On May 13, Mansur Movlaev, a native of Chechnya and activist with the opposition movement 1ADAT (designated extremist and banned in Russia), was detained in Almaty after escaping from the Shali District Police Department. At the request of Chechen police, he was placed on an international wanted list as a suspect in attempted extortion. A court in Kazakhstan ordered his arrest for 40 days, though his defense insisted on the arrest, fearing Kadyrov's men would kidnap him if released.
Novy Dosh has previously written about Mansur Movlaev. He was born in 1995 in the Chechen village of Starye Atagi, graduated from the Grozny Oil University, worked as an engineer at Chechenenergo, was an athlete, and was a Chechen Republic champion in taekwondo, winning medals in national and international tournaments. In 2020, he was sentenced to three years in prison on drug trafficking charges. According to 1ADAT, the case was fabricated; the true reason for Movlaev's persecution was his "political and religious convictions" and "criticism of the Chechen government."
Movlaev was released on parole in 2022, but was soon abducted by officers from the Shali District Department of Internal Affairs and placed in a secret prison. He managed to pick his cell lock and escape, then left the country illegally, without documents. After his escape, he was placed on the federal and then international wanted list.
From Russia, Movlaev traveled via Orenburg to Kazakhstan, from there he moved to Kyrgyzstan, and planned to fly to Turkey, then move to Europe to seek asylum. In August 2023, he was detained in the Issyk-Kul region as part of "counterterrorism operations to counter sleeper cells of an international terrorist organization." According to Kyrgyz intelligence agencies, he is a "follower of radical ideology" and, "on the orders of emissaries of international terrorist organizations in Syria, was part of a sleeper cell of previously convicted followers of the terrorist underground in Kyrgyzstan" who were planning a series of armed robberies against wealthy Kyrgyz citizens "for the purpose of subsequently financing international terrorist organizations."
Movlaev asked for the maximum sentence, but not deportation to his homeland. "I'm ready to go to prison here for at least ten years to save my life," he stated in his final statement during his trial in Bishkek. Moreover, in pretrial detention, he assaulted a State National Security Committee employee hoping to receive a prison sentence and remain in a Kyrgyz prison. Nevertheless, the court, and then the appellate court, ordered his deportation from the country. However, Movlaev, whose sentence had expired, immediately after the trial got into his lawyer's car, got out at an intersection, and fled in an unknown direction.
A few days later, lawyer Bakyt Avtandil reported that Movlaev had left the country, meaning he had complied with the court's decision himself.
It has now emerged that he left Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. According to the Kazakh publication Kursiv, Movlaev was living in Almaty under an assumed name, working as a trainer and selling sports nutrition. He had not contacted his relatives in Chechnya out of concern for their safety.
Kazakh police detained Movlaev in Almaty on May 13 – the same day the Almaty police received a search warrant from the Chechen Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs. "A very strange coincidence. I think Kadyrov's men tracked Mansur down in Almaty," said Movlaev's lawyer, Rena Kerimova.
This time, the fugitive Chechen is wanted on extortion charges. He allegedly blackmailed men with intimate videos, promising to post them online if they didn't pay. Movlaev categorically denies any involvement in such activities.
Through his lawyers, he distributed an "appeal to the people of Kazakhstan" to the media. "In these difficult times for Chechens, you did not stand aside: by extending a helping hand, you saved my people from death in 1944. We remember this and are grateful to you. For us Chechens, Kazakhstan is a second home that will always welcome, feed, and protect. So don't deport me today, when your help could save my life," the appeal reads.
Movlaev is currently serving 40 days in pretrial detention; he himself requested his detention, fearing kidnapping. He also asks the Kazakh authorities not to extradite him to Russia, as he faces torture and death in his home country. Mansur Movlaev's lawyers have begun the process of granting him refugee status.
