Astrakhan regional authorities responded to Babushkin's fake appeal to Kadyrov.

A video message from Governor Igor Babushkin to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov calling for an end to the recruitment of Astrakhan region residents for military operations has been labeled a fake created using neural networks.

"A fake message created using a neural network has appeared online, featuring an appeal from Astrakhan region Governor Igor Babushkin to Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov. "The video was created by provocateurs with the aim of causing unfounded panic and ethnic strife among residents of the regions mentioned in the video," the press service of the Astrakhan Region Governor stated in a statement.

In a statement labeled fake, the regional governor allegedly expressed dissatisfaction with the Chechen authorities' recruitment of residents of the Astrakhan Region to participate in a special operation.

Notably, the popular public group "ChP Chechnya," which published a fragment of the fake statement, created a montage using fragments of a second video from Babushkin, in which the statement to Ramzan Kadyrov is called fake, and the official himself allegedly apologizes "if anyone in Grozny thought it was true."

Note that none of these videos were published on the Telegram channels of Igor Babushkin, Ramzan Kadyrov, or the press service of the Astrakhan Region Governor.

As a reminder, the practice of public apologies, at the instigation of Ramzan Kadyrov, has spread beyond Chechnya and to other regions of Russia. You can read more about this practice in the "Caucasian Knot" reference document "The Fashion for Apologies: From Chechnya to the Outskirts".

In Chechnya itself, residents regularly publicly apologize for various offenses and criticism of the authorities. The International Crisis Group's report "Chechnya: The Inner Abroad," published in June 2015 on the "Caucasian Knot," noted that such apologies are the result of pressure and threats. Caucasian Knot also maintains a "Chronicle" public apologies in the Caucasus," and posts news about the latest apologies on the thematic page "Whom the Caucasus makes apologize".