Chechen activist Tumso Abdurakhmanov lived and got in touch

Chechen opposition activist Tumso Abdurakhmanov, whose whereabouts have been unknown since the end of November last year, reported that he was alive and safe. A representative of the Chechen human rights organization “Vaifond” told Novaya Gazeta about this. Earlier there were unconfirmed reports that Abdurakhmanov was killed.

The last entry in Abdurakhmanov’s blog was dated November 30, 2022. In early December, reports appeared on the Internet about his murder in Sweden, where he lived. The Swedish police neither confirmed nor denied them. Since then, it has not been possible to contact Abdurakhmanov himself or his brother Muhammad, who also lives abroad.

The “Vaifond” organization said that everything is fine with Abdurakhmanov and soon he intends to contact his subscribers himself.

• Tumso Abdurakhmanov is a Chechen opposition blogger. In his videos, he talks about human rights violations in Chechnya and other abuses of local authorities, publishes interviews with Chechen opposition activists and critics of the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. In the mid-2010s, after a conflict with one of Kadyrov’s relatives, Abdurakhmanov left Chechnya and Russia. In 2021, he received political asylum in Sweden.
• In February 2020, an attempt was made on Tumso Abdurakhmanov in his apartment in Sweden. The blogger managed to disarm the attacker and call the police. The verdict in the case was handed down in January 2021. The convicted are citizens of Russia. The specific perpetrators of the crime were not established, but the prosecutor stated at the court that “the traces point to Grozny”.
• After the sentencing in the case of the attack on Tumso Abdurakhmanov, an attempt on the ego of Muhammad’s brother in Germany was prevented. According to the human rights defender, the organization of his murder was entrusted to Parudda Edelgeriev, who is called Ramzan Kadyrov’s cousin.