Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician who serves as the head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated with the Chechen independence movement through his father, who was the separatist-appointed mufti of Chechnya. He is an army general in the Russian military.
Kadyrov is the son of former Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, who switched sides in the Second Chechen War by offering his service to Vladimir Putin's administration in Russia and became Chechen president in 2003. Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as president, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post. He was engaged in violent power struggles with Chechen commanders Sulim Yamadayev (d. 2009) and Said-Magomed Kakiyev for overall military authority, and with Alkhanov for political authority. Since November 2015, he has been a member of the Advisory Commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation.
Kadyrov rules the Chechen Republic through totalitarianism and repression. Over the years, he has come under criticism from international organizations for a wide array of human rights abuses under his government, with Human Rights Watch calling the forced disappearances and torture so widespread that they constituted crimes against humanity. During his tenure, he has advocated restricting the public lives of women, and led anti-gay purges in the Republic. Kadyrov has been frequently accused of involvement in the kidnapping, assassination, and torture of human rights activists, critics, and their relatives, within both Chechnya and other regions of the Russian Federation, as well as abroad, through the political use of police and military forces. He publicly denies these accusations.
Kadyrov has attempted to portray a hypermasculine image in public, frequently posing with guns and military garb or displaying his wealth and opulence. The Kadyrov family has enriched itself considerably during its rule of the Chechen Republic; the Russian Federation dispenses extensive funding to the Chechen government, while the distinction between the Chechen government and Kadyrov is blurry.
Early life
Kadyrov was born in Tsentaroy, in the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, in the Russian SFSR, part of the Soviet Union. He was the second son in Akhmad and Aimani Kadyrov's family and their youngest child. He had an elder brother named Zelimkhan (1974–31 May 2004), and he has two elder sisters, Zargan (born 1971) and Zulay (born 1972).
The Q'adarġeran neqe, correspondent to the Kadyrov family in Chechen kinship, belongs to the Benoy teip. Although the Benoy were among the wealthiest of the Chechen teips, their prolonged resistance to annexation by the Russian Empire was met with forced resettlement during the last years of the Caucasian War.
Kadyrov strove to gain the respect of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was an imam. He claims that he always emulated his father. In the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union dissolved, the Chechens launched a bid for independence. Akhmad had supported the call for jihad against Russians during the First Chechen War but switched sides and declared allegiance to Russia in the Second Chechen War.
During the First Chechen War, together with his father, Ramzan Kadyrov fought against Russian armed forces. After the war, Ramzan was the personal driver and bodyguard of his father Akhmad, who became the separatist mufti of Chechnya. The Kadyrovite militia was formed during the First Chechen War, when Akhmad Kadyrov declared jihad against Russia. The family defected to the Russian side at the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999. Since then, Kadyrov led his militia with support from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), including the provision of service ID cards, becoming the head of the Chechen Presidential Security Service. The militia later became known as the Kadyrovites.
Nickname In Chechen society, Kadyrov is widely known under the nickname "Lyulya". There are claims that this is Kadyrov's childhood nickname.
Political career Deputy Prime Minister
After his father, the then President, was assassinated on 9 May 2004, Ramzan was appointed as the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic on 10 May 2004.
When his sister was detained by the Dagestan police in January 2005, Kadyrov 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 a wall, and assaulted them, after which they left the building with Zulay Kadyrova, "victoriously shooting in the air."
In August 2005, Kadyrov 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 said 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. When responding to a question on how he is going to "avenge the murder of his father", Kadyrov said:
He remained the First Deputy Prime Minister until November 2005.
Acting Prime Minister
Following a car accident in November 2005, in which Chechnya's prime minister Sergey Abramov was injured, Kadyrov was appointed as the caretaker prime minister on 18 November 2005. He immediately proceeded to implement elements of Sharia law, such as declaring a ban on gambling and alcohol production.
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 non-governmental organisation 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 1 March 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.
Kadyrov was appointed as the prime minister of the Chechen Republic by Alkhanov on 4 March 2006. Shortly after taking office, Kadyrov approved a project to erect a presidential palace on a plot by the Sunzha River in ruined downtown Grozny. The project, which was also to include a five-star hotel and recreational facilities, was estimated to cost around 1.5 billion roubles ($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 destabilise 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". His cousin Odes Baysultanov was appointed to the position of First Deputy Prime Minister by Alkhanov on 6 March 2006 after being unanimously approved by the Chechen Parliament.
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. He was also elected as the Chair of the Chechen Peoples' Assembly in late-October 2006.
On 6 December 2006, Kadyrov said 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. In 2006, leaked cables from an American diplomat recounted a lavish wedding attended by Kadyrov in Russia's Caucasus region in which guests threw $100 bills at child dancers, and which had nighttime "water-scooter jaunts on the Caspian Sea", and a report that Kadyrov gave the newly married couple a "five-kilo lump of gold".
On 5 February 2007, Kadyrov said he did not aspire to become the Chechen president; however, he criticised Alkhanov. Kadyrov also claimed the war in Chechnya was ultimately finished, with "all informal armed groups eliminated". Alkhanov, for his part, criticised "the cult of personality and idealisation of one person", a clear reference to Kadyrov, whose enormous portraits are prominently displayed in Grozny.
President of the Chechen Republic
On 15 February 2007, Putin signed a decree removing Alkhanov and installing Kadyrov as Chechen's acting president. On 2 March 2007, following Putin's nomination of Kadyrov as Chechen president, the Chechen parliament approved the nomination.Chechen parliament votes for appointing Ramzan Kadyrov as president – Russian News – REGNUM In the following days, serious changes took place in the administrative setup of the republic, affecting both the top- and middle-ranking officials. Former deputy prime minister Odes Baysultanov (a cousin of Kadyrov) was elevated to the vacant post of prime minister. Critics allege that Kadyrov is actively building his own "vertical of power" in the republic, and encouraging nepotism by placing men of his own family (Kadyrov) 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 Kadyrov can be trusted, while 35 percent believed that he cannot. Asked whether they thought Kadyrov could normalise the situation in Chechnya and end the bloodshed there, 31 percent said yes and 38 percent said no.
On 14 March 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 19 March 2007, Kadyrov vowed to put an end to all remaining guerilla activity in Chechnya within two months. On 5 April 2007, Kadyrov was sworn in as President of Chechnya."Kadyrov sworn in as Chechnya's new Kremlin-backed president" , Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), 5 April 2007. He appointed his maternal cousin Odes Baysultanov as the prime minister of the republic on 10 April.