On Friday, January 22, at least a million people have gathered on the rally to express their support for the head of the Chechen republic Ramzan Kadyrov. People were chanting  “Ramzan! Ramzan!” with Russian and Chechen flags in their hands and slogans on the banners, like “We are for Russia!”, “We are for Ramzan Kadyrov!”, “Our strength is in our unity!”.  

A rally followed after anti-Kadyrov allegations of Russian opposition. Their representatives demanded from the Russian government to respond to Kadyrov’s statements about non-systemic opposition, which, according to Kadyrov, undermines the political situation in Russia. Kadyrov said that “such people should be treated as enemies of the people, as traitors. They have nothing sacred”. He also added that such people should be punished for subversive activity will full weight of the law .

As previously reported by the chairman of the Chechen trade union Husei Soltageriev, the action was aimed to express protest against the attempts to destabilize the situation in complicated economic conditions. The leader of the youth patriotic association “Ahmad” Khavadji Hadjimuradov also stressed that the rally was a response to media attacks of the so-called fifth column.