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The fight against drink-driving continues in Chechnya

By Ruslan Isayev

CHECHNYA - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered the closure of all cafes and restaurants after 8 o’clock in the evening.

Announcing his decision at a meeting with prime minister Odes Baysultanov and first deputy prime minister Adam Demilkhanov, Kadyrov argued that evenings are the time when many drivers drink themselves into a critical state at such places and then get behind the steering wheel, thus posing a danger to those around them. In addition, Kadyrov said that many of these cafes often encourage debauchery.

Kadyrov asked that particular attention be paid to the roadside cafes which are located in mobile vans and operate outside the statutory norms. He ordered all of the new measures to be put into practice as soon as possible, noting that one or two of the better cafes and restaurants must still remain open until late.

All of these innovations have now been in place for more than a month. The republic’s authorities are taking measures aimed at detecting drunk drivers. Almost every evening police officers stand at posts along the principal highways checking drivers for their alcohol intake.

Kadyrov has even compared drunk drivers to “Wahhabites”. "What difference does it make at whose hands people are killed in the republic? The statistics tell us that more people actually die in road accidents than as a result of armed clashes," the young president argued in support of his decision. He also proposed that the owners of the café or restaurant where an arrested driver had been drinking should be punished with heavy fines.

The pretext for such harsh measures was an incident which took place in the town of Argun, where Kadyrov was travelling along a road with his entourage. A passenger car shot out of a side-lane across the path of the presidential convoy. It was fortunate that no accident occurred. The driver who had failed to give way to the motorcade was immediately detained, and found to be very drunk.

(D/T)

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