Human rights defenders note Kadyrov's image losses from threats addressed to Russian TV celebrity

Authors of the threats received by Ksenia Sobchak after her dispute with Ramzan Kadyrov about the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad have damaged the reputation of the leader of Chechnya, human rights defender Igor Kalyapin notes. Ramzan Kadyrov should publicly distance himself from those threats, human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ksenia Sobchak reproached the leader of Chechnya for "the medieval understanding of an 'attack on values'." Ksenia Sobchak called French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom Ramzan Kadyrov argued, her hero. After that, unidentified people wrote to Ksenia Sobchak that she would suffer the fate of beheaded teacher Samuel Paty if she did not delete her posts about the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Ramzan Kadyrov should have publicly condemned the threats against his opponents, says Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civic Assistance Committee". The human rights defender also believes there are no reasons to consider Ramzan Kadyrov the initiator of threats against Ksenia Sobchak.

Ramzan Kadyrov decided to get the reputation of a defender of Islamic values, believes Igor Kalyapin, the chairman of the NGO "Committee Against Torture" (CaT). However, according to him, authors of the threats damage both Islam and the Ramzan Kadyrov's reputation.

Political analyst Ali Magomadov does not rule out that supporters of Ramzan Kadyrov could develop their verbal threats into physical violence.