Exile, Prison, or War: How Kadyrov Punished the Families of NIYSO Telegram Channel Moderators*

On 7 April 2025, 17-year-old Achkhoy-Martan resident Eskerkhan Khumashev attacked police officers with a knife. One officer was killed and another was injured. The attacker was shot dead at the scene. Only now are we able to report on the tragic events that followed this incident. We gathered the information through volunteers and local residents.

The day after the attack, Ramzan Kadyrov held a meeting with representatives of the security services. During the meeting, he named three moderators of the NIYSO Telegram channel — Abubakarov Salamu Said-Rakhmanovich, Tankiev Ayub Albekovich, and Dudaev Vaid Salaudinovich — as the “organizers” of the attack. All three are currently outside Russia.

Kadyrov accused them of “working for Ukraine” and stated that responsibility for the attack on the traffic police checkpoint lay not only with the perpetrators and organizers, but also with their relatives. He instructed law enforcement agencies to punish, first and foremost, the closest relatives of all those allegedly involved in the attack. If they failed to stop the individuals named by him, then more distant relatives — cousins and second cousins — were also to be punished.

On 9 April, Eskerkhan Khumashev’s body was displayed in the city square. At the same time, public sector employees were assembled and forced to look at the body of the teenager.

Kadyrov also ordered the expulsion from Chechnya of the Khumashev family and the families of those he described as “organizers,” as well as the confiscation of their property.

On 8 April, security officers detained Ayub Tankiev’s brother, Askhab Tankiev (born in 1991), at his workplace and took him to the police department of the Vedeno district. There, he was beaten, and his jaw was broken.

According to fellow villagers, Askhab Tankiev was not involved in opposition activities and was described as a person loyal to the authorities. For many years, he worked within Gazprom-affiliated structures, including as head of a regional office of Regiongaz in the Shelkovskoy district.

Despite this, Askhab Tankiev was held in the police department for three days. During this time, security officers blocked his family inside their home, preventing them even from buying food.

On the fourth day, security officers transported Askhab Tankiev and his family to Makhachkala: his 59-year-old mother Nura Dzhabrailova, his 31-year-old wife Hedi Amerkhanova, and their two minor children. There, they were informed that the family had 24 hours to leave Russia. Otherwise, Askhab Tankiev was threatened with criminal prosecution or being sent to fight in the war in Ukraine. The family left the country and intends to apply for asylum in one of the European states.

Askhab Tankiev’s house and property remain under the control of security forces.

It should be noted that Ayub Tankiev, whom Ramzan Kadyrov accused of inciting the teenager from Achkhoy-Martan, was under administrative detention in Turkey from January until the end of May 2025. He objectively could not have maintained contact with Eskerkhan Khumashev or influenced his actions.

According to information available to us, similar measures were applied to the families of Vaid Dudaev and Salamu Abubakarov. Their current whereabouts are unknown. At present, we have been unable to obtain information about the fate of Eskerkhan Khumashev’s family.

For many years, the Human Rights Defence Center Memorial has documented the practice of collective punishment in Chechnya. The republican authorities apply repressive measures against relatives of people whom they consider to be involved in attacks on security forces or other forms of alleged “disloyal” activity. We have repeatedly reported on unlawful detentions, threats, the use of violence, blackmail, forced expulsions of entire families from the republic, and the burning of homes.

*Recognized as an extremist organization in Russia