Resident of Chechnya apologizes for criticising gas controllers

A resident of the Urus-Martan District has posted in the WhatsApp his apology to the employees of the gas supplying company, whom he had accused of "injustice." The man has apologized fearing the coercion to publicly repent on the TV, local residents have suggested.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2018, court marshals collected from residents of Chechnya their gas debts in the amount of over 123 million roubles. They still continue disconnecting homes of local residents from gas pipelines for debts.

On January 31, an anonymous audio message in the Chechen language was disseminated among users of the WhatsApp application, which criticized employees of the gas company.

Just on the following day, an audio-video message appeared on the WhatsApp, in which a man apologized for criticizing gas inspectors.

Musa Susaev hurried up to apologize himself, until he was forced to do it on local television, Umar, an official, believes.

In the conditions, when the criticism of the authorities is under unofficial ban, the author of the appeal behaved unreasonably, Roza, a resident of Chechnya, believes. "I can't understand why our people repeatedly step on the same rake? They know pretty well that everything is useless, that criticising authorities and their actions is a punishable offence; but they still do it again and again and then have to publicly apologize. It is foolish to seek justice where it has never been and can never be," she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 2, 2019 at 02:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.