The commission's decision sparked outrage in Chechnya. ""Whether in jail or freed, Budanov will remain a person who has committed a grave crime, which took the life of an innocent girl,"" Taus Dzhabrailov, the head of Chechnya's parliament, told Interfax. Ramzan Kadyrov said: ""The Ulyanovsk commission's decision is like spitting on the soul of the long-suffering Chechen people."" Kadyrov also made statements that "If any of Elza's friends should meet I don't want to predict how they will act. The Chechen people do not consider him to be a human being, and as a war criminal, he does not deserve to be. One might be able to forgive his crime to some extent if he had killed a man. But to sexually assault a girl cannot be forgiven. He is beneath contempt. He has brought shame on the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."