Experts treat Ramzan Kadyrov's statement on shooting without warning as populism

In Chechnya, policemen are not subordinates of Ramzan Kadyrov, and his call to open fire on suspected militants without warning is not an order, but populist rhetoric. This opinion was voiced by advocate Igor Trunov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 24, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called on to avoid losses among law enforcers.

According to Igor Trunov, from the legal point of view, those statements cannot affect the performance of their law enforcers' duties. Ramzan Kadyrov, like any politician, "uses in his speeches declarations implying an exaggeration."

Besides, according to the lawyer, the law on the police also includes a regulation which allows opening fire without warning. In case if a weapon is used unreasonably, a shooter will be brought to criminally responsibility.

Hypothetically, the Ramzan Kadyrov's statement can provoke an increase in the number of blood feud cases in the republic, when, for example, a law enforcers kills a man and claims then that he represented a threat for him. This opinion was voiced by Candidate of Historical Sciences Vladimir Bobrovnikov, Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Ural-Volga Region.

However, according to Vladimir Bobrovnikov, such a scenario is unlikely to happen.

Vladimir Bobrovnikov has also added that although in recent years, the situation with terrorism in Chechnya has improved, "incidents still occur from time to time."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.