President Vladimir Putin of Russia is flexing his military and diplomatic muscle in a tense standoff with the West over Ukraine, projecting power and occasional menace in his pursuit of global influence. But the recent abduction of a 52-year-old diabetic woman in central Russia has made clear that Putin still has vexing challenges in his own backyard that require a skillful political juggling act.
The woman, Zarema Musayeva, was dragged from her apartment building in her slippers and pushed into a black SUV after men who identified themselves as police officers forced their way into her apartment and punched her husband, Sayda Yangulbayev, a 63-year-old retired federal judge from Chechnya, and their lawyer.
The men had said they were supposed to take the couple to Chechnya, more than 1,100 miles away, to be questioned as witnesses in a fraud case, but it soon became clear that Musayeva’s abduction was part of a hunt for two of their sons, prominent government critics who had infuriated Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
