Chechen ruler Ramzam Kadyrov’s only loyalty in the Ukraine war is to Vladimir Putin. But that’s exactly what could bring him down.
Grozny – Brutal, merciless, but above all: loyal. Hardly anyone backs Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war as much as Ramzan Kadyrov, the President of the Russian republic of Chechnya. He is considered one of closest confidants of the Kremlin boss and does not shy away from publicly staging himself and his men as defenders of Russia. But his attachment to Putin could be his undoing.
Putin’s “bloodhound”: Kadyrov often expresses criticism in the Ukraine war – even against his own people
Chancellor Olaf Scholz must be “sniffed”, Volodymyr Zelenskyj should shoot himself and Russia must get back “its territory” in the former GDR: The statements, which come from an appearance by Kadyrov on Russian state television in early 2023, show that the Chechen ruler is a friend of drastic words. And Vladimir Putin’s “bloodhound”, as he is often called because of his closeness to the head of the Kremlin, not only directs this against the West, but also repeatedly against his own people.
As the New York Times reported, the Chechen ruler criticized the Russian Ministry of Defense in autumn 2022. In a voice message on Telegram, referring to the Ukraine war, he is said to have said that “they people [russischen Soldaten, Anm. d. Red.] not prepared for it”. Kadyrov described the former Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation, General Vladimir Boldyrev, in an interview with the Chechen news agency Grozny Inform as “Colonel General Blah Blah Blah”.
Ukraine war: Kadyrov blames backlash on Russian officials – but never on Putin
At the same time, Kadyrov shows himself to be the greatest advocate of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and spoke of a “knife in the back” in view of the uprising of the notorious Wagner group Mirror reported. Criticism of Russian officials doesn’t seem to diminish his popularity with the Kremlin boss: “He knows how to secure Putin’s support by criticizing everyone except Putin himself,” said political scientist Miriam Hess in an interview with t-online.
“So his narrative is that the Defense Department senior staff can’t live up to Putin’s demands and it’s their fault if they do.” […] There have been setbacks in the Russian war against Ukraine,” said the expert. According to a report by the daily News Nor does he shy away from bypassing the regular chain of command and addressing his requests directly to the Russian President, as in the case of a desired transfer of his troops to Bakhmut.
Putin’s closest confidante: Kadyrov has already been promoted twice during the course of the Ukraine war
Kadyrov’s tactic seems to be working, at least for now, as the political scientist said: Since the invasion, the Russian president has already promoted his “bloodhound” twice. “If he remains loyal to Putin – and only Putin, not the Kremlin, because he gambled away this card through his strong criticism – it can be expected that he will be rewarded again and again.” According to Hess, all of this contributes to a greater goal of the Chechen ruler: to sharpen his profile and, as a Muslim politician, to build a bridge to regimes such as that in Saudi Arabia.
Expert: Kadyrov is only loyal to Putin in the Ukraine war – and that makes him “vulnerable”
But Kadyrov made many enemies with his statements during the Ukraine war. According to the expert, if the fate of Russia is no longer in the hands of Vladimir Putin, the situation for him could change drastically: “If Putin falls, Kadyrov will have nothing to smile about. The fact that Putin remains in power ensures his political survival,” said the expert. In Chechnya, too, there is no support for him. This makes Kadyrov a president “by the grace of Moscow” and therefore “vulnerable”.
“Instagram warriors”: How the Chechen ruler uses the Ukraine war for his own image
But as long as Putin is in power, Kadyrov knows how to use Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine for his own image – at least that’s what he thinks. At the beginning of the invasion, the Chechen ruler presented himself as a fighter at the front in Ukraine. A picture from the spring of 2022 is said to show him – armed with a machine gun – praying at a gas station in embattled Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
A little later it turns out that it is Photo probably not in front of a Ukrainian gas station has been recorded. Kadyrov did not realize that the word “Pulsar” can be read in the background. A brand of the Russian oil giant “Rosneft”, which had already sold all of its 141 gas stations since 2018, like focus.de reported. With their increased presence on social media, Kadyrov and his squad are now often referred to as “Instagram warriors.”
Ukraine War: Kadyrov’s brutal troops are said to have killed wounded Russian soldiers
According to the expert Hess, it is not entirely wrong that Kadyrov and his men are involved in the war in Ukraine – “but not in the way Kadyrov portrays it on social media”. According to this, the Chechen ruler and his men are not on the front line, like many other Chechens who go to war against Ukraine as “cannon fodder”. Instead, the Kadyrovtsy – i.e. Kadyrov’s “men” – are mainly there to monitor the Russian soldiers.
“If Russian soldiers have fled from the front, then the Kadyrovtsy are there, for example, to catch and punish them again,” says the expert. In the case of wounded combatants, they should monitor the recovery process. In this role, according to Ukrainian information, Kadyrov’s unscrupulousness is evident. Because instead of observing the healing of the wounded, the Kadyrovzy are said to have simply killed some of their own people – because they were “a log and a millstone,” according to Hess. (mg)
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