Kadyrov acknowledges that Zarema Musaeva was ‘taken’ to Chechnya because of her family’s activity
Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov has commented on the case of Zarema Musaeva — the wife of federal judge Saidi Yangulbaev and the mother of opposition activists Abubakar, Ibragim, and Baysangur Yangulbaev — during a live phone-in, claiming that Musayeva was ‘taken’ to Chechnya because members of her family were ‘working on social media’.
A fragment of the broadcast was published on Sunday evening by Chechen opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov.
‘The father, the mother, the brother — all of them — we found working on social media. Then they went after them to Russia and took the woman. And the husband ran away. If he were brave, he would have come with his wife’, Kadyrov said. The translation from Chechen was published by RFE/RL.
In this way, Kadyrov linked Musaeva’s detention to the public activity of her family members. Two of Musaeva’s sons — Ibragim and Baysangur Yangulbayev — were authors of the Telegram channel 1ADAT, which used to actively publish information about abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings in the republic. Russian authorities previously designated the channel as extremist, and although the channel has not officially closed, it is far less active than in the past. Another son, Abubakar Yangulbaev, worked with the Committee Against Torture.
Musaeva was abducted by Chechen Interior Ministry officers in January 2022 from her flat in Nizhny Novgorod and taken to Grozny. Officially, the authorities said she was suspected of fraud and also accused her of using violence against a police officer. In July 2023, a court in Chechnya sentenced Musaeva to five and a half years in prison on these charges.
In August 2025, the court imposed an additional sentence of three years and 11 months in prison in a case of disorganising the work of a penal colony. According to investigators, the charge was based on an alleged attack on a Federal Penitentiary Service officer during a trip to hospital, where Musaeva was receiving treatment in connection with insulin-dependent diabetes.
Human rights organisations and independent observers have repeatedly stated that the criminal prosecution of Musaeva is linked to the activities of her sons, who are all based outside Russia. According to human rights defenders, the second criminal case against Musaeva was opened two days after a sharp public statement by one of the Yangulbaevs about Kadyrov.
The day after Musaeva’s abduction, Kadyrov publicly threatened the Yangulbaev family. Similar statements were later made in video addresses, as well as by senior Chechen security officials and officials. A rally against the Yangulbayev family took place in the centre of Grozny, during which their portraits were burned, torn and trampled. The event was covered by state-controlled Chechen media.
In May, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favour of Musaeva and ordered Russia to pay her €52,000 ($55,000) in compensation for her arrest.
Russia has refused to honour the court’s ruling.
Sunday’s live phone-in with Kadyrov, during which he made statements about Musaeva, had been repeatedly postponed. It also turned out to be the shortest in recent years, lasting about two hours. In 2024, Kadyrov’s live phone-in lasted more than two and a half hours, and in 2019 about five and a half hours.
Besides Kadyrov’s comments, a segment focused on questions from viewers which were answered by Chechen Prime Minister Magomed Daudov and Chechnya’s mufti Salah Mezhiev.
The broadcast was hosted by Chechen broadcast company Grozny and the Chechen branch of federal broadcast company Vainakh. As of publication two days after the broadcast, the full video recording of Kadyrov’s appearance has still not been fully published, despite the fact that in previous years such recordings were made publicly available in full.
Elizaveta Chukharova
