Ramzan Kadyrov

Ramzan Kadyrov Рамзан Кадыров
File:Ramzan Kadyrov.jpg
3rd President of the Chechen Republic
Incumbent
Assumed office February 15, 2007
Preceded by	Alu Alkhanov
Personal details
Born	(1976-10-05) October 5, 1976 Tsentoroi, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, USSR
Nationality	Chechen
Political party	United Russia

Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov (Russian: Рамзан Ахмадович Кадыров) (born 5 October 1976, Tsentoroi, Chechnya) is the President of Chechnya and a former Chechen rebel.

Ramzan is a son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May 2004, and heads a private army known as the Kadyrovtsy. Kadyrov is believed to have amassed a huge fortune from extorting kickbacks and from the illegal sale of Chechen oil.. He has been repeatedly accused of serious human rights abuses in Chechnya, which include abductions, torture and excesses against civilians by the security forces under his control. He is also accused of propagating his father's and his own personality cults. He is married, with five children.

Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as President, shortly after he turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post. He has the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was awarded the Hero of Russia medal, the highest honorary title of Russia. Analysts say Putin has entrusted Kadyrov with power, partly because he is seen as the only person who can keep large numbers of former rebels under control, which is key to ending the Second Chechen War. Kadyrov was engaged in violent power struggles; with fellow Chechen government warlords Sulim Yamadayev and Said-Magomed Kakiev for overall military authority, and with Alkhanov for political authority. However, by 2007, he seems to have acquired practically total power on the territory of the war-scarred republic. Lately he has been credited with finally launching the federally-sponsored renovations of the Chechen capital Grozny, which was nearly obliterated by the fighting.

Biography

Early life

A tearaway at school, Ramzan Kadyrov strove to gain the respect of his father Akhmad Kadyrov, a Muslim imam. He claims that he always desired to emulate his father.

In the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union splintered into fragments, the Chechens launched a bid for independence. The Kadyrovs joined the struggle and fought against the federal forces, with Ramzan, at the age of 16, leading a small unit of separatist fighters in the First Chechen War, and Akhmad becoming the rebel mufti of Chechnya.

Ramzan enjoys boxing and was an amateur boxer in his younger days.

Militia leader

The Kadyrov clan defected to the Moscow side at the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999. Since then, Ramzan has led his militia with support from Russia's FSB state security service (including service ID cards) and become the head of the Chechen Presidential Security Service.

He was falsely rumoured to have died of a gunshot wound inflicted by his bodyguard on 28 April, 2004.

Deputy Prime Minister

After his father, then Chechen President, was assassinated on 9 May, 2004, Ramzan was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic.

When his sister was detained by the Dagestan police in January 2005, Ramzan and some 150 armed men drove to the Khasavyurt City Police (GOVD) building. According to the city mayor, Kadyrov's men surrounded the GOVD, forcing its duty officers against the wall and assaulted them, after which they left the building with Zulai Kadyrova, "victoriously shooting in the air."

In August 2005, Ramzan declared that "Europe's largest mosque" would be built in place of the demolished ruins of Grozny's shattered downtown. He also claimed that Chechnya is the "most peaceful place in Russia" and in a few years it would also be "the wealthiest and the most peaceful" place in the world. He also claimed that the war was already over with only 150 "bandits" remaining (as opposed to the official figures of 700 to 2,000 rebel fighters), and that thanks to his father, 7,000 separatists had already defected to the Russian side since 1999.

Acting Prime Minister

Following a car accident in December 2005, in which Chechnya's prime minister Sergey Abramov was injured, Ramzan functioned as the caretaker prime minister. He immediately proceeded to implement elements of Sharia law, such as declaring a ban on gambling and alcohol production, while speaking in favour of polygamy.

In February 2006, responding to the publication of the Mohammed cartoons, he accused the Danes of "spying" and being "pro-terrorist". He also banned Danish citizens from entering Chechnya, effectively banning activity of the Danish Refugee Council, the largest NGO working in the region. Kadyrov is quoted as saying, "That cartoonist needs to be buried alive." He was eventually pressed to overturn this decision by Moscow, a rare example of federal intervention in Kadyrov's rule in the republic.

