Chechens complain about demolition of mosque in Dagestani village

In the village of Leninaul, despite agreements with the local authorities, a Chechen mosque built in the 19th century has been demolished, village residents report.

A video recording in which Chechens complain about the demolition of a mosque in the village of Leninaul in the Kazbekovsky District of Dagestan has been published in the auh_media public account on Instagram*.

In the video, three men are standing against the backdrop of a building and a tractor.

“We are standing on the site of the old Chechen mosque built by the Chechens of the village of Aktash-Aukh. This is confirmed by the census conducted by the tsarist authorities in 1885 and 1889 (the first and only census in the Russian Empire took place on January 28 (February 9), 1897, – note by the “Caucasian Knot”). The tsarist authorities’ census states that there are four functioning mosques in the village of Aktash-Aukh. The one located here was one of these quarter mosques,” explained one of the men in the video recording.

According to his explanation, the Chechens “have repeatedly appealed to all authorities” to “preserve our historical memory.” The man reported that a meeting was held on May 7, where an agreement was reached that the mosque would not be demolished for now. However, the mosque was demolished on the morning of May 8.

At the end of the video recording, there is a photograph of a small building with several cars parked near it.

The video was also posted on his Telegram channel by blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov**. “The situation is tense. Neither Ramzan Kadyrov nor any of his subordinates are interfering in any way or commenting on what is happening,” the blogger emphasized.

By 11:44 p.m. Moscow time, the Telegram channels of the leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, Russian State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, Commissioner for Human Rights in Chechnya Mansur Soltaev, and Chechen Minister of Nationalities Akhmed Dudaev did not contain any comments in connection with the demolition of the mosque.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 11, 2025 at 11:44 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

*On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.