Relative of Late Chechen Leader Reportedly Abducted By Police After Posting Photo

Dzhokhar Dudayev in 1995

A relative of the late leader of the short-lived Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev, was reportedly abducted and detained in the Russian North Caucasus region after he posted Dudayev's picture on Instagram.

A source in Chechnya told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that Lom-Ali Idigov, a son of Dudayev's cousin, was still in custody in Grozny.

The source added that Chechen authorities refused to comment or explain why Idigov was detained.

The disappearance of Idigov was first reported by the Chechen opposition Telegram channel 1ADAT on September 25.

It said the "abduction" took place eight days earlier as he returned home in the village of Katayama near Grozny. Idigov had been in Moscow, where he periodically travels for business.

According to the Telegram channel, Idigov has been held in police custody without being charged with any crimes but that it came after he posted Dudayev's photo on Instagram.

Dudayev, a major general in the Soviet Air Force, was elected Chechnya's president in October 1991, less than two months before the Soviet Union collapsed, and eventually proclaimed Chechnya's independence under the name of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Chechnya was then officially an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation and Moscow did not recognize its independence, launching the devastating First Chechen War in December 1994.

In April 1996, a Russian missile killed Dudayev 30 kilometers from Grozny after Russian security services intercepted his satellite phone's signal while he was talking with then-Russian lawmaker Konstantin Borovoi.

The current Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, claims his father, Akhmat Kadyrov, was the first Chechen president and suppresses any mention of Dudayev in public or private.

Once a supporter of Dudayev, Akhmat Kadyrov, left pro-independence forces and started supporting Russia's federal forces and officials in autumn 1999.

In 2000, Akhmat Kadyrov became Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader. Since he was killed in a bombing attack in Grozny in May 2004, Ramzan Kadyrov has led Chechnya within the Russian Federation with an iron grip.