Prime Minister

On March 1, 2006, Sergey Abramov resigned from the position of prime minister and told Itar-Tass news agency that he did so "on the condition that Ramzan Kadyrov lead the Chechen government." This was followed by a decree of Kadyrov forcing women to wear headscarves; he also rejected a federal appropriation of the republic's budget, demanding more money, and called for all federal forces but the border guards to be withdrawn.

Shortly after taking office, Kadyrov approved a project to erect a presidential palace on a 30-acre plot by the Sunzha River in ruined downtown Grozny. The project, which will also include a five-star hotel and recreational facilities, is estimated to cost around 1.5 billion rubles ($54 million USD) to build. Later, Kadyrov called for refugee camps scattered across Chechnya to be closed down, calling the refugees "international spies who are interested in stoking conflict between Chechnya and Russia, who are seeking to destabilize the situation in our region". Reuters quoted him as saying that "liquidating the refugee camps will allow us to uncover spies who are working for foreign intelligence services".

Kadyrov officially banned the usage of term Kadyrovites, following an armed clash with a security force of Chechen pro-Moscow president Alu Alkhanov in central Grozny. According to the media reports, the Kadyrov-Alkhanov struggle already included armed confrontation, murders, and hostage taking; many of these incidents were said to have been provoked by Kadyrov's men.

On 5 June, 2006, Speaker of the Chechen People's Assembly Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov said at a press conference in Moscow that "there is no alternative" to Kadyrov for the presidency; Kadyrov has "exclusive awards in combat, and has made achievements in improving the peaceful life and in human rights protection. Who could replace him at this stage? Nobody," he said. Later that year, Umar Dzhabrailov, Chechnya’s representative in the Federation Council and a close ally of Kadyrov's, urged Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov to initiate a measure calling on Kadyrov to become the republic’s president, thereby replacing Alu Alkhanov. The following week, several Russian newspapers reported that a worsening security situation in Chechnya was lessening the likelihood that Kadyrov would replace Alu Alkhanov as the republic's president. Other media, however, reported that Kadyrov continued to strengthen his position at Alkhanov's expense.

On 6 December, 2006, Kadyrov said he that he would seek the prosecution of the commanders of federal military units responsible for the death or disappearance of civilians in Chechnya (specifically Major General Aleksandr Studenikin). In addition, Kadyrov said the war in Chechnya was unleashed not by the Chechen people but by the Russian leadership. Kadyrov’s comments may have represented his government’s increasing unhappiness with certain figures in Moscow, who were said to be blocking his elevation to the post of Chechen president.

On 5 February, 2007, Kadyrov said he did not aspire to become the Chechen president; however, he criticized Alkhanov. Kadyrov also claimed the war in Chechnya was ultimately finished, with "all informal armed groups eliminated". Alkhanov, for his part, criticized "the cult of personality and idealization of one person," a clear reference to Kadyrov, whose enormous portraits are prominently displayed in Grozny.

President

On 15 February, 2007, Putin signed a decree removing Alkhanov and instating Kadyrov as Chechen's acting president. On March 2 2007, following Putin's nomination of Kadyrov as Chechen president, the Chechen parliament approved the nomination. In the following days, serious changes took place in the administrative set-up of the republic, affecting both the top- and middle-ranking officials. Former deputy prime minister Odes Baysultanov (a cousin of Kadyrov's) was elevated to the vacant post of prime minister. Critics allege that Ramzan Kadyrov is actively building his own "vertical of power" in the republic, and encouraging nepotism by placing men of the Beno clan in all the leading and important positions.

A Russian daily, Gazeta, reported that according to a poll conducted by the independent Levada Center, only 33 percent of Russians believe that Ramzan Kadyrov can be trusted, while 35 percent believed that he cannot. Asked whether they thought Kadyrov could normalize the situation in Chechnya and end the bloodshed there, 31 percent said yes and 38 percent said no.

