without Putin he is a finished man »- Corriere.it

FROM OUR MAIL
KIEV – “Putin may also use nuclear weapons but he certainly does not do it because Kadyrov tells him so”. Anzor Maskhadov, 43, knows the Chechen leader well. His father Aslan was president of the Chechen Republic from 1997 to 2005, until he was killed by the Russians during the second Chechen war. And now, from his exile in Europe, Anzor while looking for and hoping one day to return home, observes what is happening in his country and in Ukraine from afar. “I must say that Kadyrov is giving me hope these days.”

What do you mean? It’s hard to find something reassuring in his words …


“Kadyrov is a puppet of the Moscow regime. And every statement by him should be read in this sense. He doesn’t make a move without the support of the Kremlin. Peskov himself (Putin’s spokesman, ed) replied by asking to avoid “emotional” statements. But it is clearly a party game in which Kadyrov takes on the role of the bogey that Moscow uses to scare the world. ”

So isn’t it true that Kadyrov is working to overthrow Putin?


«Without Putin Kadyrov is a finished man. And he knows it well. He could not escape to any state, because he would be tried everywhere having been guilty of terrible crimes, all those of which they accuse him and of which his men accuse him ».

However, some interpreted the videos he posted showing his underage children preparing for combat on the Ukrainian front as a jab right at Peskov, accused of wanting to save his son from general mobilization …

“They are fake videos, as well as others posted by Kadyrov in the past. Junk from TikTok. Neither he nor his children have ever been in Ukraine to fight and they will never go there, if they look carefully. In the past he posted a video claiming to be in Ukraine but he could see a Russian fuel station behind him. I repeat: he is a fool ».

So, should the criticisms he leveled at the Russian military leaders accusing them of mediocrity for the withdrawal from Lyman also be read in this sense?

“Absolutely yes. It is not an attack on Putin. They are boastful ».

Does the mobilization ordered by Moscow risk provoking internal tensions in Chechnya?

“Now the whole world has seen what kind of person Kadyrov is. And it is easy for this to give the Chechens the strength to rebel as is happening in Dagestan (Caucasian republic of the Russian Federation, ed) first “supplier” of men to be sent to slaughter in Ukraine. This could trigger a chain mechanism ».

His father was killed by the Russians after he became president following the breakup of the former USSR. Do you see parallels with that era?

“I remember that in 1992 my father refused the order from his command to participate in the assault on the TV tower in Vilnius, where we lived then. It was then that he resigned from the Soviet army and we returned to Chechnya. But soon enough, the Russians invaded our homeland. At the start of the First Chechen War in 1994, even when Russian planes fired missiles and bombed our towns and villages, people didn’t realize it was a “real war”. And no one intervened. Seeing their impunity, the Russian invaders continued to commit genocide against the citizens of our republic, even if they did not limit themselves to killing only the Chechens. There have been cases in which they broke into homes, Russian soldiers discovered that the inhabitants were Russian and killed them, accusing them of being traitors ».

What happened then?

“After failing in battle, despite their technological advantages, the Russian invaders began to take out their anger on the civilian population. They are doing the same today in Ukraine. During the second war, Russia’s brutality only escalated: killed teenage prisoners thrown to starving dogs, women gunned down for trying to defend a village elder from abuse, and prisoners blown up. air with dynamite. Russian soldiers are marauders as well as murderers. In both wars every single village they took was looted. Wars like these, including the one in Ukraine, also have another purpose. To intimidate the world. And say “if you resist, this is what we will do to you”. And Kadyrov is the perfect face of this operation ».