Commentators considered the response of residents of Chechen villages to deputy Shamanov to be staged

Russian-speaking residents of Shelkovskaya and Naurskaya stated that the use of Chechen place names in the names of their settlements is their wish and called for non-interference in their affairs. Chechen authorities used the residents to object to Deputy Shamanov, Telegram users pointed out.

As reported by "Kavkazsky Uzel," on September 25, State Duma deputy from Chechnya Shamsail Saraliev presented to his colleagues bills submitted by the Chechen parliament to rename three Chechen cities. The deputies approved them on the first reading. General Vladimir Shamanov, a veteran of the Chechen wars, called the renaming of Cossack villages in Chechnya an erasure of historical memory after the republic's Russian-speaking population was expelled. Deputy Anzhelika Glazkova pointed out that the renaming in heavily subsidized Chechnya will be carried out at the expense of Russian taxpayers. The renaming of Cossack villages in Chechnya, which was approved by State Duma deputies in the first reading, constitutes a de-Russification of toponyms within the country, the Russian Community stated.

A video in which Russian-speaking residents of the Shelkovsky and Naursky districts declared their full support for the names Terek and Nevre, which will be given to the former villages of Shelkovskaya and Naurskaya, was published by the Telegram channel "Tut Chechnya," which has 52,000 subscribers.

"We, the Russian-speaking residents of the Shelkovsky district, gathered today to express our dissatisfaction and outrage at Shamanov's words. It is our desire to rename the town of Shelkovskaya." She stated that cultural events are being held for the Cossacks. These words of appeal were accompanied by footage of the cultural events.

Another elderly resident noted that "we will sort this out ourselves" regarding the renaming of the village of Shelkovskaya to the town of Terek and spoke of the development of the settlement - road construction, job creation. He also emphasized that the Russian-speaking population lives with the Chechens in peace and harmony."

In another part of the video, eight women are recorded. The speaker asked Shamanov "not to express his will and not to order people around." We have a multinational country, a multinational Chechen Republic. Everything is done for the Russian people: churches are built, we always celebrate various holidays - both religious and ordinary. "And we celebrate them very well: loudly in the Caucasus, just like before," the resident stated.

This part of the video is also accompanied by footage of Cossack festivals and performances by musical and dance groups.

By 2:02 a.m. Moscow time, the video had been viewed by 6,121 people and had garnered six comments.

Blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov*, who is opposed to the Chechen authorities, believes that these videos appeared because Kadyrov and his entourage didn't dare respond to Shamanov directly. "Now imagine: if the outrage over the renaming had come not from Shamanov, but from, say, Pugacheva." "Do you think it would have been limited to a 'residents' appeal?'" he wrote.

On his Telegram channel, which has 33,000 subscribers, this message received 28 comments and was viewed 8,002 times. "The illusionist <...> off-camera – Stop! Cut!" wrote R.

"You hid behind these old ladies," wrote Den Var Den Bergmann, addressing the Chechen authorities.

In an interview with Ekaterina Gordeeva*, Alla Pugacheva called General Dzhokhar Dudayev an intelligent and decent man and apologized to his widow for not being able to do anything to keep him alive. "I knew Dzhokhar Dudayev. He was such a decent, honorable, intelligent person. "A beautiful person," Pugacheva stated, in particular. State Duma Deputy Biysultan Khamzaev appealed to the head of the Ministry of Justice with a request to check Alla Pugacheva's statements for extremism. Lawyer Alexander Treshchev appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to check Pugacheva's words for terrorism.

The campaign to change toponyms in Chechnya has been ongoing for several years. Thus, on December 10, 2020, the authorities organized a survey of Grozny residents about their consent to renaming all four districts of the city and eight inner-city settlements in honor of national heroes. In particular, it was proposed to rename the Leninsky district of Grozny to Akhmatovsky (in honor of Ramzan Kadyrov's father), Oktyabrsky to Baysangurovsky, Zavodskoy to Sheikh-Mansurovsky, and Staropromyslovsky to Visaitovsky. On December 29 2020, Ramzan Kadyrov reported that 69.68% of voters took part in the vote and supported the proposal, in particular, renaming the Leninsky District to Akhmatovsky. 98.07% of respondents supported it.