Adam Delimkhanov. The Russian president awards the highest decoration to a radical parliamentarian wanted by Interpol for the death of a dissident in Dubai
President Putin has just awarded one of the highest decorations in the country, that of ‘Hero of the Russian Federation’, to one of the most controversial characters in the invasion of Ukraine: the parliamentarian and military leader in Mariupol Adam Delimkhanov, a Chechen wanted by Interpol for a crime committed in Dubai and in whose proclamations he can threaten to cut off a rival’s head or exterminate his family. The decision to recognize this leader reveals the importance that Moscow attaches to Chechen volunteers in the war, shock troops with a bloody reputation and who, in the siege of Mariupol, are being accused of looting and persecuting Russian deserters who They try to flee from the front.
Adam Delimkhanov was born in Chechnya 52 years ago, though his long white beard makes him look older. He is the cousin and right-hand man of the president, Ramzan Kadyrov, one of Putin’s most loyal allies and the head of the so-called ‘Kadirovites’, the military unit that makes up his personal guard and has been sent to Mariupol to intervene in the struggle. The now decorated military man saw combat in the first days of the invasion and has remained ever since in the city, the main front of the war once the Russians found they could not take kyiv.
Delimkhanov has taken advantage of the war to launch a rather obscene personality cult campaign. The Chechen leader has posted images of himself participating in interrogations of allegedly wounded prisoners from the Azov Battalion, one of the units defending Mariupol and which has admitted neo-Nazis into its ranks, on social media. Delimkhanov has also been photographed shooting with a sniper rifle from the ruins of the city or running to the front lines alongside the ‘Kadirovites’. A few days ago he announced the taking of the coastal town in a video that appears surrounded by soldiers before a burning building, while everyone chants the slogan ‘Allah Akbar’.
THE KEY:
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Mission.
Chechen volunteers chase down Russian defectors trying to flee the battlefield -
Controversy.
He threatened to cut off the head of a human rights activist for asking to investigate attacks
One of Delimkhanov’s darkest episodes took place in 2009, when the also ‘Hero of the Russian Federation’ and Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated in Dubai in circumstances that have not yet been clarified. Yamadayev had been in the second Chechen war one of the great commanders of the Muslim troops who fought alongside Russia to put an end to the jihadists who supported the country’s independence fighters. This soldier managed to ambush the emir who was leading the Muslim radicals and managed to finish off their leader, the Saudi Abu al-Walid. Putin himself decorated him for that action.
war for power
From that moment on, a war for power began in the Chechen leadership in which Yamadayev even shot Kadirov and caused him minor injuries. Yamadayev fled to Dubai after losing that internal battle and there he was shot by unknown assailants. The country’s police directly accused Delimkhanov of participating in the crime and asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrant against the Chechen leader.
By then, this character was already a member of the Duma, the Russian Parliament. In one of his most controversial interventions, Delimkhanov threatened to cut off the head of a human rights activist who was calling for an investigation into alleged attacks in Chechnya. Similarly, three years ago he ordered a ‘blood revenge’ against an Ingush leader at odds with the Kadyrov government.
The role of the Chechens in the invasion of Ukraine is still quite controversial. According to various sources, one of their missions is to stop and even shoot Russian soldiers who disobey their commands and decide to abandon the front in the face of the carnage they are witnessing. In a recording released by the SBU – the Ukrainian secret services – you can hear how a soldier, in a call to a relative on a mobile phone, recounts how Kadirov’s troops are looting the city and taking “loaded vans of gold”.
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