On March 14, 2007, Kadyrov said that human rights abuses were "a thing of the past" in his republic, rejecting new charges of torture made by the Council of Europe. Two days later he accused the federal authorities of torturing detainees. On March 19 2007, Kadyrov vowed to put an end to all remaining guerilla activity in Chechnya within two months. On April 5, 2007, Kadyrov was sworn in as President of Chechnya.

Accusations of human rights abuses

Ramzan Kadyrov has often been accused of being brutal, ruthless and anti-democratic; according to media, he was personally implicated in several instances of torture and murder.

• German human rights group the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), which branded Kadyrov a "war criminal", has alleged that up to 70 percent of recent incidents of murder, torture, rape and kidnapping in Chechnya have been committed by Ramzan's paramilitary forces.

• The Memorial group investigator stated in its report: "Considering the evidence we have gathered, we have no doubt that most of the crimes which are being committed now in Chechnya are the work of Kadyrov’s men. There is also no doubt in our minds that Kadyrov has personally taken part in beating and torturing people. What they are doing is pure lawlessness. To make matters worse, they also go after people who are innocent, whose names were given by someone being tortured to death. He and his henchmen spread fear and terror in Chechnya. (...) They travel by night as death squads, kidnapping civilians, who are then locked in a torture chamber, raped and murdered,".

• Anna Politkovskaya, a veteran Russian reporter (murdered in 2006; case unsolved as of October 2007) who specialized in Chechnyan reporting, claimed that she had received a video footage of a man identical in appearance to Ramzan. "....On them (the clips) were the murders of federal servicemen by the Kadyrovites, and also kidnappings directed by Kadyrov. These are very serious things; on the basis of this evidence a criminal case and investigation should follow. This could allow this person to be brought to justice, something he has long richly deserved," she said. She was allegedly working on an article revealing human rights abuses and regular incidences of torture in Chechnya at the time of her murder.

• The Kadyrovites are often accused of working as a death squad against Kadyrov's enemies. Ramzan is rumoured to own a private prison in his stronghold of Tsentoroi, his home village south-east of Grozny. Fields around Tsentoroi are allegedly mined and all access routes are blocked by checkpoints. On May 2, 2006, representatives of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) alleged that they were prevented from entering the fortress.

• According to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Places of Detention in the Chechen Republic" report, many illegal places of detention exist in the Chechen Republic; most of them are run by Kadyrovites. In Tsentoroi (Khosi-Yurt), where the Kadyrovite headquarters is located, there are at least two illegal prisons functioning. One consists of concrete bunkers or pillboxes, where kidnapped relatives of armed Chechen fighters are held hostages while the second prison in Tsentoroi is evidently located in the yard - or in immediate vicinity - of the house of Ramzan Kadyrov.

• On May 25, 2006, Chechen Human Rights Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev said: "From now on the situation in the Chechen republic will be closely monitored, and any insults and attacks on Chechen officials, including Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, will be punished." According to Nukhazhiyev's statement "representatives of human rights organizations" drew Kadyrov's attention "to unfounded media accusations of Chechen leaders, including Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov."

• Chechen security forces loyal to Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov have begun using cell phones to record videos of them torturing and humiliating ordinary Chechens accused of crimes. The videos are later circulated, with the intention of intimidating civilians.

• On October 23, 2006, a criminal case was registered on the basis of the video tape frames published by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper in Anna Politkovskaya's article. Sergey Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of the paper, told the Echo Moskvy Radio that it can be clearly seen in the video as to how "Kadyrov's military forces are beating federal soldiers" with participation of "a man looking like Ramzan Kadyrov." On October 7, 2006, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in an elevator in her apartment in Moscow.

• A mutinied commander, Movladi Baisarov, said about Kadyrov: "He acts like a medieval tyrant. If someone tells the truth about what is going on, it's like signing one's own death warrant. Ramzan is a law unto himself. He can do anything he likes. He can take any woman and do whatever he pleases with her. (...) Ramzan acts with total impunity. I know of many people executed on his express orders and I know exactly where they were buried.". On November 18, 2006, Baisarov was killed in an ambush by members of Kadyrov's police on Moscow's Leninsky Prospekt, several hundred meters from the Kremlin.

