Ramzan Kadyrov is well known as Vladimir Putin’s stooge in the troubled southern Russian republic of Chechnya. A 34-year-old cowboy-like politician, he has gained a frightening stranglehold over his territory. He became president (with Putin’s backing) when he was just 30, displacing the ineffectual Alu Akihinov. Today, his bearded countenance stares down from every conceivable spot in the capital, Grozny, reminding all of the truism of autocratic politics – ‘hold your friends close and your enemies closer’. He is everywhere and everything in Chechnya – man of the year, winner of the ‘Hero of Russia Star’. Schoolyard banners proclaim: ‘Ramzan is a role model for youth and a worthy son of his people.’
Kadyrov combines the mindset of an adolescent with the morals of a mafia hit man. Many of his opponents and critics have been killed in brutal circumstances. Kidnappings, beatings and disappearances are weekly staples of Chechen life. He is reputed to run his own private prison in his home village of Tsentoroi. According to the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya: ‘He is an extremely cruel man… several people told me that Ramzan Kadyrov personally tortured them in Tsentoroi.’ Politkovskaya was assassinated in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment in October 2006. Kadyrov pleads ignorance and innocence, opining that Politkovskaya should have stuck to being a housewife. The other high-profile murder linked to him is the 2009 kidnapping and shooting of human rights crusader Natasha Estemirova, snatched outside her Grozny apartment. Estemirova, who reportedly enraged Kadyrov with her opposition to compulsory headscarves for women, was about to meet with families of Chechens killed by the security forces.
