In a sharp preelection turnabout, the Kremlin-appointed head of Russia’s war-torn republic of Chechnya declared Thursday that death squads associated with security forces were seeking to prolong the conflict through abductions and terror. “People continue to go missing in Chechnya. They are taken away in the middle of the night. Their bodies are not found and they are never seen again,” Akhmad Kadyrov, the republic’s acting president, said in a letter he released to reporters in Grozny, the Chechen capital. In the letter, addressed to Russia’s top law enforcement officials, Kadyrov added: “I have no doubts that those who are taking people away at night are the so-called third force, the party of supporters of a horrible war. Through their crimes, they maintain tension in the republic, and their hands are stained with the blood of innocent people.” The force is made up of “kidnappers in armored vehicles,” he said. “They are a death squad.” Full Story
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