In early January, Krasnodar city council deputy Sergei Klimov asked Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces unit, whether a Chechen woman may date a Russian Orthodox man and marry him. The discussion was prompted by a video posted on December 20 by Chechen blogger Sakhab Makalov, showing part of a stream by a 17-year-old girl who spoke about a relationship with a boy named Vlad.
Commenting on the clip, Makalov first said in Russian that the girl was supposedly not Chechen, then added in Chechen that he wanted to find her relatives and “carefully do our work.” Journalists were unable to establish whether he found her. The video, however, drew the attention of Russian nationalists, including Vladislav Pozdnyakov and the group Russkaya Obshchina, who called on the Investigative Committee to check the blogger’s actions.
A few days later, Klimov met Alaudinov in person and published their 19-minute conversation on Telegram. Alaudinov said that in Chechen society, relationships outside formal matchmaking are considered shameful, but that if a man of another nationality comes to propose “according to custom,” the woman may be given in marriage. At the same time, he added that simply saying “we love each other” is not enough for such a decision.
Alaudinov said that if one of his daughters had a Russian suitor, it would mean he had raised her poorly.
The commander also spoke about his own youth and a Russian woman he was not allowed to marry. Even so, he said he would react harshly if his daughters had relationships with non-Chechens. Throughout the conversation, neither he nor Klimov mentioned the woman’s own wishes as the decisive factor.
Alaudinov’s remarks angered Chechen opposition figures. The Niyso movement and blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov again argued that a Muslim woman should not marry an Orthodox Christian. In comments to Novaya-Europe, a Chechen woman named Elina, who is married to a German man, said the very framing of the issue strips women of agency and that such debates are presented as protection while in reality they are about power and control over women.