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Chechen Govt Cannot Demand Relocation Of NGOs To Chechnya - Pamfilova

MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The Chechen authorities have no right to demand that the international humanitarian aid organizations working in the republic relocate their offices and warehouses to Chechnya, head of the presidential council for the development of civil society institutions and human rights Ella Pamfilova told Interfax on Wednesday.

"International humanitarian aid organizations must choose where to work by themselves. It is their right," she said.

"Of course, they could be asked to move to Chechnya and offered proper conditions for their work. But no administrative diktat is possible. Everything must comply with the law," she said.

The Chechen authorities urged international humanitarian aid organizations working in Chechnya to relocate their offices and warehouse to Chechnya.

"We are not dictating our terms. Nothing of the kind. However, if humanitarian aid organizations want to help Chechnya and the Chechen people to overcome the current serious economic problems quickly, we must work hand in hand," Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax.

"I have instructed Deputy Prime Minister Lema Magomadov, who is responsible for social welfare, to inform international humanitarian aid organizations that they should move their offices and warehouses to Grozny," Kadyrov said.