25 December 2022, 23:16
Teachers' donations fit into trend of extortions from Chechen state servants
The order to teachers to transfer a one-day salary to the republic's social support fund continued the trend of replenishing Chechen funds at the expense of employees of budgetary (state-funded) organizations, analysts have pointed out.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that teachers had complained that those who work in rural schools receive such low salaries that they themselves need support.
In Chechnya, extortions from state employees can also be made in favour of other organizations, except for the Akhmat Kadyrov Fund, said Sergey Zhavoronkov, a senior researcher at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy.
There is no official information about the sources of the Kadyrov Fund. According to the head of Chechnya, money is given to the republic by Allah, as well as by "kind people." At the same time, the republic's state servants are forced to monthly transfer about 10% of their salaries into charity funds.
If teachers are forced to donate, then this is "just a robbery," said Svetlana Gannushkina, a human rights defender and the chair of the "Civic Assistance" Committee*. "In Chechnya, for a long time, money has been extorted from state servants from almost every salary into the Akhmat Kadyrov Fund. This is wonderful – the state pays salaries and immediately takes away a part of that salary," she has stated.
In the opinion of Ms Gannushkina, a refusal to make such donations may well affect those who have declared it. "There were precedents when people lost their workplaces because they refused to participate in such donations. For example, they fired teachers who refused to transfer money to the Akhmat Kadyrov Fund," she has summed up.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 24, 2022 at 12:55 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: СK correspondent
