Grozny has criticised the Russian authorities’ handling of a conflict that took place between members of the ultra-right group Russkaya Obschina and young people who were dancing lezginka, a traditional Caucasian dance, in the courtyard of a residential complex in Moscow.
The incident took place on the evening of 18 June, when a group of young people, including a brother and sister, were dancing outside the entrance of a block of flats on European Avenue.
A group of men, identifying themselves as members of Russkaya Obschina, Russian for ‘Russian community’, approached the dancers and said they disliked the dance, demanding that they apologise. The siblings responded saying residents of the building had previously enjoyed their dancing. The men forced the teenagers to apologise and did not allow him to leave until the police arrived.
‘During our usual dance training, residents responded positively, and often applauded. But that day, everything changed. A few men from Russkaya Obschina came up to us and said they didn’t like how we were dancing… They added that if it were “Russian music” — for example, an accordion — they wouldn’t have minded’, said the sister to telegram channel ChP Chechnya.
She added that the men surrounded them, telling them ‘you’re not going anywhere’, and that around thirty people from Russkaya Obschina showed up, some with large dogs, to intimidate them. They were pressed against a wall, told to apologise, and had their dignity humiliated, said the sister. Bystanders recorded the scene but did not intervene. When the police arrived — having been summoned — they reportedly mixed up the address, arrived late, and merely observed as events unfolded.
The independent Russian media outlet Caucasian Knot clarified that the performing siblings were of Tatar–Azerbaijani origin, not Chechen, and that there were Chechen teenagers at the scene.
Initially, Chechens online erroneously reported that the Russkaya Obschina and the police had detained the Chechen youths.
A few hours later, one of the deputies from the Chechen plenipotentiary’s office in Moscow, Bekhan Taymaskhanov, arrived at the site. He said the incident had drawn the attention of the ‘Padisha [the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov], MPs, and senators’.
‘We asked what was happening — no one explained anything. One of the police officers said: “We need to take everyone and not let them go” ’, said an eyewitness to the incident.
Russkaya Obschina has been associated with nationalist ideology and anti-migrant sentiments. The organisation was established in 2020 and advocates far-right, Islamophobic, Caucasophobic, and ultranationalist positions.
In the past, the group has participated in raids on markets in Moscow and Moscow suburbs, abducting migrants and forcing them to apologise on camera.
While Russkaya Obschina has not confirmed its involvement in the incident, it also has not denied its members were involved.
Local officials advised the parents of the teenagers to file a complaint for abuse of power, since, in their view, Russkaya Obschina had acted outside any legal authority.
Mansur Soltaev, Chechnya’s Human Rights Commissioner, later wrote on Telegram that ‘concrete work’ had begun after the incident, involving both Chechen and Moscow human rights offices. He described the efforts as thorough and well-coordinated.
Ahmad Dudaev, an assistant to Ramzan Kadyrov, stated that the members of the Russkaya Obschina who tried to detain minors in Moscow should be labelled ‘Nazis’.
Elizaveta Chukharova
