The Kremlin-backed head of Russia's Muslim Chechnya region has praised assailants who targeted women with paintball pellets for going bareheaded, prompting outrage Thursday from rights activists.
Eyewitnesses have said men in camouflage, often worn by police and security forces in the volatile region, fired paintball guns from cars about a dozen times last month at women who were not wearing headscarves.
"I don't know (who they are), but when I find them I shall announce my gratitude," Ramzan Kadyrov said in a weekend interview on state-run regional television channel Grozny, according to a Reuters translation of the remarks in his native Chechen. [Reuters] Read more
