From the first days of the war, there have been reports of military personnel from Chechnya, the so-called the Kadyrovtsy, participating in the war on the territory of Ukraine.
According to preliminary data, about 200 thousand Russian military personnel are involved in the war against Ukraine, and perhaps the most “terrible” role in it is assigned to the “powerful” soldiers of Ramzan Kadyrov.
Why does the Putin regime give such a prominent role to the fighters from the banks of the Terek River? Having plunged a little into history, namely in the mid-90s, we see that during the first Chechen war, the current pseudo general participated in hostilities against federal troops.
Having quickly oriented himself during the second Chechen campaign, he, together with his father Akhmat Kadyrov, “changed shoes” and sided with Russia. After the murder of his father — in May 2004, with the help of journalists, Ramzan’s personality and significance were growing exponentially and Putin made a count on him.
In fact, he is none other than Putin’s slave and henchmen, as he himself stated to the American edition of Newsweek — “I want Putin to be president for life. I love him like a man can love a man. Those who criticize him are not people, they are my personal enemies. As long as Putin supports me, I can do anything — Allah Akbar!
Today, he, as the main ideologist of all Chechnya, a Tik-Tok and Instagram blogger, actively promotes his personality on this “special operation”, hiding behind slogans about cleansing Ukraine from “shaitans — Bandera”.
Obviously, Putin keeps Kadyrov to perform certain tasks and uses his image as one of the methods of intimidation. The idea to take Ukraine was hatched by Putin for a long time, and it was Kadyrov who played an important role in the implementation of this plan. The Kremlin made him an idol, with his personal army, with a specific goal — intimidation, how else to explain the 100,000th army in Chechnya, which is smaller than the Donetsk region, or the election results, where he receives more votes than the turnout at the polls.
In the Kremlin media, the opinion is often imposed that the Kadyrovtsy are Chechens who know how to fight. Indeed, it is known that many from Kadyrov’s circle, like himself, are former militants who defected to the Russian side and have experience of participating in military operations. However, one peculiarity is that those Chechens who are standing on the squares are overwhelmingly personnel of the FSB or the RF Ministry of Defence. Indeed, they speak the Chechen language, but they do not intend to protect their homeland, language and religion. They do not know what it means to fight for free, but for family and homeland.
The RF National Guard troops (Rosgvardiya), which from time to time ranks pompously in Grozny, is just a show, a picture directed by the Kremlin. In simple words, Kadyrov and his guards are a horror story, a tool of intimidation used by the Kremlin. The Chechen brand, the Chechen factor: “if you don’t want to be kind, I’ll send you Chechens” is nothing but an image created by the authorities, “a monster that can do anything.”
Under the guise and with the support of power structures, for many years the Kadyrovtsy have been committed atrocities and crimes, and, unfortunately, they did not bypass Ukraine either. This is a banditry, encouraged by the authorities to create an image of power and strength. Another example of this is today’s Kadyrov’s statement in his Telegram channel to Zelenskyy to grant him asylum in the Chechen Republic in case of surrender and disarmament. Sooner or later, this soap bubble will burst and the myth of Kadyrov’s strength will be debunked.
Another thing is Chechen volunteer fighters, Ichkerians in Dzhokhar Dudayev and Sheikh Mansur battalions, who have been fighting against pro-Russian separatists and Russian mercenaries in Donbas since 2014. These Chechens came there not for money and not for wages, but for an idea. They are romantics fighting for justice.
Chechens are kind and candid when they stand up for independence and their loved ones or for the idea of justice that they believe in. The Rosgvardiya from Grozny square do not believe in any of these ideas. In fact, hiding behind the Koran, the Kadyrovtsy are just one of Putin’s puppets in the war against Ukraine.