Residents of Chechnya criticize Kadyrov's awarding teen title of Honoured Artist

By Ramzan Kadyrov's decree, Yusup Aliev, a 15-year-old semi-finalist of the musical contest "You are super!" was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Chechnya. This decision devalues the title, local cultural workers and social network users believe.

The head of Chechnya personally received Yusup Aliev and told him that he had decreed to award him the title of Honoured Artist of Chechnya. Besides, the teenager was presented with a quad bike and clothes from the "Firdaus" Fashion House, headed by Ramzan Kadyrov's daughter.

Local workers of the culture sphere have critically perceived Kadyrov's decision to award the title to the teenager. "The boy is certainly talented, with a very hard fate; he needs support and further progress with his talent, but conferring such a high title on him is still too much, I think. Artists go to the titles of 'honoured' and 'people's' for years and for decades," Ellina, an employee of one of Grozny's cultural centres, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Some social network users have also reacted negatively to the awarding Yusup Aliev the title. "This title is earned for many years, after becoming a professional and an artist loved and popular among the public. But it's wrong, to my mind, to award the title for just two, even most unique performances of a song on the stage or in a TV contest," wrote Ruslan Karaev, a Facebook user.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 8, 2019 at 09:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.