Supporters of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, disrupted a human rights group’s press conference in Moscow on December 11 by pelting the group's leader with eggs at close range.
The attack occurred when Igor Kalyapin, head of the Moscow-based Committee Against Torture, was speaking against Kadyrov’s order to impose collective punishment against relatives of alleged militants in Chechnya.
As Kalyapin accused the Chechen leader of violating Russia’s constitution, two burly men barged into the room shouting support for Kadyrov and accusing Kalyapin of “defending criminals.”
The men threw several eggs at Kalyapin and one of his colleagues from a distance of about a meter.
On December 6, after 14 policemen were killed in a clash against militants in Grozny, Kadyrov announced that relatives of suspected militants would be evicted and their homes would be razed.
On December 8, several homes in the Chechen village of Yandy were burnt to the ground by masked men.
