Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov has clarified that recent requirements for the speed of musical compositions were only intended to be ‘recommendations’ for performers of traditional Chechen music.

Chechnya’s Culture Minister Musa Dadaev announced earlier this month that Kadyrov had instructed him to ban all music that is slower than 80 beats per minute and faster (bpm) than 116 bpm.

At the time, it was unclear what music the guidelines would affect or when they would come into effect.

Kadyrov stated on Friday that the guidelines for the ‘preservation of Chechen national music at a traditional tempo’ were only ‘advisory’.

‘Of course, I knew that journalists from opposition media are often not on friendly terms, but I didn’t think the insanity would become so much stronger every day’, he wrote on Telegram.

‘And here we read: “The Russian anthem was banned in Chechnya” ’, he added, referring to remarks on social media about how Russia’s national anthem, which is slower than 80 bpm, would be banned under the rules.

‘Pay attention to the words “national” and “Chechen” and notice the absence of the word “ban” ’, he said. ‘All these are recommendations for performers of Chechen melodies (not anthems, not military marches, not ballads, not chansons, not songs of other nationalities, etc.), which is designed to preserve musical expressiveness, originality, and peculiarity’.

Read in Georgian on On.ge.