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How Putin created a monster in Chechnya
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Feb 07, 2016 04:05pm |
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| Category | Perspective |
| Author | Anna Nemtsova |
| News Date | Wednesday, February 3, 2016 10:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Ramzan Kadyrov may well be Vladimir Putin’s most ghoulish creation—a political Golem who remains slavishly loyal to the Russian leader but who also serves as a constant and nagging reminder of how ugly Putin-style autocracy can get when it really goes over the edge. Like the character Smerdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov, Kadryov claims he is only fulfilling the wishes of his master, Putin, with his brutal tactics and threats to political opponents. The Chechen leader considers himself “Putin’s warrior,” and his never-fading mantra is one he repeated to me in an interview at one of his palaces in the Chechen republic: “As long as Putin backs me up, I can do everything, Allahu Akbar!”
But lately Kadyrov’s outrageous tactics—and his tendency to advertise himself as Putin’s attack dog, even outside Chechnya—seem to be embarrassing Russia’s dictatorial leader. Kadyrov’s latest hate campaign comes at a time when Putin is gingerly trying to win his way back into the international community’s good graces after being sanctioned for his nation’s seizure of Crimea and infiltration of Ukraine; when the Russian president has just been publicly blamed by a British inquiry for the assassination of former KGB agent Andrei Litvinenko; and Putin faces a threat of waning popularity at home in the face of Russia’s economic troubles.
Kadyrov’s latest stunt came on Sunday, when he published an Instagram video showing a Putin rival, Russian opposition politician Mikhail Kasyanov, in the optical sight of a rifle. Coming after the murder of popular liberal politician Boris Nemstov last year—among the five Chechens suspected in the killing is an associate of Kadyrov’s —it was yet another indication that Putin may have created a monster he can barely control any longer and is not eager to advertise (the Kremlin said nothing about Kadyrov’s post). |
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