Ramzan Kadyrov

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I just thought that I would chuck this bit of red meat into the forum. To be honest, given the political discussions on this forum, I’m surprised no one has brought this up before. I haven’t learnt Russian to any level (el que mucho abarca, poco aprieta,) so I will try to keep my personal observations circumspect.

But would anyone be able to give me any insight into what is, in my opinion, one of the more interesting political figures on the international stage right now?

To be honest, the guy sort of reminds me as being a Russian version of Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen from Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2012 movie “The Dictator.”

He’s getting a bad rap in the Western press at the moment, not the least over accusations that he is ‘massacring’ gays in Chechnya. I have no idea whether these are true or not.

According to this article from the British newspaper The Independen,t a spokesman for Kadyrov, Alvi Karimov, speaking to Interfax News in response to the allegations, claimed that: “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic…If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.” Reassuring…

Probably much like many other westerners, I remember first reading about him after that whole Boris Nemtsov affair back in 2015. I then checked out his Instagram page, and have done so a few times since. It seems like an eclectic mixture of ordinary photos of Kadyrov doing regular politician stuff, clips of MMA/military manoeuvres, videos of him working out and cute animal memes.
Again, any insights?

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“He’s getting a bad rap in the Western press at the moment, not the least over accusations that he is ‘massacring’ gays in Chechnya. I have no idea whether these are true or not.”

From what I understand, Novaya Gazeta, the magazine who investigated those concentration camps for gays, is definitely anti-putin, but they have a stellar reputation in terms of backing their statements. They don’t just trash the government with no reason. People didn’t seem to question if this was true or not (except politicians, obviously).

The problem with Chechnya is that it’s basically it’s own country. It’s quite funny how people seem to think that Vladimir Vladimirovitch controls the entire planet (US elections, French elections, etc.) when he has literally 0 control on parts of his own country. Kadyrov was put there and given Carte Blanche by Putin as long as he wouldn’t have to hear about Chechnyan separatism again (because Tatarstan and other regions would probably follow) and Kadyrov literally has his own small army now so it’s pretty hard to reprimand him. Kadyrov is the King of Chechnya. Apparently Chechnya produces oil of extremely high quality…

I don’t understand the outrage though. I think it’s been established that being gay in any non-western country must be a very challenging experience. Being gay in a majority muslim region of Russia must be way, way worse. I thus think that what Novaya Gazeta says is most likely true but we should stop acting like we’re surprised that Chechnyans dislike gays.

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