A criminal case has been opened against two unidentifed men who placed two pigs’ heads at the monument to former Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov in Moscow, media reports said.
Akhmad Kadyrov, the father of current Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, was killed in a bomb blast at a stadium in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, in 2004. Like most residents of the North Caucasus, Kadyrov was an adherent of Islam, which considers the pig to be an unclean animal.
CCTV footage obtained by police show the two men arriving at the monument in the capital’s South Butovo district at around 5:30 a.m. Moscow time (01:30 GMT) with a plastic bag containing the pigs’ heads, leaving them at its base and fleeing the scene.
Police have been working to identify the men, who may face punishment in the form of compulsory community service or a prison term if found guilty of hooliganism.
In 2005, then-Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is known for his harsh response to militants during the second Chechen war in 1999-2000, issued a decree awarding then-Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Kadyrov the Hero of Russia award for “courage and heroism in the line of duty.”