Chechen leader says his music ban was just a 'suggestion' after backlash

Ramzan Kadyrov described journalists’ reports as ‘insanity’ (Picture: AFP)

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that his recent ‘ban’ on all songs with a tempo between 80 and 116 beats per minute was just a recommendation.

It was reported last week that a new law was introduced by Chechnya’s culture minister, Musa Dadaev, allegedly in a bid to promotes more traditional music and dancing.

However, the Chechen leader has now said the ban was just a suggestion.

‘Of course, I knew that journalists from opposition media are often not on friendly terms, but I didn’t think the insanity would become so much stronger every day’,Kadyrov said on Telegram.

‘And here we read: “The Russian anthem was banned in Chechnya”’, he continued.

‘Pay attention to the words “national” and “Chechen” and notice the absence of the word “ban” .

Under the ‘suggested’ rules, the Russian national anthem would have been banned (Picture: Getty/AFP)

‘All these are recommendations for performers of Chechen melodies (not anthems, not military marches, not ballads, not chansons, not songs of other nationalities, etc.), which is designed to preserve musical expressiveness, originality, and peculiarity.’

In his original statement, the minister had said that he wanted to ‘bring to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people.’

‘‘This includes the entire spectrum of moral and ethical standards of life for Chechens,’ he continued.

‘Borrowing musical culture from other peoples is inadmissible.’

Chechyna is officially part of Russia, and although used to be independent, it became one of the Russian Federation’s republics in 2009.

The Russian national anthem had fallen below the required BPM that the Chechen minister suggested, at just 76 BPM.

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