• On November 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch published a briefing paper on torture in Chechnya that it had prepared for the 37th session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The paper covered torture by personnel of the Second Operational Investigative Bureau (ORB-2), torture by units under the effective command of Ramzan Kadyrov, torture in secret detentions and the continuing "disappearances." According to HRW, torture "in both official and secret detention facilities is widespread and systematic in Chechnya." In many cases the perpetrators were so confident that there would be no consequences for their abuses that they did not even attempt to conceal their identity. Based on extensive research, HRW concluded in 2005 that forced disappearances in Chechnya are so widespread and systematic that they constitute crimes against humanity.

• On March 1, 2007, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group rights organisation, stated "Kadyrov is to blame for kidnappings of many innocent people. Their bodies were found later with signs of torture."

• The new Council of Europe report said "resort to torture and other forms of ill-treatment by members of law enforcement agencies and security forces continues, as does the related practice of unlawful detentions." The Council said it felt forced to make public its findings, in light of the Russian authorities' "failure to improve the situation" despite detailed recommendations following the torture committee's visits to Chechnya last year.

• In May 2007, more than 100 members of Britain's political and cultural elite have appealed to President Vladimir Putin of Russia to restore "peace and justice" to Chechnya, calling Kadyrov's presidency "little more than a regime of fear and oppression".

Quotes

• "I've already killed who I should have killed. And I will kill all of those standing behind them, as long as I myself am not killed or jailed. I will be killing as long as I live… Putin is a beauty. He thinks more about Chechnya than about any other republic. When my father was murdered, he [Putin] personally came down and went to the cemetery. Putin stopped the war. Putin should be made president for life. Strong rule is needed. Democracy is an American invention… Russians never obey their laws. Everyone stole, and only Khodorkovsky is in jail."

• "For the power, you must pay with your life, not with money."

See also

• Akhmad Kadyrov
• Kadyrovtsy
• Federal government in Chechnya
• Second Chechen War

External links

Articles

• The warlord and the spook The Economist May 31 2007
• Chechnya strongman installed as president International Herald Tribune April 5 2007
• Inside the dragon's lair The Guardian March 20, 2007
• The Last King of Chechnya JRL March 9, 2007
• Gangster President Washington Post March 3, 2007
• Warlord named Chechen president The Scotsman March 2 2007
• Ramzan Barbarossa St. Petersburg Times February 22 2007
• Former rebel transforms capital in personality cult The Guardian February 17 2007
• Ramzan Kadyrov: The warrior king of Chechnya The Independent January 04 2007
• Widespread Torture in the Chechen Republic Human Rights Watch for UN Committee Against Torture, November 13 2006
• Pro-Moscow Chechen Strongman Under Scrutiny After Journalist’s Murder Mosnews October 13 2006
• Russia Slaying Puts Spotlight on Kadyrov MSNBC October 12 2006
• The increasingly deadly struggle for power between Kadyrov and Alkhanov Jamestown Foundation September 28, 2006
• Ramzan's World Newsweek September 25, 2006
• The Republic of Fear The Sunday Times August 20, 2006
• Land of the warlords The Guardian June 13, 2006
• In the torture cell of Chechnya's tyrant The Sunday Times April 30, 2006
• A thug in charge The Economist March 9, 2006
• Warlord named as Chechen PM; The Guardian March 6, 2006
• Dossier: Chechen Security Forces 2000–2006 Axis
• Putin's heroes The Economist December 1, 2005
• Chechnya's gun-toting strongman BBC News, 26 November, 2005
• Sobaka :: Dossier: Ramzan Kadyrov Sobaka Magazine

Discussions

• Discussion of Ramzan Kadyrov at Chechen forum, February 12, 2007 — ongoing (in Russian and Chechen).

Videos

• The criminal case video Newsru
• Revival of Brutality in Chechnya New York Times