Was he shot?
Kadyrov critics disappeared without a trace in Sweden
According to media reports, the Chechen opposition figure Tumso Abdurachmanov was assassinated. In Sweden, where the man has a residence permit as a refugee, the authorities have remained silent.
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Tumso Abdurachmanov allegedly appeared on the Internet under the name Abu-Saddam Shishani.
George NopperEditor News
In Sweden, Chechen government opponent Tumso Abdurachmanov (36) has apparently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Was he assassinated? The government-critical Chechen medium “1Adat” writes on its Telegram channel, citing a “network of informants from Europe and Chechnya”, that it has “enough information” to confirm that the 36-year-old blogger on Monday night ” was shot dead by a group of people”. His brother Muhammad Abdurachmanov, who worked with him, was hidden by security services.
Tumso Abdurakhmanov fled Chechnya in 2015. In 2021 he received refugee status in Sweden. It is unclear where the alleged attack against him took place. The Swedish police cannot confirm the information about his disappearance at the request of the newspaper Aftonbladet. A spokeswoman declined to comment further on the matter.
Hammer attack in 2020
In February 2020, Tumso Abdurachmanow was the target of a hammer attack at home in Gävle, Sweden. However, he was able to overpower the attacker. The man – a Chechen and Russian citizen – was later sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder. An accomplice received a year and a half in prison for aiding and abetting. As Abdurakhmanov explained in March 2021, his brother had also narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. According to the information, the crime was planned in Germany.
On the Internet, Abdurachmanov, apparently using the name Abu-Saddam Shishani, sharply criticized the situation in the Russian republic of Chechnya and President Ramzan Kadyrov (46), a loyal follower of Russian President Vladimir Putin (70), also known by the nickname “Putin’s bloodhound». The blogger accused Kadyrov of serious human rights violations such as kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killings.
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Memoirs of the Tiergarten murder
According to Abdurakhmanov, he left Chechnya after a conflict with a relative of Kadyrov. In 2019, the head of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov (42), allegedly swore blood feuds against Tumso Abdurachmanov. This was denied by the Chechen side. In Chechnya, according to a report by the Russian news portal “Meduza”, which operates from exile, the blogger is said to have connections to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS).
In recent years there have been several assassination attempts on Kadyrov opponents abroad, for example in Qatar, Dubai and Austria. The suspected assassination is also reminiscent of the so-called Tiergarten murder in August 2019 in the German capital Berlin. The victim at the time was a Georgian who belonged to the Chechen minority in his home country. The German investigators blamed the Russian secret service FSB as the client. Russia described the allegations as politically motivated.