Caucasian scholars sceptical about using Chechen patrols to guard town near Moscow

The decision of the authorities of the town of Troitsk located near Moscow to hire a private security company consisting of natives of Chechnya to protect law and order is unwise and could aggravate the interethnic relations. This is the opinion of Akhmet Yarlykapov, an employee of the Centre for Studying Caucasian Problems at the MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations), and Alexander Cherkasov, the board chairman of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*. Such patrols can become an efficient tool for suppressing protests in Moscow, Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, does not rule out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the authorities of Troitsk, a town near Moscow, had hired a private security company, consisting exclusively of natives of Chechnya, to help the local police. This idea will positively affect the problem of hooliganism, some social media users have suggested. Their opponents objected that the police should be involved in protecting law and order.

According to Akhmet Yarlykapov, an expert on the Caucasus, the creation of such units of private security companies may lead to the fact that a negative attitude towards them will spread to members of certain nationalities or ethnic groups.

The activities of the above private security company, made up of Chechens, will arise "distrust on the part of the local Russian population," Ruslan Kutaev believes. "They behave much more politely than ordinary policemen, but people are embarrassed by their fearsome beards," he said.

According to Mr Kutaev, his organization has found out that these people had nothing to do with Kadyrov and Chechen law enforcers. "They came to Moscow out of absence of money and gladly agreed to such an employment," he has stressed.