Mask regime at Grozny airport proves Kadyrov’s loyalty to Kremlin

The leader of Chechnya has tightened the anti-epidemic measures at the Grozny airport out of a wish to please the federal centre, dissatisfied with the increase in the number of infections, Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, and Caucasian expert Akhmet Yarlykapov note.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that back in February, despite the declarations about the premature mitigation of the restriction measures, voiced by the director of the “Rospotrebnadzor” (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare), Ramzan Kadyrov announced the abolition of the mandatory wearing of masks in public places and the lifting of the restrictions on crossing the border of the region.

The Grozny airport has again imposed a mandatory mask regime, and that fact suggests that Ramzan Kadyrov de facto cancelled his own order to abolish the mask regime, suggests Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations. According to him, by tightening the measures to combat the coronavirus, the leader of Chechnya is trying to show his loyalty and diligence to the Kremlin.

“In fact, this is a reasonable step, as the airport is a place with a high turnover of people: travellers arrive and depart. This is a precautionary, competent measure. However, it is caused not by a desire to take care of citizens, but to please the federal centre. This means: ‘I, Ramzan Kadyrov, have done it first. I’m a patriot, a ‘Putin’s infantry soldier’,” Ruslan Kutaev concludes.

Akhmet Yarlykapov, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Caucasian Studies and Regional Security at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (known as MGIMO), also associates the mask regime imposed at the Grozny airport to the Ramzan Kadyrov’s desire to please the Kremlin. At the same time, the Caucasian expert notes that the decision does not affect the majority of residents of Chechnya.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 21, 2021 at 02:17 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.