MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said the recent incident, in which a man burned a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque in the Russian Volga area city of Volgograd at the behest of Ukrainian special services, was outrageous and infuriated Russia’s Muslim community.
"An outrageous incident organized by Ukrainian special services, in which the Quran was burned in Volgograd, infuriated the Muslim community. Around 60,000 people gathered in Grozny to express their indignation by this sacrilegious act and to express their firm stance," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
"By organizing this shameless provocation in Volgograd, Ukrainian special forces and their Western patrons have only invigorated our determination to crush [them]," he continued. "The West wanted to cause a quarrel among the peoples of Russia, but it did just the opposite. We now hate them even more, and will make Western mercenaries feel our anger."
"There should be no peace talks with those worshippers of the satan. All peace talks are ruled out until those rabble-rousers kneel down, repent and apologize to the entire Islamic world," Kadyrov added.
A court in Volgograd arrested local resident Nikita Zhuravel on Monday on suspicion of burning a copy of the Quran in front of the city’s cathedral mosque. According to investigators, the young man recorded the act on camera and posted a video of it on a website controlled by the Ukrainian army’s center for information and psychological operations.
According to a video of his interrogation, Zhuravel admitted his guilt, saying that he acted on instructions from Ukrainian special services in exchange for 10,000 rubles (around $125). He expressed his regret and brought apologies, saying that his only motive was financial gain. The investigation of this case was referred to the Russian Investigative Committee’s department in Chechnya.