The Chechen village of Kenkhi, the hometown of the man who complained to President Vladimir Putin about living conditions in the republic, has been cordoned off by police, its residents told the Kommersant newspaper Monday.
Entry to the village has been restricted over the past few days, according to locals, and the inhabitants of the village have been individually summoned by the police and told to reveal the whereabouts of Ramazan Dzhalaldinov.
On April 14, Dzhalaldinov posted online a video message to Putin, in which he complained about the living conditions in his village and the extortion of the local authorities.
After the publication of this video, Dzhalaldinov started to receive threats, forcing him to flee to the neighboring republic of Dagestan.
Last week, Dzhalaldinov's wife said that a group of masked men broke into Dzhalaldinov's house in Kenkhi, took her and her children outside and set the house on fire. According to Kommersant, the men brought the wife and children to the Dagestan border, took their passports and released them.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov denied that the security forces had been involved in the burning of the house and accused the man of burning his own house down.