Chechen authorities said on February 2 that 400,000 people attended a demonstration in Grozny against the family of famed anti-torture campaigner Abubakar Yangulbayev. The protest occurred a day after Russian legislator Adam Delimkhanov threatened to decapitate Yangulbayev’s family members. Saidi Yangulbayev, the activist's father, escaped Russia with his daughter on January 23, just three days after his wife, Zarema Musayeva, was forcibly deported to Chechnya.

The threats against the Yangulbayev family follow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's threats against Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina and human rights activist Igor Kalyapin who works for the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

Ismail Denilkhanov, the leader of Chechnya's Public Chamber, spoke at the protest and asked for the closure of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Novaya Gazeta, and Dozhd, an independent television channel. Denilkhanov accused Elena Milashina of Novaya Gazeta, who is well-known for her coverage of Chechnya, and Igor Kalyapin of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of anti-state extremist activity. He accused them of supporting Yangulbayev family members who, he alleged, "justify atrocities against Chechen residents and advocate for the annihilation of essentially the whole Chechen people." After that, Denilkhanov demanded that Milashina and Kalyapin be arrested and given a fair trial.

Adam Delimkhanov, a Chechen State Duma deputy, had threatened to behead Yangulbayev's family the day before. "We will chase you until your heads are hacked off and you are killed," he said. In a statement issued in Chechen, Delimkhanov claimed, "we have a grudge against you and a blood hatred."

Anyone who translated the lawmaker's threats into Russian was likewise threatened with beheading. His statements were translated by the opposition Telegram group 1ADAT.

Delimkhanov's menacing comments elicited no response from the Kremlin's spokesperson. "This isn't our issue." Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the State Duma and the (parliamentary) committee on ethics have this responsibility.

In response, Nikolai Arefyev, deputy chairman of the State Duma's Parliamentary Ethics Commission, argued that such threats "should be evaluated by the Attorney General's Office, not the Ethics Commission." According to a spokesperson of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, the incident should be handled by the Attorney General's Office.

Protestors at the gathering cursed the Yangulbayevs and destroyed photos of family members. According to Chechnya's state-run Grozny TV, only males attended this march, implying that the number of demonstrators accounted for about half of the republic's male population.

The protest was allegedly not sanctioned by the authorities. However, Chechen authorities, including Chechnya's legislative speaker Magomed Daudov, one of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's closest friends spoke at the event, and the police did not disperse the throng.

The rally was sparked, according to the Russian state news agency TASS, by insulting audio recordings about religious figures from the North Caucasus that were leaked online (allegedly made by Saidi Yangulbayev's sons). "The Yangulbayevs recorded really filthy audio against our (saints), about our people, and everything that is so adored by Chechens," remarked Mufti of Chechnya Salakh-Hadji Mezhiev, addressing the assembly. "No one can allow themselves to be that vile."

Human rights organisations such as the Committee Against Torture have regularly accused Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is backed by the Kremlin, of kidnappings, extrajudicial executions, and torture, particularly of LGBT+ people.

Zarema's detention has been dubbed an abduction by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International.

"What is occurring in Chechnya can scarcely be described as anything other than lawlessness, and it has now spilled over the republic's boundaries again," said Natalya Prilutskaya, an Amnesty International Russia researcher.

According to Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Director for Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, "the Kremlin is either unwilling to rein in these types of human rights threats in Chechnya or is knowingly complicit in this despicable act."

According to Alexei Malashenko, a leading researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Delimkhanov's remarks "we have a blood feud" should be seen as a threat not just from him but also from Ramzan Kadyrov. "That is, we are discussing the retinue of Chechnya's president. And if authorities fail to calm these people down, they should expect the individuals who are now being threatened to have their heads chopped off," Mr. Malashenko stated.

According to Oleg Khabibrakhmanov, the head of public investigations at the "Committee against Torture," the threat to cut off heads is a clear threat of murder. "All of the characteristics indicate to a crime of threatening to kill, or perhaps encouragement to murder. This needs to be examined and resolved" he asserted.