Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Apprehension of Chechens in Europe Mounts after Attack on Blogger

Jamie Dettmer

   Chechen emigres in Europe are becoming increasingly apprehensive about
   their safety following a hammer attack last week by a would-be assassin
   on a trenchant critic of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan
   Kadyrov.

   They say the attack, foiled when popular Chechen blogger Tumso
   Aburakhmanov confronted his assailant, is part of a violent campaign to
   silence and intimidate them.

   In January, a 44-year-old Chechen blogger was stabbed to death in a
   hotel in the French city of Lille, and a onetime Chechen militant, a
   citizen of Georgia, was shot dead in Berlin last year. His slaying has
   been linked by some Western investigative sites to Russia's GRU
   military intelligence agency.

   Abdurakhmanov, who's recovering in hospital from the assault, said he
   overpowered the assailant, who broke into his apartment armed with a
   hammer. The blogger captured the aftermath of the alleged attack in a
   video which was posted to YouTube by the Chechen Human Rights
   Association.

   "Are we afraid of acts of terror against us? Oh sure," Musa Taipov, a
   62-year-old Chechen journalist who lives in Strasbourg, said.

   "This is not the first case of attempts and murders of Chechen
   emigrants. A lot of such murders and attempts were on the territory of
   Turkey, and now the attempts are taking place on the territory of
   European countries," he told VOA by email.

   Abdurakhmanov is a high-profile critic of Kadyrov and has a substantial
   social-media following. He accuses the Chechen leader of having ordered
   the killings in Lille and Berlin. In the video of the aftermath of the
   attack, Abdurakhmanov is seen standing over the blood-spattered
   assailant demanding, "Who sent you? Where are you from? How do you know
   my address?"

.