An MP from Daghestan has requested a probe be opened into popular Russian singer Alla Pugachyova for possible signs of extremism, after she called the late Chechen independence leader Dzhokhar Dudaev a ‘decent, respectable, intelligent and handsome man’, and said she regretted not being able to save his life.
In an official request sent to Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko, MP Biysultan Khamzaev said such descriptions could contain elements of justification of extremist or terrorist activity. The letter, a copy of which was published by RTVI, also called for Pugachyova to be investigated for violations of the legislation on foreign agents.
In his letter, Khamzaev claimed that he considered ‘Ichkeria’ to be a banned terrorist organisation. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria won a bloody war of independence with Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union, before Moscow took back control in the Second Chechen War.
There is no organisation under the name Ichkeria in the Russian registry of terrorist groups — however, there are groups with similar names that are recognised as extremist or terrorist: the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Daghestan; the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Exile; the movement United Force of the joint diaspora of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria; and the International Charitable Foundation Ichkeria.
Khamzaev also asked the Justice Ministry to verify whether the interview violated the legislation on foreign agents, since journalist Katerina Gordeeva, who conducted the interview with Pugacheva, has been labelled a foreign agent in Russia.
Pugacheva does not currently reside in Russia.
At present, there is no public information that the Justice Ministry has begun any formal review of Khamzaev’s request.
Pugachyova’s interview on 10 September on the YouTube channel Skazhi Gordeevoy became one of the most popular among Russian-speaking audiences in recent months, racking up over 23 million views and tens of thousands of comments in just two weeks.
After the interview was released, Chechen Press Minister Akhmed Dudaev (no relation to Dzhokhar Dudaev) responded to Pugachyova’s words in a video message, saying that the singer and other ‘provocateurs who fled Russia’ would, in his view, ‘be held accountable for every word’.
After that, the Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, urged the singer ‘not to provoke’ Chechens and called her ‘an enemy of the people and a traitor’. Lawyer Aleksandr Treshchyov also filed a lawsuit for protection of honour and dignity in the amount of ₽1.5 billion ($18 million). As of the time of publication, the court had not yet accepted the lawsuit for consideration.
Elizaveta Chukharova
