Brief description
Ibragim Yangulbayev is a Chechen dissident who runs the 1Adat Telegram channel and heads the associated movement.
Arrest and harassment
In May 2017, Yangulbayev was detained in Groznyy; he subsequently alleged that he was tortured in an effort to obtain information on the “Wolves Creed” VK group that was criticising the Chechen authorities. He was detained for a year and a half and left Russia upon his release (Kavkaz Realii, 2022).
Involvement with 1ADAT
Yangulbayev revealed his involvement in 1ADAT in April 2022, having previously been one of its anonymous founders and Telegram channel administrators. His disclosure came a couple of months after the Kadyrov regime began harassing the Yangulbayev family, including his mother, Zarema Musayeva (Kavkaz Realii, 2022).
Controversies
In late 2022-early 2023, Abdurakhmanov and 1ADAT became embroiled in a controversy that significantly damaged their credibility. In December 2022, the 1ADAT Telegram channel reported that Abdurakhmanov has been shot dead in Sweden and his brother taken into protective custody. Anzor Maskhadov, another prominent Chechen dissident, confirmed his death, and several videos purporetedly corroborating the attack were posted online (OC Media, 2022).
However, in February 2023, Abdurakhmanov resurfaced and announced he was alive and would resume opposition activities. The following April, he admitted that he had faked his own death — according to his own account, in order to evade a real assassination attempt ordered by the Chechen authorities. Abdurakhmanov claimed that a contact had offered $50,000 to 1ADAT to confirm the death. 1ADAT’s leader, Ibragim Yangulbayev, simultaneously accused Abdurakhmanov of taking money from the Kadyrov regime, via an intermediary in Austria, to fake his death and admitted that he had accepted $50,000 to publish the false information. According to Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina, Abdurakhmanov received $1,100,000 for the simulation, while another Chechen blogger living in Turkey, Khasan Khalitov, received $600,000 from the same source to also fake his own death (Novaya Gazeta, 2023; OC Media, 2023).
Abdurakhmanov, meanwhile, insisted that there was no evidence that the intermediary was connected with Kadyrov. Abdurakhmanov and Yangulbayev became embroiled in a public dispute over the conflicting claims, which also involved inter alia Milashina and human rights association Vayfond, which reported on the deaths (Caucasian Knot, 2023).
Known associates
Person 1 | Person 2 | Details | Type of relationship | ⛲ Media sources | 📜 Academic sources | Core relationship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Zarema Musayeva is the mother of Ibragim Yangulbayev. | Familial relationship | |||||
Ibragim Yangulbayev and Abubakar Yangulbayev are brothers. | Familial relationship | |||||
Saidi Yangulbayev is the father of Ibragim Yangulbayev | Familial relationship |
