Nikita Zhuravelj, 19, was arrested in May in Volgograd for “insulting the feelings of believers.” He is said to have set fire to a Koran in front of a mosque in that city. Images of it, showing only his hand and the burning Quran, later surfaced on social media.
The student allegedly admitted to the police that he had indeed set fire to the holy book for Muslims. He said he had done so at the request of the Ukrainian secret services, who paid him 100 euros. According to the Russian authorities, even the US secret services would be involved in the provocation.
Zhuraveli expressed his regret over the burning of the Koran, but after only a few days he was sent on to Chechnya, where tens of thousands of Ramzan Kadyrov’s supporters had taken to the streets to demand that he be punished.
In Chechnya, Zhuraveli was visited in prison by Kadyrov and his 15-year-old son Adam, who kicked and beat him after the visit. Close associates of Kadyrov reacted sympathetically to the violence. “We understand that we live in a state of law, with laws and a constitution. But in this case there are also religious feelings, traditions and customs,” said a minister from Kadyrov’s cabinet.
Severe punishment
Human rights activists are convinced that Zhuravelj faces a heavy sentence in the Caucasus Republic, where Kadyrov has been leading a reign of terror for more than 15 years. In doing so, he is given ample opportunity by President Putin.
Kadyrov’s security forces hunt members of the LGBTQ+ community, who are then held in secret locations, tortured and pressured to report others. Kadyrov’s men are also said to have killed dozens of them.
Kadyrov is also suspected of having a hand in the murders of human rights activists Natalya Estemirova, journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Just last month, the renowned investigative journalist Yelena Milashina of the opposition newspaper was appointed Novaya Gazeta severely beaten in Chechnya when she arrived in Chechnya. Kadyrov had previously called her a “terrorist.”
The journalist had traveled to Chechnya for the trial of Zarema Musayeva, the mother of a well-known critic of Kadyrov who fled abroad with his brothers. She was dragged from her home in Nizhny Novgorod by Chechen police last year and taken to Chechnya without Russian authorities intervening.
In exchange for release
It seems that Kadyrov wants to pressure her son Abubakar Yangulbayev with her kidnapping to return to Chechnya and turn himself in to the authorities in exchange for her release. But Yangulbayev, who works as a lawyer for the action group ‘Committee against Torture’, did not trust it.
Musayeva was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison last month. According to the judge, she was guilty of fraud and violence against an agent.
Yangulbayev reported earlier this month that the Chechen authorities had taken new measures against his family. According to him, four of his close relatives were forcibly sent to the front in Ukraine to fight on the side of the Russians. Kadyrov claims he has mobilized nearly 30,000 men to assist the Russian army. Part of it is said to be stationed at Bachmoet, one of the places along the front line where there is now the hardest fighting.
