
Three 16-year-old teenagers who had been unlawfully held in a police station in Chechnya for more than six months have been released. In exchange, their fathers were forced to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence, according to the human rights centre Memorial.
According to Memorial, since December 2024, the three 16-year-old minors – Said Idigov, Elbrus Saidaev, and Mansur Shabazov – were detained at a police station in the Krasnogvardeysky (Baysangurovsky) district of Grozny. During that time, no formal charges were filed against them, and they were denied access to lawyers and communication with their families.
The police station where the teenagers were held is headed by Abutakhir Vismuradov, a nephew of Chechnya’s Deputy Prime Minister Abuzayd Vismuradov — a close ally of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov.
After Memorial publicly reported the teenagers' detention in July, they were released. However, the situation did not end there.
‘The boys’ fathers were forced to sign contracts to participate in the 'special military operation' (as Russian authorities refer to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine), despite being over 50 years old’, the human rights group stated.
In Chechnya and other North Caucasus regions, there have been multiple reports of people being coerced into signing military contracts under threats and violence. Memorial and other organisations regularly characterise such incidents as human rights violations.
‘Chechen security forces increasingly force people to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence using violence. People are beaten and tortured, and nearly everyone is told they will return from the war in three to six months. After being tortured, Chechen residents are compelled to sign contracts, which are usually open-ended. Even after being wounded, many are sent back to combat zones,’ Memorial noted.
People have been sent to the front for drinking alcohol or using drugs, for suspected homosexuality, or for family ties to critics of Kadyrov, such as the cases of the members of the Yangulbaev family, the brother of opposition blogger Hasan Khalitov, and the nephew of politician Akhmed Zakaev.
Last August, Kadyrov reported during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Chechnya that the republic had sent 47,000 fighters to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, including 19,000 volunteers.
