[2][3] The reigning government has been labeled by many observers and organizations,[4][5][6][7] including Freedom House's yearly investigations[8] and Memorial,[5] as "totalitarian", although Kadyrov has furiously denied these allegations and characterized them as slander.
[11] Following a raid on Kadyrov's home village of Tsentoroi on 30 August, this was the second major attack since a controversial change of leadership and consequent split amongst rebels in the North Caucasus.
[citation needed] According to the Russian investigation, the attack began around 08:45 local time (04:45 UTC) on 19 October, when three men carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and wearing combat and sand camouflage gear arrived in a Lada taxi at the grounds of the fenced off parliamentary complex.
When the taxi approached the front gate, the three jumped out and headed towards the entrance, opening fire at the two police officers manning the checkpoint as they ran.
[15] Only a few hours later, when all three buildings of the Chechen parliament were declared "cleared" by the special forces and explosives specialists, the meeting of deputies planned for that morning was held.
It was attended by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, dressed in a parade uniform for the occasion, and by Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev.
[14] According to visiting politicians from Sverdlovsk, who had actually witnessed the attack but escaped it unhurt, Kadyrov first apologised to them for what happened, and then Nurgaliyev praised the Chechen police for conducting "the special operation to neutralize terrorists" in just 15–20 minutes (eyewitnesses from his delegation and members of the investigation, however, told Kommersant that shooting continued for at least two hours).
[14] One of the attackers, all of whose bodies were badly mutilated, was identified as Muslim Chichkanov, a 22-year-old from the Chechen village of Sernovodsk, who had been an active member of "an illegal armed group" since the end of 2009.
It is of utmost importance for the Russian authorities to show their full commitment to enhancing the rule of law and to ensure that it is properly and equally applied.
[26] Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Centre, called the attack "a slap in the face for Ramzan Kadyrov" and said it was symbolic because it occurred during the Interior Minister's visit, amid high security.
[27] Yevgeny Volk, an analyst at the Yeltsin Foundation, read the attack as a proof that "the bet on Kadyrov, who promised to place everything under control, proved wrong" and added that "the Kremlin has run out of ideas for a solution to this problem".
Secondly, Kadyrov, in the presence of the deputies of the legislative body and the Minister of Interior Affairs of Russia, has openly called for [the] murdering of not only Zakaev, Gakaev and [the] other gunmen's leaders but also members of their families and relatives.
That is, he meant the principle of collective responsibility, a criminal one in its essence, and in fact he called for reprisal against quite innocent people...neither the Minister of Interior Affairs of Russia nor the deputies who are under his control expressed any reaction to all these.