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

Part three, and the longest video in the Russia cluster: a seven-hour drive from Elista through Dagestan into Grozny, a city the UN once called the most destroyed in the world.

The first half belongs to Vasili, 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
• Country: Russia
• People: Vasili, Leon
• Tips: Judge a place for yourself, A government and its people are not the same thing