11:25, 6 October 2020

Commentators treat smartphone checks of residents of Chechnya as intimidation

Law enforcers check smartphones of passers-by in Chechnya in order to intimidate Chechens, who are beginning to realize that Russian laws fail to work in the republic, social network users assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported citing residents of Chechnya that during recent raids law enforcers checked not only citizens' documents, but also mobile phones. Law enforcers are interested in whether people comment on the messages of authorities' critics in social networks, locals have suggested. Law enforcers have mo right to check the phone contents, some Instagram users have reacted to publications about law enforcers' raids.

Such checks are carried out in order to intimidate people, but this does not mean that residents of Chechnya will endlessly endure such methods, Instagram commentators assert.

"It is unlikely that Chechens will tolerate this lawlessness for a long time," the user incognito0606 has stated.

"This is another confirmation that the head of Chechnya has a terrible inferiority complex and does not tolerate any criticism, even the objective one," Rizvan Abdullaev wrote in the Facebook page of the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 5, 2020 at 07:42 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.