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No Syrian militants at Chechnya’s borders — Chechen leader

Had the information on concentration of militants on Chechnya’s borders been true, control would have been tightened in Chechnya’s border areas rather than on the roads
Ramzan Kadyrov (center), December 2014  Yelena Afonina/TASS
Ramzan Kadyrov (center), December 2014
© Yelena Afonina/TASS

GROZNY, August 20 /TASS/. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday denied rumors that road traffic control had increased on Chechen roads because militants from Syria had appeared near the republic’s borders.

"These rumours do not match the reality. We were forced to increase the work of road traffic inspectors to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities on the Chechen roads," Kadyrov said at a meeting with Chechnya’s Security Council Secretary Vakhit Usmayev and Shamkhan Denilkhanov, the head of the road traffic safety department.

Kadryov explained that had the information on concentration of militants on Chechnya’s borders been true, control would have been tightened in Chechnya’s border areas rather than on the roads.

"I cannot understand why people believe such rumours. We are looking for these devils everywhere but we cannot find them. Had they come to the republic, we would have destroyed them immediately on the spot. That would be a moment of great triumph for us," Kadyrov’s press service quoted him as saying.

According to official reports, more than 100 people have died on Chechen roads since the start of 2015. One of the biggest accidents took place in Gudermes on the night to August 10 in which seven people, including a woman and two girls, had died. The same day, Kadyrov compared the accident incidence rate on Chechen roads to a war situation and called for stricter punishment for breaching road traffic rules.