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Twenty years after Vladimir Putin flattened their capital Grozny in the identical means that his forces at the moment are destroying Mariupol, Chechens refugees in Europe nonetheless reside in worry of Russia’s lengthy arm.
Tens of hundreds fled the small Muslim-majority republic within the North Caucasus within the aftermath of two bloody wars with Moscow, the final launched by Putin in 1999 to carry the breakaway area to heel.
The Russian chief later put in Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechnya’s strongman. He has since ruthlessly suppressed all opposition, and by no means tires of declaring his ferocious loyalty to Putin.
Austria has certainly one of Europe’s greatest Chechen communities. Most of the 35,000 exiles reside in nondescript post-war blocks in a working class district of northeastern Vienna. The lads are inclined to work as safety guards whereas ladies carry up the youngsters.
However many on these streets dotted with Chechen grocery retailers and marriage ceremony boutiques reside in dread.
Dozens advised AFP of the fixed menace of being focused by Kadyrov’s infamous henchmen, the “Kadyrovtsy”, who’ve been accused of searching down his opponents overseas.
Others are afraid of being despatched again to be tortured and killed — a worry that’s removed from unfounded in response to human rights teams.
Earlier than the conflict in Ukraine, extraditions of Chechens from Europe to Russia have been being sped up after the fear assault on the Boston Marathon and the grotesque homicide of a French instructor by a younger exile.
Regardless of the battle, there are not any indicators the deportations will cease.
‘Rewriting historical past’
Moscow’s arm reached Zorbek Nazuev, a grandfather with an extended gray beard who has lived in Austria for 18 years, final February.
He had fled there together with his kids after the second battle fearing retribution for preventing with the “boeviki”, the Chechen rebels who defeated the Russians through the first conflict between 1994 and 1996, when Chechnya briefly gained its independence.
He had heard nothing from Moscow since he left till a letter from the Austrian prosecutor’s workplace arrived accusing him of terrorism and homicide.
In response to a doc seen by AFP, prosecutors declare to have intelligence that he took half in a bloodbath of Russian civilians in 1995.
Nazuev denies that he “killed harmless folks”, insisting that he and different Chechen fighters have been solely “defending ourselves from the Russian invader”.
“They’re rewriting historical past,” mentioned the thickset man in his 50s, whose title has been modified to guard him.
Nazuev wonders if the fees and doable extradition he’s going through could possibly be linked to the truth that certainly one of his relations fought in Syria with the Islamic State group.
The Austrian authorities refused to debate the case regardless of quite a few makes an attempt by AFP by means of police and judicial sources.
Settlement with Russia
Tons of of Chechens have been expelled from the European Union because it signed a 2006 settlement with Russia to ease the return of convicted suspects or these topic to an Interpol crimson discover.
No official statistics on the extraditions exist, however the Council of Europe denounced the abuse of the Interpol system by some international locations to “persecute political opponents overseas” in a 2017 report.
Exiles additionally consider European international locations have toughened their line in opposition to them due to terror fears after Chechens have been concerned in a lot of jihadist assaults.
“Clearly safety companies are on alert” to attempt to forestall future assaults, mentioned Anne le Huerou, an professional on post-Soviet conflicts at Paris Nanterre College.
Certainly, after the killing of French instructor Samuel Paty by a Chechen refugee in October 2020, Austria created a particular pressure to sort out extremism and “parallel societies” inside its Chechen group.
A month after Paty’s homicide, Vienna suffered its first ever Islamist assault when 4 folks have been killed by a person mentioned to be jihadist sympathiser, with authorities lambasted for surveillance failures within the run-up to the assault.
Simply over a yr later in December 2021, Austria chartered a flight to deport 10 folks to Russia, boasting of its “environment friendly cooperation” with Moscow.
Questioned by AFP, the Austrian authorities admitted that at present “4 Russian nationals are in custody awaiting deportation.”
Regardless of business flights with Russia being minimize by sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, the expulsions are nonetheless reside, in response to the Austrian inside ministry.
Tortured in Grozny
“I’d relatively kill myself right here than return,” mentioned Nazuev, who claimed he was left handicapped after he was tortured with electrical shocks earlier than he fled Chechyna.
Moscow has regularly assured European governments that Chechen exiles despatched again to Russia can be pretty handled.
Nonetheless, a number of have been killed or disappeared, whereas others have been tortured or convicted on costs that human rights group say have been “fabricated”.
Final month the Russian rights group Memorial — which has since been banned by Moscow — criticised France for turning a blind eye to the loss of life of 20-year-old Daud Muradov, who was despatched again to Russia in December 2020 after being deemed a safety danger.
