Chechen taxi drivers complain about enforcement to work with local companies

In Chechnya, law enforcers and officials are threatening of large fines for working with the Yandex.Taxi and Maxim and are forcing them to cooperate with local carriers, drivers have complained. Local taxi services are more expensive, and the quality of their work is much lower, passengers have complained in their turn.

The drivers who cooperate with the Yandex.Taxi and Maxim taxi services have told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that they had faced problems with Chechen officials.

In particular, Abdulla, a resident of Achkhoi-Martan, has not been able to work as a taxi driver for a week now. According to his story, there were a lot of requests for taxis from these services, and there was "enough work" for drivers. "But our bosses didn't like the situation ... Calls for patriotism have led to nothing; so repressive measures have followed ... They said that we'll have to pay an unbearable fine," said the driver.

"Apparently, the fact is that a travel by the Yandex.Taxi and Maxim cost customers much cheaper than by local 'official' companies, which belong to or are under control of members of the Kadyrov family and his entourage," the reader of the "Caucasian Knot" with the nickname vida has written.

Several female residents of Chechnya have asked Ramzan Kadyrov to allow Maxim and Yandex.Taxi to operate in the republic. According to their story, for many the work for these companies was an escape from family poverty.

The fact that residents of the republic prefer to use services of these companies, while ignoring local taxi operators, could not leave owners of republic's enterprises indifferent, Ali Magamadov, a political analyst, believes. "Instead of raising the level of services, they've decided to remove the annoying factors from the region, and punish those who dared expressing disobedience," he said.