Lema Dotayev, a resident of the Chechen village of Goity, was forced to apologize for sending in the WhatsApp messenger. The man's video message was posted on the Grozny ChGTRK Instagram account.
Lema sent a message to a friend to, according to him, help raise the children properly. The audio recording spoke of a mysterious man in a Ford car allegedly threatening children. After that, the message was sent to the messenger.
“Now he repents and asks for forgiveness,” the ChGTRK publication says.
The system of public apologies has long been practiced in Chechnya. In July, the Grozny TV channel broadcast a story about a resident of the republic who was forced to apologize for visiting a witch. Police officers ransacked her home and interrogated her and her relatives at the police station.
In April, the young Chechens who ran the Telegram channel Osal nakh 95 (Empty People in Chechen) had to apologize. They admitted on camera that they posted critical posts about Islam and photographs of other people in the messenger.
Another resident of Chechnya at the end of March was forced to apologize for a trip in a car wearing a gas mask. The traffic police considered this disrespectful to "the efforts made by the Chechen leadership under conditions of quarantine, headed by Ramzan Kadyrov."