Overall DNA-Data Harvesting for Chechens to Help Search for Children Kidnapped by ISIS

Head of the Chechen Republic Kadyrov visits a polling station during the presidential election in Tsentoroy © Said Tsarnayev / Reuters
Head of the Chechen Republic Kadyrov visits a polling station during the presidential election in Tsentoroy © Said Tsarnayev / Reuters
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Overall DNA-Data Harvesting for Chechens to Help Search for Children Kidnapped by ISIS

Head of the Chechen Republic Kadyrov visits a polling station during the presidential election in Tsentoroy © Said Tsarnayev / Reuters
Head of the Chechen Republic Kadyrov visits a polling station during the presidential election in Tsentoroy © Said Tsarnayev / Reuters

The head of the Chechen Republic has ordered an "overall DNA harvesting" to help identify and retrieve Russian children who had been taken to terrorist-control territories in the Middle East.

“We are now actively working to establish the fates of Russian citizens – women and children – who have ended up in Iraq and Syria, and help them to return. At present, in order secure the return to Russia of children who were born in Middle Eastern countries, I have ordered a collective gathering of DNA test material,” Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his latest post on popular Russian social network, Vkontakte.

“This would not only help to establish the children’s relatives, but also would help to give the kids Russian citizenship,” he added.

Russian authorities have recently pointed to the presence of dozens of women detained in Iraq's prisons of Iraq and the technical complications facing their return with their children. This prompted Kadyrov's call for DNA analysis, which would be an easy way to establish the kinship of the children of the militants and facilitate their retrieval.

During the past year, Kadyrov has made intensive efforts to repatriate the families of the militants who joined ISIS taking with them their wives and children to the area. Several private flights were organized from Iraq with more than 150 women and children on board, as well as two similar flights from Syria.

Kadyrov also says that his representative in the Middle East and North Africa Ziyad Sabsabi has agreed that all cases of Russian citizens in Iraq will be considered by one judge. "This will greatly facilitate and shorten the time for consideration of cases on the return of Russian children to their homes," Kadyrov added.

"On the instructions of the Russian leadership, we will be engaged in the return of our young citizens, doing our best. This is our sacred duty to protect the life and freedom of Russian citizens!"

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, from 50 to 70 Russians accused of participation in the ISIS terrorist organization and more than 100 of their children are in the jails of Iraq. The Chechen authorities have repeatedly stated that they will seek the return of these children to Russia. At the end of April, Iraq sentenced 19 Russians to life imprisonment for ties with ISIS.



Kremlin Says Europe Will Feel the Recoil from Its 'Illegal' Sanctions on Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the heads of international news agencies at the newly renovated St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the heads of international news agencies at the newly renovated St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Kremlin Says Europe Will Feel the Recoil from Its 'Illegal' Sanctions on Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the heads of international news agencies at the newly renovated St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the heads of international news agencies at the newly renovated St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The Kremlin said in remarks published on Sunday that the tougher the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe, the more painful the recoil would be for Europe's own economies as Russia had grown resistant to such "illegal" sanctions.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a wave of Western sanctions on Russia and it is by far the most sanctioned major economy in the world.

The West said that it hoped its sanctions would force President Vladimir Putin to seek peace in Ukraine, and though the economy contracted in 2022, it grew in 2023 and 2024 at faster rates than the European Union.

The European Commission on June 10 proposed a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, though the United States has so far refused to toughen its own sanctions.

Asked about remarks by Western European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron that toughening sanctions would force Russia to negotiate an end to the war, the Kremlin said only logic and arguments could force Russia to negotiate.

"The more serious the package of sanctions, which, I repeat, we consider illegal, the more serious will be the recoil from a gun to the shoulder. This is a double-edged sword," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.

Peskov told state television's top Kremlin correspondent, Pavel Zarubin, that he did not doubt the EU would impose further sanctions but that Russia had built up "resistance" to such sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any additional EU sanctions on Russia would simply hurt Europe more - and pointed out that Russia's economy grew at 4.3% in 2024 compared to euro zone growth of 0.9%.