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Chechnya’s public broadcaster, Grozny TV, has aired reports presenting two women as ‘witches’. In one report, one of the women was accused of giving a person a stroke through ‘witchcraft’.

One of the excerpts shows objects the broadcasters claimed were being used in magical rituals, one of which is a photograph of a person in military uniform with magical symbols drawn on the image.

‘In the photograph is an object linked to witchcraft, found on a person against whom, according to available evidence, witchcraft was performed. This is already the second such object found recently. At present, this person is bedridden after suffering a stroke’, the caption to the video says.

In another excerpt, a woman is shown speaking to the camera and denying that she engages in witchcraft. In the recording, she says that she is a teacher and speaks three languages — Russian, Chechen, and English.

In another video, another woman makes hand gestures over another woman in what appears to be a magical ritual. After several seconds, she says that the ritual was not working.

‘The witch malfunctioned when Adam Elzhurkaev, a healer-theologian, was nearby. Reminder: an elderly woman who was providing occult services was detained’, the caption to the video says.

All the videos were filmed in the assembly hall of an unnamed state institution, with Russian and Chechen flags visible in the background.

The reports did not say that criminal cases had been opened against the women or that any official charges had been brought against them.

Similar reports regularly appear on Chechen state television. They feature residents of the republic publicly accused of practicing witchcraft, fortune-telling or activities that authorities and religious figures describe as contradicting Islam. As a rule, those featured in such reports make public apologies or admit their alleged wrongdoing on camera.

The campaign against alleged witches in Chechnya has continued since the late 2010s. The republic’s authorities and affiliated religious figures have repeatedly called for a fight against people providing occult services. Russian law does not provide criminal liability for ‘witchcraft’ as such.

Elzhurkaev often features in these TV reports or segments, where he holds detainees to public accountability.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized this practice, saying that public confessions broadcast on state television may violate the right to privacy and human dignity and may be obtained under pressure.

In 2021, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom drew attention to the practice of public apologies in Chechnya, recommending sanctions against the republic’s Minister of Press and Information, Akhmed Dudaev, who previously headed the Grozny State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.

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Mariam Nikuradze
OC Media Co-founder