February 15 – The regime of Chechnyan strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has hit back at suggestions that the region’s capital Grozny should be stripped by FIFA as a World Cup base for Egypt next summer.
Human rights groups accuse the authorities in Chechnya of serious discrimination against women and sexual minorities but a spokesman for Kadyrov said the stance was unfounded.
“These conclusions are not based on anything, they are not grounded in the real situation in the Chechen Republic,” the spokesman, Alvi Karimov, told Reuters.
“I can state with full responsibility that the Chechen Republic is a more worthy location than all the places where World Cups have been conducted up to his point.”
But Human Rights Watch’s programme director for Russia, Tatyana Lokshina, kept up the pressure.
“Chechnya has been run by Ramzan Kadyrov, a ruthless strongman who with the blessing of the Kremlin has been ruling it with an iron fist through brutal repression for over a decade,” she was quoted as saying.
“FIFA must understand that the situation with human rights in Chechnya is indeed so dire that unless something gets done without delay it’s going to cast an ominous shadow on the World Cup.”
The Egyptian team manager, Ihab Leheta, insisted that the choice of Grozny was fully endorsed by FIFA though that is not really the point.
“For us the place is good and calm, the people are welcoming us,” Leheta told Reuters.
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