The head of Chechnya released a video of his teenage son beating a remand prisoner. The Russian leadership has allowed Kadyrov arbitrary powers as a thank you for pacifying Chechnya.
Heikki HeiskanenRussia correspondent
MOSCOW In the video, a man dressed in an off-road outfit violently hits and kicks a man in black.
The video was published on his Telegram channel by the leader of Russia’s North Caucasian republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.
In the video, his 15-year-old son Adam Kadyrov abuses a 19-year-old Russian citizen in pretrial detention Nikita Zhuravelin in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
Russian authorities blame Žuravel’s burning of the Koran in Volgograd at the expense of the Ukrainian intelligence service. A video of the burning of the Koran was circulated on social media.
Ramzan Kadyrov directly states in Telegram that his son did indeed abuse Žuraveli.
– You hacked and you did the right thing, Ramzan Kadyrov announced on his Telegram account. Kadyrov said he was proud of his son and respected his decision.
The case shows what kind of state structure President of Russia Vladimir Putin has managed to build his country during his reign that lasted more than two decades.
The dominance of the Kadyrov clan was Putin’s solution to the long and bloody second Chechen war, which was fought between 1999 and 2009. The administration was put into the hands of former Chechen rebels and they pacified the troubled republic with a heavy-handed approach, without caring about human rights.
At the same time, Ramzan Kadyrov made the republic an independent kingdom within Russia. He rules his territory like a medieval county lord, but even the feudal princes respected the rules of the central government more than he did. Kadyrov has also extended his arbitrary grips far beyond Chechnya.
Kadyrov secured his position as the only guarantor of stability by removing his potential rivals from the game. His opponents have been routinely murdered, even in the center of the capital, Moscow.
Adam Kadyrov abused Nikita Žuravel quite openly in a remand prison, noticed by the authorities.
Putin’s administration has been happy to maintain the image of legality. Opposition politicians are thrown in jail, but it happens with formalities in trials.
Kadyrov challenges these scenes of legality completely openly. He seems to be communicating that Chechnya lives by its own rules and nobody can do anything about it.
Pride reminds me of the person who died in the plane crash in August Yevgeny Prigozhinthe leader of the Wagner mercenary company, which challenged the Russian power system in the June uprising.
However, Kadyrov has played the Russian power game more successfully than Prigozhin.
Kadyrov has sought to show his loyalty by conspicuously sending his troops to the Ukrainian front.
Kadyrovians, on the other hand, have been derided as TikTok warriors who like to post warlike videos of themselves on social media, but are not necessarily capable of performing on the battlefield to match their brutal image.
It would not be advantageous for Kadyrov to kill his loyal troops on the Ukrainian front, as they are the basis of his influence.
Ramzan Kadyrov considers himself irreplaceable. Most importantly, the Kremlin seems to believe it too.
Over the years, Kadyrov has threatened to leave the duties of the head of the republic and thus milked expressions of support from the Russian leadership.
Recently, there has been speculation about Kadyrov’s health both in Russia and abroad. He is said to have severe kidney problems.
Allegations about Kadyrov’s health have been spread primarily by his well-known opponents and Ukrainian parties, all of whom may have their own reasons for telling the story of Kadyrov’s deterioration.
Against these rumours, the act of violence advertised on the Telegram channel seems like a public show of force, as if Kadyrov wants to show that his power is still steadfast and that his offspring are also capable of brutal violence.
If Ramzan Kadyrov’s health is really failing now, The Kremlin may be facing a difficult transfer of power. Kadyrov’s sons are still too young to lead the republic.
The Russian rulers do not want to see any new power struggles and unrest in the North Caucasus, which has a reputation as a powder keg.
Ramzan Kadyrov apparently calculates that any instability in Chechnya would be poison for the Putin regime, especially when there is an all-out war against Ukraine.