MOSCOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti) – The top migration official in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya has been fired after it was disclosed that his daughter was fighting alongside rebel forces in Syria’s civil war.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on Instagram late Thursday that he would assist the official, Asu Dadurkayev, in returning his daughter home, but criticized him for failing to clamp down on inefficiency, rudeness and corruption among his staff.
“[Dadurkayev’s] daughter is among the Wahhabis and bandits who spill the blood of civilians and blow up Islamic holy sites in Syria,” Kadyrov wrote on Instagram, a social networking website the Chechen leader regularly uses to make public pronouncements.
“We offered help in returning his daughter, but he kept on saying he’ll solve the problem. But the daughter is still among the bandits,” Kadyrov wrote.
Kadyrov did not elaborate on Dadurkayev’s daughter’s involvement in the Syrian civil war.
A spokesperson for the Chechen’s branch of the Federal Migration Service confirmed to RIA Novosti that Dadurkayev was leaving, but could not give any details.
Russia’s North Caucasus remains a hotbed of Islamic insurgency, that while largely suppressed in Chechnya by Kadyrov, still persists in neighboring republics.
Jihadists from the North Caucasus are confirmed to be fighting in Syria, though their exact number is unknown.
At least one prominent Islamist rebel group, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, is led by an ethnic Chechen and runs a Russian-language Fisyria.com website.
Media last week also reported that a group of Russians had been tricked by a contractor into fighting for pro-Syrian government forces as part of a battalion called the Slavonic Corps.
The 267-strong battalion returned last month to Russia, where its organizers faced criminal charges.
