Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Ramzan Kadyrov, the authoritarian, Kremlin-backed leader of the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, amid a public outcry over open threats made by the volatile region's leadership to kill the family of a human rights lawyer.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on February 3 that among other issues, Putin and Kadyrov discussed the work of law enforcement structures in Chechnya during the meeting the day before in Moscow.
Hours earlier, Kadyrov's press service said Putin and the Chechen leader met in Moscow on February 2 to discuss economic development and pandemic restrictions in Chechnya.
Russian and international human rights groups have for years accused Kadyrov of overseeing grave human rights abuses including abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the persecution of the LGBT community.
Kremlin critics say Putin has turned a blind eye to the abuses and violations carried out by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiment and violence in Chechnya.
The February 2 meeting was held amid calls by journalists, rights activists, and ordinary citizens across Russia for the government to take legal measures over public statements by Kadyrov and other Chechen officials about killing all of the members of the family of Abubakar Yangulbayev, a former lawyer for the Committee Against Torture human rights group.
SEE ALSO: Russian Lawmaker From Chechnya Vows To Behead Family Members Of Rights LawyerThe outcry was initially sparked by the arrest of Zarema Musayeva, Yangulbayev's mother, who was forcibly taken from her apartment in the city of Nizhny Novgorod and transferred to Chechnya last month.
It then intensified after a member of the State Duma, Adam Delimkhanov, who comes from Chechnya, vowed to "cut off the heads" of all members of the Yangulbayev family.
Rights activists at the Committee Against Torture say the extreme pressure on Yangulbayev's family is linked to the activities of Yangulbayev, who had officially urged Putin to intervene in his family's ongoing ordeal and to fire Kadyrov.
On February 3, a state television channel in Chechnya's capital, Grozny, posted a report on Instagram showing a gathering of a large group of people in the city presented as members of Yangulbayev's extended clan and representatives of the family's tribe of Keloi.
In the video, the participants condemn Yangulbayev's family, denounce them, and vow "to kill them as soon as we have a chance." It could not be independently verified whether those in the group were actually from the clan.
A crowd in Grozny rallies against the Yangulbayev family on February 2.
On February 2, tens of thousands of people rallied in central Grozny to denounce the Yangulbayev family and support Kadyrov, Delimkhanov, and others who vowed to kill the family.
Yangulbayev, who is currently out of Russia, told RFE/RL that his friends in Chechnya told him that the authorities in Grozny forced university students and employees of state entities to take part in the February 2 rally.
"It is a demonstration of the [Chechen] authorities' fear. Kadyrov feels that he is losing Kremlin support. He tries to show that all Chechens support him en mass, but the Kremlin is distancing itself from this story," Yangulbayev said.
After Yangulbayev's mother, Zarema Yangulbayeva, also known as Musayeva, was taken from her apartment, her husband, a retired federal judge, and their daughter fled Russia.
Still, Chechen officials stepped up their campaign against the family, saying on January 31 that Abubakar Yangulbayev's brother, Ibragim, had been added to the federal wanted list on a charge of making a public call for terrorism.
Amnesty International has described Yangulbayeva's detention as a "kidnapping" and has urged Russian federal authorities to act on the "lawlessness" that has "spilled out" of Chechnya.
Kadyrov has said Yangulbayeva faces a "real prison sentence for attacking a law enforcement officer" and that her entire family could find themselves "either in jail or under the ground."
Chechnya went through two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus.