

Kadyrov claimed that certain “shaitans,” a term referring to demons in Islamic theology, were preparing provocations during the election campaign.

“Every officer knows that he is responsible not only for himself, but also for every representative of the republic. We have defeated terrorism, as you know. But they are afraid that our people will be united, that there will be unity and harmony in Chechnya, that there will be harmony with those who have left (...) Some people who have left are sitting abroad. These shaitans are spreading evil, teaching our young people here: ‘You stab someone with a knife, and you shoot’ (...) Today, it is the West, Europe, and NATO that particularly hate us. They are provoking this so that there will be no peace and harmony in our republic,” Kadyrov said, without providing evidence for the claims.

He also called on officers conducting targeted checks to put pressure on the families of people suspected of opposing the authorities. Kadyrov said that if someone’s son “does something,” the family would be held responsible.

The practice of holding relatives responsible for the actions of people considered opponents of the authorities has been documented in Chechnya for years. Kadyrov has previously called for collective measures against relatives of people authorities identify as opponents.

In April 2025, following an attack on police officers in Achkhoi-Martan, Kadyrov ordered the relatives of leaders of the opposition movement NIYSO, as well as the family of the alleged attacker, to be expelled from Chechnya and their property confiscated.

During the same speech, Kadyrov also criticized what he described as changing clothing trends among young men in Chechnya.

He said a fashion for very long beards and rolled-up trousers had emerged in the republic and called on men to “shorten their beards” and wear them “in accordance with religion.”

Kadyrov also urged women to dress according to Islamic norms and criticized what he described as the adoption of Arab styles of clothing.

In particular, he spoke against the wearing of “veils,” arguing that women in Chechnya had “never worn the niqab.”

Kadyrov has previously commented on women’s clothing. In 2024, amid debate in Russia over a possible ban on the niqab, he defended Muslim women’s right to wear the hijab while also saying that the full-face veil was not traditional in Chechnya.