A mother separated from her children asked Kadyrov for help

Austrian resident Indira Taisumova recorded a video message to the head of Chechnya asking for help in reclaiming her two daughters, who are being held by her ex-husband. She claims she faced violence and threats while attempting to retrieve the children.

Indira Taisumova was married to a Grozny resident from 2017 to 2022. They divorced due to domestic issues and violence. Indira left with her two young daughters, born in 2018 and 2019. Indira grew up in Austria but chose to live in Chechnya. After the divorce, she decided to return to Austria. In 2021, her ex-husband officially consented to the children being taken away from their home, the human rights project "Motherless Caucasus" reported on December 12.

Indira tried to maintain contact between her children and their father. In the summer, she brought them to Chechnya. Previous visits to Chechnya for the holidays had been peaceful. The father would meet the children, spend time with them, and then bring them back. Then they would return to Europe with their mother. This year, she arrived with the children in July. She stayed with relatives and told the children's father they were in Chechnya. He took the girls for two days and then returned. Then he began persistently asking for the children's birth certificates so he could transfer the benefits to himself, as he was unemployed. Indira refused. At the end of July, he again asked to see the children and never returned.

According to Indira, an attempt to remove her children from her ex-husband's home ended with her being beaten and threatened for posting a video of the conflict. Indira appealed to the head of the republic, but this had no effect. She also filed a lawsuit to determine the children's place of residence, but was also denied. The publication claims that Indira's former father-in-law is an official in the republican government.

All she managed to achieve was two meetings with her daughters at a café in front of witnesses. Her ex-husband doesn't allow them to speak to their mother even by phone. Indira also reported that he transferred child support payments to himself.

In a video message to the head of the republic, which is attached to the publication, Indira reported that her ex-husband is holding her children without her consent and preventing her from seeing them. "I've only seen my children twice—only after I publicly appealed for help," she says in the video attached to the publication.

"Right now, my children are being held by their grandfather. When I tried to get my children peacefully, I was threatened and beaten, when I just wanted my daughters. I'm asking for help—please help me get my children back," she says in the video.

The video description does not indicate when it was recorded.

In the North Caucasus, mothers often find themselves separated from their children after divorcing their husbands and spend years trying to even see their children, according to a report from the " Caucasian Knot " article, " Maria Smelaya is one of the mothers who was separated from her children in the Caucasus ."

On October 10, it was announced that the ECHR had found the rights of Muscovite Zhanetta Tukhaeva, who had been suing the father of her two sons for custody in Moscow, Chechnya, and Dagestan, violated. Zhanetta still  hasn't  seen her eldest son, whom she hasn't seen for over ten years, despite numerous court rulings in her favor. She initiated a lawsuit to deprive her ex-husband of his parental rights due to a 3.5 million ruble arrears in child support payments.