The opposition Telegram channel NIYSO has published a fragment of a livestream by businessperson and Yug-Neft oil company beneficiary Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov, in which he sharply criticises the principles used to select ‘volunteers’ for the full-scale war in Ukraine.
In the video, Akhmetkhanov claims that men in Chechnya who struggle with drug or alcohol addiction are being sent to the frontlines, while, in his view, only ‘specialists and true warriors’ should be taking part in combat.
During the livestream, Akhmetkhanov said that participation of Chechens in the war against Ukraine often serves as a form of punishment.
‘If someone drinks vodka or smokes cannabis — they send him off’, he said, stressing that those who drink or use drugs cannot be real fighters.
Akhmetkhanov did not oppose the war itself, calling the invasion ‘justified’, but urged that only trained military professionals should be deployed.
‘Send those to fight who are warriors by nature, by profession. Let them fight, let them earn medals and salaries. Don’t disgrace our region’, Akhmetkhanov said in Chechen.
According to Akhmetkhanov, many local officials tasked with recruiting ‘volunteers’ do not believe in the mission’s success and try to find substitutes for those refusing to go:
‘You go around the villages asking others to go instead of you. Do you even take the situation seriously? By gathering these idlers and sending them off, you bring shame to our people’, he said.
After the broadcast, Akhmetkhanov said he had received phone calls over the subsequent two weeks from people accusing him of ‘ruining things’. He insisted, however, that he stood by his words:
‘If I ruined anything, it only concerns me’, he added.
The exact date of the broadcast remains unknown — Instagram, where it was shared, does not automatically save livestreams, and it is impossible to determine a date from the edited footage. Nevertheless, part of the stream was recorded by one of the viewers, edited, and later circulated via WhatsApp chats, where it was discovered by NIYSO activists.
According to RFE/RL, the deepfake detection programme Deepware found no signs of artificial image or audio generation. The full version of the livestream is in the possession of the editorial team.
Chechen authorities regularly report sending large numbers of volunteers to fight in Ukraine. At the same time, human rights activists note that those who have been caught committing offences or engaging in ‘inappropriate behaviour’ are being forced to go to war.
In the spring of 2025, opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov reported that Akhmetkhanov had been forced to leave Chechnya and move to Turkey. According to the blogger, Akhmetkhanov’s departure was connected to a conflict between his sons and Vakha Geremeev — the uncle of former Sever battalion officer Ruslan Geremeev, who is considered by investigators to be involved in the 2015 murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
In the summer, NIYSO activists wrote that the dispute had escalated into a clash between supporters of MP Adam Delimkhanov and Akhmetkhanov, from which the latter allegedly emerged victorious. There are no independent confirmations of this claim.
Akhmetkhanov has previously been at the centre of public controversy. In April 2020, the Chechen state television channel ChGTRK Grozny aired a report in which the Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov harshly reprimanded Akhmetkhanov for drinking alcohol and firing shots into the air. Following the public scolding, Akhmetkhanov apologised, but, according to residents of his native village of Gehi, he did not appear at home or communicate for some time. Later that month, villagers reported that he had returned.
According to the independent Russian media outlet Caucasian Knot, Kadyrov allowed Akhmetkhanov to return because he had ‘accepted the humiliation’ and remained valuable to the authorities as a ‘socially close figure’ with considerable financial resources.
Formally, Akhmetkhanov no longer owns any business in Russia. According to open data, his company Yug-Neft is currently registered under his son, Rokhman Akhmetkhanov, though on social media he continues to identify himself as its owner.
Elizaveta Chukharova
