Human rights violations A significant number of members of these groups are people with a
criminal past, including people who committed criminal offences in the period between wars. Particularly feared are the PPSM-2, named after Akhmad Kadyrov, and the Oil Regiment. Officially, PPSM-2 is responsible for security on the streets and the Oil Regiment for the security of industrial sites. In reality, both structures are involved in so-called "anti-terrorist operations" involving grave
human rights violations, according to human rights groups. Human rights activists working in Chechnya have accused the group of being heavily involved in
kidnapping,
torture and
murder to cement Kadyrov's clan rule. In October 2006, a
German human rights group, the
Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), that had branded Kadyrov a "
war criminal", alleged that up to 75 percent of recent incidents of murder, torture,
rape and kidnapping in Chechnya were committed by Ramzan's
paramilitary forces. The Memorial group investigator stated in its report: "Considering the evidence we have gathered, we have no doubt that most of the crimes which are being committed now in Chechnya are the work of Kadyrov's men. There is also no doubt in our minds that Kadyrov has personally taken part in beating and torturing people. What they are doing is pure lawlessness. To make matters worse, they also go after people who are innocent, whose names were given by someone being tortured to death. He and his henchmen spread fear and terror in Chechnya. (...) They travel by night as
death squads, kidnapping civilians, who are then locked in a
torture chamber, raped and murdered,".
Anna Politkovskaya, a veteran Russian
reporter (murdered in 2006; case unsolved as of April 2008) who specialized in Chechen reporting, claimed that she had received a video
footage of a man identical in appearance to Ramzan. "....On them (the clips) were the murders of federal
servicemen by the Kadyrovites, and also kidnappings directed by Kadyrov. These are very serious things; on the basis of this evidence a criminal case and investigation should follow. This could allow this person to be brought to justice, something he has long richly deserved," she said. She was allegedly working on an article revealing human rights abuses and regular incidences of torture in Chechnya at the time of her murder. Some observers alleged that Kadyrov or his men were possibly behind the assassination. The Kadyrovites are often accused of working as a
death squad against Kadyrov's enemies. Ramzan is rumoured to own a private
prison in his
stronghold of
Tsentoroi, his home village south-east of Grozny. Fields around Tsentoroi are reportedly mined and all access routes are blocked by
checkpoints. On 2 May 2006, representatives of the
Council of Europe's
Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) stated that they were prevented from entering the fortress. They have also begun using
cell phones to record videos of them beating and humiliating ordinary Chechens accused of crimes. The videos are later circulated, with the intention of intimidating civilians. According to the
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights's "Unofficial Places of Detention in the Chechen Republic" report, that it had prepared for the 37th session of the
United Nations Committee Against Torture. The paper covered torture by personnel of the Second Operational Investigative Bureau (
ORB-2), torture by units under the effective command of Ramzan Kadyrov, torture in secret detentions, and the continuing "disappearances." According to HRW, torture "in both official and secret detention facilities is widespread and systematic in Chechnya." In many cases, the perpetrators were so confident that there would be no consequences for their abuses that they did not even attempt to conceal their identity. Based on extensive research, HRW concluded in 2005 that
forced disappearances in Chechnya are so widespread and systematic that they constitute
crimes against humanity. On 1 March 2007,
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the head of the
Moscow Helsinki Group rights organisation, stated "Kadyrov is to blame for kidnappings of many innocent people. Their bodies were found later with signs of torture."
Corruption The Kadyrovites were accused of mass kidnappings (occasionally, even members of the Russian security forces have been kidnapped), tortures and
summary executions,
rapes,
racketeering, participation in the illegal oil trade and other crimes even by Chechen and Russian officials. In October 2003, the former Chechen official and presidential candidate
Shamil Burayev, accused the Security Service of "hunting for the
dissidents". In May 2004, Russian Presidential adviser
Aslambek Aslakhanov acknowledged that the "security guard of the Kadyrovs" was operating outside of the law. In 2021 spetsnaz groups from different Russian regions, including the Kadyrovites, took part in a selection march at "Tambukan" training facility in Stavropol Krai. The event ended after the other participants accused the Chechen operators of cheating and covering some of the march distance in vehicles, resulting in a brawl. According to human rights group Memorial as well as
Anna Politkovskaya, the Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya
Idris Gaibov had orchestrated the atrocities by Kadyrovites in the outskirts of the Chechen village in the
Kurchaloy on 27–28 July 2006. Reportedly, he hung the severed head of a killed rebel fighter up as a warning to the rest of the village. As a Chechen state official, he had given orders to members of the Russian security forces who were not subordinate to him to
decapitate a dead body. Armed men then spent the next two hours photographing the head with their
mobile phones. The head remained there for 24 hours. On 21 September 2005, a similar incident occurred, as published by Memorial as well as Kavkazky Uzel which described "shocking details" of a special operation conducted by forces loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, earlier in September in the town of Argun and the settlement of Tsotsin-Yurt. Citing local residents, the human rights group reported that on 14 September, a group of Kadyrovites placed a severed head on a pipe on a footbridge across the
Khulkulau River for "general viewing" and intimidation purposes. In 2005, unidentified men kidnapped separatist field commander
Dokka Umarov's father Khamad, his wife, and one-year-old son. Several months earlier, his brother Ruslan Umarov, father of four children, had been kidnapped by masked men in uniform. His wife and son were later freed, but his father and brothers disappeared. According to some sources, Umarov's father, Khamad Umarov, was kidnapped back on 5 May 2008, by the Kadyrovite employees of the Oil Regiment (
Neftepolk) headed by
Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Adam Delimkhanov. In April 2007, Umarov declared that his 74-year-old father was murdered in captivity. His sister Natalia Khumaidova was also
abducted in
Urus-Martan in August 2005 by "unidentified armed men". She was released days later after local residents protested for her return. In the past years a cousin Zaurbek and nephew Roman Atayev were also kidnapped. Nothing has been heard of them since. Shortly after the
Beslan hostage-taking raid in 2004, Prosecutor General
Vladimir Ustinov suggested the practice of taking rebel leaders' relatives hostage. Memorial, who largely condemned such practices, blamed pro-Russian Chechen forces for the abductions. According to separatists, all kidnapped persons were put into
Ramzan Kadyrov's personal prison in
Akhmat-Yurt. == Equipment ==