BTS for me, but not for thee Kadyrov’s daughter owns a K-pop-themed cafe in central Grozny, despite Chechnya’s past repression of the genre

Tabarik Kadyrova, the daughter of Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov, has leveraged her nepo baby status to exploit a gap in Chechen’s restaurant market: she owns a Korean street food restaurant that caters to fans of K-pop groups, including the boy band BTS. This is despite Chechen authorities’ past condemnations of South Korean pop culture in general and BTS specifically, due to the group publicly advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Luckily for Tabarik, these rules don’t apply to Kadyrov’s children, according to experts who spoke to RFE/RL’s North Caucasus service, Kavkaz.Realii. Meduza shares an abridged translation of the outlet’s reporting on Kadyrova’s cafe.

The Korean restaurant Chiko opened at the Grozny Mall on Vladimir Putin Avenue in October 2023. The cafe, which serves halal food, plays K-pop music, screens K-dramas (South Korean TV series), and hosts giveaways of K-pop albums and merch, including from BTS.

The restaurant is formally linked to Kadyrova through a company called Berekhet, which holds the rights to operate Chiko franchises in Chechnya. The firm is a subsidiary of IRS Group, a company Kadyrova officially founded at age 18 (she’s now 20).

In 2020, Chechnya saw a 396 percent surge in interest in BTS, according to the service Yandex.Wordstat. The seven-member boy band, which Time Magazine named as among the world’s most influential people in 2019, has publicly advocated for tolerance and LGBTQ+ rights — a position sharply at odds with the violent systemic persecution LGBTQ+ people face in Chechnya.

Fans of BTS and South Korean pop culture in the North Caucasus often face criticism and harassment, as well. In 2019, for example, the BTS concert film Love Yourself in Seoul was canceled in Dagestan and Chechnya due to homophobic threats. One Chechen social media group referred to the film as “an insult to the Chechen people.”

Cultural expression in Chechnya is tightly regulated, not only by the authorities but also by various social organizations that exert pressure, for example, by disrupting concerts. In 2011, Chechen performers were banned from lip-syncing, and by 2019, artists were required to get approval for song lyrics and social media posts. Earlier this year, Chechen Culture Minister Musa Dadayev announced a ban on music with tempos outside of 80–116 beats per minute.

Human rights activist Svetlana Anokhina sees these regulations as symptomatic of a distrust of the region’s youth. “It reminds me of the Soviet era, where only Komsomol and Pioneer activities were considered legitimate. Everything else was viewed a foreign or dangerous,” she said. She pointed to the 2018 cancellation of the AniDag anime festival in Dagestan, as well as the 2023 case of a Grozny resident fleeing Chechnya, and eventually Russia, after authorities discovered anime artwork depicting two boys embracing on her 14-year-old daughter’s phone. “Apparently, some people in the Caucasus think that simply seeing feminine Asian boys can turn someone gay,” Anokhina said.

Despite the potential for controversy surrounding Chiko’s K-pop theme, Tabarik Kadyrova is unlikely to face backlash for the restaurant. “Kadyrov’s daughter lives by different rules than most Chechen women,” Anokhina told Kavkaz.Realii. “She attends concerts and is a public figure. Kadyrov has put his daughters in the spotlight — they hold official positions, win awards, and enjoy privileges. But Tabarik remains firmly under her father’s control; she wouldn’t do anything without his approval.”

North Caucasus analyst Harold Chambers echoed this sentiment: “Laws and traditions don’t apply to Kadyrov’s children or those of other officials. The fact that they’re potential future leaders makes them even more untouchable.”

Political scientist Ruslan Aysin added that “traditional values” are imposed only on the public, while Kadyrov and his family “make money on anything they can.” He concluded: “For the so-called elite, traditional values are meaningless, because they define them however they please. Kadyrov himself doesn’t strictly follow these values, though he publicly pretends to.”