It is no secret that Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, has his own army and billions of dollars, which he drained from Russia. His family lives amid unbelievable luxury, with villas both in Russia and the UAE. But how is it possible?
A cura di Matteo Nason
The first Chechen war started on December 11th, 1994. At the time, Akhmat Kadyrov, Ramzan’s father, an Islamic fundamentalist, fought fiercely alongside Chechen president Dudaev, and, when the Great Mufti of Chechnya refused to declare the war a Jihad (holy war in Arabic), Dudaev quickly appointed Akhmat as Great Mufti, in 1995. The newly appointed Mufti stood side by side with Dudaev in his separatist struggle. As a result of his heroic fighting, Dudaev gifted Akhmat an oil extraction facility.
After the end of the war in 1996, Chechnya plunged into anarchy. President Dudaev died, while the strength of Wahhabi radical Islamists, which Akhmat strongly despised, was growing. When the Wahhabis provoked the second Chechen War, Kadyrov refused to declare the Jihad and tried to persuade the population to surrender to Moscow, while Ramzan’s paramilitary army was dealing with separatist partisans on the mountains. The Shari’a court tried Akhmat in absentia and sentenced him to death, but this was merely procedural. With the war lost and aspirations for independence gone, Akhmat became Putin’s man in the region. A group of Proekt journalists proved that the Kadyrovs received from Putin some gifts, including 5 million dollars and a mansion in Sochi.
Akhmat was assassinated when a bomb blew up on May 9th, 2004, while he was attending the Victory Day parade in Groznyy. On that day, Ramzan was meeting Putin in the Kremlin. When Putin hugged him, his suit was in stark contrast with Ramzan’s blue sweater.
During his presidency of Chechnya, started in 2007, Ramzan achieved unbelievable wealth. In Groznyy, his villa counts 64,000 square metres, and nearby there are his unofficial wives’ residencies. He owns a luxurious villa in the UAE and thousands of square metres of housing in Moscow. His racing horses won multiple prestigious awards, and his private zoo in Gudermes hosts rare exotic animals. His favourite watch is a Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega, worth 2.5 million dollars. His garage is impressive, hosting cars worth millions such as a Lamborghini Reventon, one of the 20 ever sold. His birthday parties were attended by well-known figures, such as Oscar actress Hilary Swank, who received 1 million dollars for attending. For 1 million, Diego Armando Maradona went to play football in Groznyy once, and Mike Tyson boxed with Ramzan for 2 million. When interviewed about the origin of his money, he replies “Allah gives. I do not know myself how it is possible, where the money comes from”.
During his presidency, Kadyrov put increasing pressure over religious fundamentalism. Polygamy and child marriage are common, and Kadyrov repeatedly expressed his favour for both, which are illegal under Russian law. In fact, a Proekt investigation found that lavish alcohol parties and beauty contests were the place where Kadyrov chose the girls to marry or simply have sex with, with many of them being underage. One such example is Fatima Khazuyeva, with whom he likely married when she was 14, back in 2006. The number of wives he is married to is still unclear. The religious police is not an institutionalized body, as it is assigned to gangs and loyalist militias, and reported repercussions against women for not wearing headscarves or for not showing modesty are dire. The LGBT community is also highly repressed. Extensive reports by human rights organisations found that its members are thrown in secret jails, beaten, tortured, electrocuted, raped and sometimes killed.
Although Chechnya is almost completely independent, it is a federally funded region, so Russian taxpayers are paying for it. But what does Russia receive in exchange? Well, Ramzan Kadyrov is Putin’s puppet. He will do anything for the president. In 2015, Chechen gunmen assassinated former PM and Putin’s critic Boris Nemtsov. Recently Kadyrov sent his personal army to fight in Ukraine, where they committed crimes against humanity, such as in Bucha. However, in Ukraine Kadyrov’s men focus mostly on the arrest and extrajudicial killings of Russian deserters. The Kadyrovites, Ramzan’s paramilitary army, are highly trained Spetsnaz and Rosguard agents. Putin can feel in Chechnya like a czar. During elections, he gets 99.7% of votes with a 99% frequency. The main boulevard in Groznyy and the Spetsnaz training centre in Gudermes carry his name. Moreover, Russian businessmen may ask Kadyrov for anything that may be resolved with violence, after paying great sums of money and having met his men in the hotel President, not far from the Kremlin.
Kadyrov and Putin desperately need each other: one keeps separatist aspirations quiet, while the other secures power in his hands. Chechnya is a place of lawlessness, where violence rules supreme. Human rights organisations consistently denounce violations, but voices rarely escape from this place. Chechnya is too crucial for Putin to tolerate any disobedience. Here, only deep connections make any dreams of success possible. The Chechen story is one of hopelessness, as it projects a grim future. Adam, Ramzan’s 17 years old star child, is on a good track to keep power in the hands of the Kadyrov family. With no prospects of change, the Chechen people will live as they always did: poor, repressed, and unheard.
