---
type: Video
title: "I Went to the Most Feared Place in Russia - Chechnya 🇷🇺"
description: The drive from Kalmykia to Grozny and a day in the Chechen capital — a city rebuilt from rubble, alcohol-free, silent markets, and the place Russians themselves refuse to visit.
tags: [russia, chechnya, grozny, kalmykia, dagestan, caucasus, islam, safety, papakha]
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcDuqVPzdfY
video_id: mcDuqVPzdfY
upload_date: 2025-10-14
duration: 3409
---

# I Went to the Most Feared Place in Russia - Chechnya 🇷🇺

Part three, and the longest video in the [Russia](/countries/russia.md) cluster:
a seven-hour drive from [Elista](/places/elista.md) through Dagestan into
[Grozny](/places/grozny.md), a city the UN once called the most destroyed in the
world.

The first half belongs to [Vasili](/people/vasili.md), the Kalmyk driver, who
detours to find camels, tows a stranded stranger 200 kilometres, and refuses a
tip at the end. The second half is Chechnya itself — and the finding is that the
people who warned Harry off it hardest were Russians, including the FSB officer
who interviewed him at the airport.

What he reports is a spotless, extremely peaceful, heavily policed city with no
drinking, no smoking, silent markets and, in his own words, not a great deal to
do.

## Key moments

- [00:00] The framing: for decades Chechnya was a byword for terrorism, and the
  reputation still keeps almost every tourist away.
- [00:32] Hungover, because the Kalmyks out-drink the Russians.
- [02:24] A stranger's motorbike, and a long detour across open country to see
  camels, arranged by Vasili out of a toilet stop.
- [05:56] The pink lake, which is not pink. Harry's verdict on pink lakes
  everywhere: the biggest scam of all time, pink for about two days a year and
  mostly in the edit.
- [09:40] Kalmykia as possibly the poorest region in Russia — hard to farm, low
  wages, no visible destitution and very little opportunity.
- [10:42] A recruitment billboard, and the point he makes carefully: some people
  sign up to support their families and buy their parents a house. In the East
  you support your parents; in the West your parents support you.
- [11:14] A roadside temple and prayer wheels, touched for luck.
- [13:25] Russian distance perception — an eight-hour drive is nothing, in the
  largest country in the world.
- [14:00] 18,000 rubles for the whole run, which he rates good value.
- [14:32] Vasili stops to tow a broken-down Chechen driver, unasked, 200 km to a
  town with a repair shop.
- [16:08] Into Chechnya. The landscape turns green and Harry says it feels like
  being back in Europe. Heavy army presence, and no passport check at all.
- [16:42] Every Russian he told looked worried; many said they'd never come.
- [17:16] Muslim-majority: no drinking, beards, covered legs, five prayers.
- [18:18] Goodbye to Vasili — two energy drinks, no water, no toilet stop in
  sixteen hours, and confusion at being offered a tip.
- [19:18] Grozny: once the most destroyed city in the world, now spotless, with
  mosques, towers and military everywhere.
- [19:52] Over 150 clans, known for loyalty and honour.
- [21:59] He shakes a woman's hand and immediately realises he shouldn't have.
- [23:43] Sanctions: fake KFC, McDonald's and Starbucks; cash only for
  foreigners; no SIM cards; even Yandex doesn't work here.
- [24:14] An autonomous republic under separate leadership, with what he believes
  is the highest degree of autonomy of any Russian republic — flagged as possibly
  wrong.
- [24:47] The Akhmad Kadyrov mosque, which reminds him of the Hagia Sophia, with
  Mecca-style sun shades made by a German company.
- [26:59] The papakha — sheep-wool headdress of the Caucasus, worn for pride and
  honour. If you have a head, you should wear a hat on it.
- [27:29] Mostly reserved now for weddings and MMA fights.
- [28:00] The local market, out of the centre.
- [28:32] Well-mannered, traditional, no smoking, no drinking, designated smoking
  areas.
- [29:03] Dagestanis have the highest life expectancy in Russia; Chechens are
  second.
- [29:36] Chechnya and Dagestan are routinely confused, including by Harry before
  he came, and the two consider themselves entirely distinct.
- [30:14] The quietest market he has ever been in — he compares it to a library.
- [32:03] Real wool against synthetic, and how to tell.
- [33:40] 2,500 rubles for the papakha, about $25.
- [34:45] What he takes from the culture: discipline, hard conditions, learning
  to fight young, strong family structures.
- [35:17] Probably the best time to live in Chechnya in a hundred years, and
  visibly better off than the surrounding republics.
- [36:23] The FSB officer at the airport asked why he was coming.
- [36:56] His verdict: extremely peaceful and extremely safe in the city, with
  the caveat that outside it he'd be more wary.
- [38:30] Told it would be the Dubai of Russia — he half agrees on the skyline,
  and says he'd rather walk here.
- [39:03] Roughly 96% Chechen, against a quarter ethnic Russians in Kalmykia.
- [39:33] The mall: Samsung, imitation Starbucks, a Putin Team Russia clothing
  line, and rugs printed with the republic's leader.
- [41:39] No crossings and no green man; you just go.
- [42:10] Nobody speaks English, so the restaurant sends over whichever server
  has a few words.
- [43:22] Meat and broth with pastry to dip. The meat is nine out of ten; the
  sides are not.
- [45:40] Thin toasted bread with a mild soft cheese, and a lot of oil.
- [46:11] Sweet pumpkin flatbread, the server's own favourite.
- [47:22] Public life is roughly half women — which he flags against the
  assumption people carry from Pakistan or Afghanistan.
- [48:26] His summary of the people: proud, wary of foreigners, and more
  inquisitive about him than anywhere else in Russia.
- [49:31] The pitch to Russians watching as much as to foreigners: it isn't like
  that any more.
- [51:18] A haircut in a shop with a signed Maradona shirt.
- [52:27] Beards get the real attention. Locally the moustache comes off and the
  beard stays.
- [54:37] 2,000 rubles, about $20.
- [55:12] His honest closing note: it's very safe, and a little boring — the
  thing to do is get outside the city.
- [55:45] And the lesson: there's a difference between the people and the
  government, not all the headlines are true, and sometimes you have to come and
  find out.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Grozny](/places/grozny.md)
- Country: [Russia](/countries/russia.md)
- People: [Vasili](/people/vasili.md), [Leon](/people/leon.md)
- Tips: [Judge a place for yourself](/tips/judge-a-place-for-yourself.md),
  [A government and its people are not the same thing](/tips/separate-a-government-from-its-people.md)