Residents of Chechnya rally in front of "Vostok" battalion base

A mass protest action with some 600-1000 participants (by different sources) was held on June 11 in the Gudermes District of Chechnya, near the disposition of the special-purpose battalion "Vostok" (East) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff (known as GRU).

The action was organized by relatives of kidnapped and missing residents of the Republic, who believe that "Vostok" special fighters are behind all these crimes. The protesters, most of them were women, arranged their rally right in front of the entrance to the territory of the military base.

Many of them were holding photos of their kidnapped and missing relatives and posters with slogans as follows: "Murderers Must Be Made Responsible!", "Yamadaev's Soldiers are Enemies of Chechen People!", "Yamadaev Brothers Are Killers of Our Sons!"

"The women who stood in front of the 'Vostok' base were crying and damning these monsters. And when we left, we placed all the posters on the ground, in front of the entrance to the base. Let them know how they are hated by their own people," one of the participants of the rally told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Meanwhile, one of the "Vostok" militaries told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the rally held in front of the battalion base was "nothing but an operetta staging and a cheap performance." In his opinion, the rally was organized by Magomed Khanbiev, one of former main Chechen militants, who "once had been the Minister of Defence of Ichkeria, and now switched over to Ramzan Kadyrov and tries to look like a normal person."