On the finish of final yr he was transferred to Grozny the place he was tortured, they mentioned.
His family members have been advised in February that he was lifeless. They haven’t been given his physique nor the outcomes of a autopsy, Memorial added.
Killed in Vienna
However much more than extradition, Chechen exiles worry the assassins that Kadyrov sends to liquidate his opponents in exile.
The Austrian courts singled out the Chechen chief for being concerned within the killing of certainly one of his opponents who was shot in Vienna in 2009 after criticising Kadyrov’s human rights report.
The sufferer’s lawyer, Nadia Lorenz, advised AFP that the case “nonetheless stops me sleeping”, claiming that “correspondence between the Austrian courts and Grozny” allowed the killers to pinpoint the place her shopper lived.
Just a few days earlier than he was shot, father-of-four Umar Israylov had been refused police safety regardless of being adopted on the street.
The case threw the highlight on how Kadyrov’s killers work, with prosecutors satisfied he gave the order for Israylov’s assassination.
In response to Israylov’s widow, the Chechen chief referred to as her husband twice earlier than he was shot, demanding he return to Russia instantly.
However Kadyrov’s function was by no means absolutely aired as a result of Moscow ignored Vienna’s requires assist with the investigation.
Chechen activist Rosa Dunaeva insists the “Kadyrovtsy” have been answerable for one other hit in Vienna in July 2020 in addition to related killings in Lille, France, earlier that yr and in Istanbul in 2011.
Harassment
“The media give the impression that we’re concerned in crime and spiritual extremism, when the overwhelming majority of Chechens reside in worry and don’t need something to do with politics anymore,” mentioned Dunaeva at one of many common protests in opposition to the deportations.
Certainly many Chechens are nicely built-in in Austria, like judo champion Shamil Borchashvili, who gained a bronze medal on the Tokyo Olympics final yr.
Or Zelimkhan Kazan. The 19-year-old — whose title we now have modified for his security — was born in Austria and has by no means been to Chechnya. He’s learning programming and has already arrange two start-ups.
“I work and have every little thing I want however I don’t really feel 100% secure,” mentioned the combined martial arts (MMA) fan as he labored out by the Danube Canal.
“There isn’t a means I might get away with the issues an Austrian teenager may do — for me it might be a loss of life sentence,” he insisted, which means deportation to Russia.
Kazan, who has no Russian papers, however solely go away to remain in Austria, can’t be naturalised within the nation he was born in due to Vienna’s strict nationality legal guidelines.
Which might make life troublesome when Kazan says plainclothes police cease him “three or 4 occasions a month” to verify his papers.
“Some name me a faggot, hoping that I’ll react violently,” he added.
All of the Chechen refugees AFP talked to mentioned they felt focused by the police, with the slightest conflict resulting in a conviction that might see them being deported.
Final July Austrian law enforcement officials have been discovered responsible of beating a Chechen after being caught on safety cameras.
Kadyrov’s ‘brainwashing’
Kazan additionally has to run the gauntlet of the “Kadyrovtsy”, who stand out due to their massive vehicles and their swagger. When he sees them, he pulls down his hood so that they don’t ask him any questions.
Activist Dunaeva is as nervous concerning the rising grip Ramzan Kadyrov — who has an enormous social media following — has on younger Chechens born in Europe. “When he’s not killing them, he brainwashes them and tries to show them in opposition to the West,” she mentioned.
Chechens additionally speak about cocaine dealing that’s destroying the lives of younger males who see no future and are simple prey for Mafia clans. And girls complain of getting their freedom curtailed by their “massive brothers”.
Angered by the discrimination they face in Austria, some fall into the charismatic Kadyrov’s entice, and are simple fodder for his macho posturing on social media, dividing households who had fled his grip.
“The regime additionally guarantees good profession prospects for younger Chechens educated in Europe who return” to their homeland, French professional Le Huerou mentioned. “The anti-gay propaganda which celebrates masculinity may also be engaging” for some Chechens steeped within the nation’s martial mythology.
A contingent of 1 thousand Chechens have been reportedly despatched by Kadyrov to combat for Moscow in Ukraine. However different Chechens are additionally preventing alongside the Ukrainians, a number of sources advised AFP.
And among the many tens of millions of refugees fleeing the preventing, a younger Chechen lady travelling along with her son was arrested in Romania. Courts there have already ordered her extradition, accusing her of “being a part of an armed group against the Russian Federation”. Her enchantment has now been rejected.
Russia could have began a brand new conflict, however its hunt of Chechens continues unabated.
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