The human rights activist reported on pressure on voters in Chechnya.
Security forces in Chechnya conducted unofficial raids on the homes of residents registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs before the elections, and school class leaders are gathering parents of students and organizedly sending them to polling stations, said human rights activist Maxim Rudnev.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", earlier residents of Grozny said that on election days they do not plan to express protest through voting or refuse to show up at the polling station.
From September 18 to 20, elections for the head of the republic, local parliament deputies, and municipal campaigns are taking place in Chechnya, where 41 deputy mandates will be filled. In particular, elections for city council deputies are taking place in Grozny. According to residents, the preparation for the city council elections is not accompanied by candidate campaigning. Analysts believe that real competition is not expected in these elections. "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report "Election campaign in the North Caucasus Federal District and Southern Federal District in 2026".
According to human rights activist Maxim Rudnev, unofficial raids by security forces were conducted in Chechnya before the voting, primarily targeting residents registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Rudnev reported this today on his Telegram channel.
"Before the elections in Chechnya, security forces begin to conduct unofficial 'preventive raids'. A recent statement by Ramzan Kadyrov, where he instructed to 'intensify checks' before the elections, only confirms this. According to my information, the raids began on September 6, and were primarily aimed at those registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs," wrote Rudnev.
Rudnev also reported on a raid in the Grozny district near the village of Tolstoy-Yurt (Devkar-Evla). According to him, security forces were going door to door and taking away residents they considered "unreliable". During such raids, they can take away from five to ten people, sometimes more, Rudnev stated. According to him, there is a network of people in Chechnya who inform security forces about various violations, so even a minor offense can be a reason for a check.
Rudnev also stated that there is pressure on the parents of schoolchildren to ensure their participation in voting. "I would like to highlight the peculiarities of Chechen schools during the election period. It comes to the point that class leaders gather the parents of their students and all 'go together' to vote. That is, teachers write down the time for parents to meet, they come, and then they go to cast their votes," wrote Rudnev.
No reports of violations during voting in Chechnya had been received by 13:50 Moscow time on September 19, according to data on the website of the project "Observing Together". The project is positioned as an "independent platform for monitoring the 2026 elections". "We publish data on electoral commissions and violations," the annotation states. Information is transmitted to the project authors by Telegram users via a bot. "Caucasian Knot" considers it needing confirmation and does not regard information from users as reports of violations.
It should be noted that on September 9, it became known that Ramzan Kadyrov instructed security forces to maintain heightened vigilance before the elections and to suppress the spread of extremist and other ideologies that he described as foreign. He also demanded to check residents at their place of residence if there are suspicions against them. On September 12, the Chechen election commission reported the early completion of door-to-door visits to voters: 2260 visitors visited 288,475 addresses, and in Argun, schoolchildren and representatives of youth organizations were involved in informing residents.