Putinism

Chechnya's boss and Putin’s foot soldier: How Ramzan Kadyrov became such a feared figure in Russia

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 9, 2023

The orders came in the wake of an antisemitic riot that broke out on Oct. 29, 2023, in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan.

Key Points: 
  • The orders came in the wake of an antisemitic riot that broke out on Oct. 29, 2023, in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan.
  • It is not that Kadyrov doesn’t support the Palestinian cause; he does.
  • Kadyrov is both feared and venerated throughout Russia, and even more so since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
  • How did the leader of a small North Caucasian republic become such a feared figure in Russia?

Ruthless rise to power

  • Shortly after the beginning of the second Chechen war, which lasted from 1999 to 2009, Putin – who increased his power and popularity due to his aggressive role in the conflict – installed Akhmat as the leader of the republic.
  • He used these years to consolidate his power and ensure his political ascension.
  • To achieve this, he worked on eliminating his political rivals, including those who were once close to his father.

Violent suppression of dissent

  • This highly professional paramilitary force, colloquially known as the “Kadyrovtsy,” is formally integrated into the interior ministry and national guard.
  • These troops serve as a private army that suppresses dissent within the republic and eliminates Kadyrov’s opponents beyond its borders.
  • Kadyrovtsy also fought in the Syrian civil war as part of Russia’s military support for Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Zealous loyalty to Putin

  • This autonomy is largely due to the personal relationship between Putin and Kadyrov.
  • Soon after Akhmat Kadyrov’s death, Ramzan famously arrived at the Kremlin wearing a tracksuit, and Putin sincerely comforted the grief-stricken young man.
  • In return for Kadyrov’s zealous loyalty and his largely successful efforts in suppressing the North Caucasian insurgency, Putin ceded nearly complete control of Chechnya.

Islam as a political tool

  • Under Kadyrov, Sufism in Chechnya flourished and became the only acceptable form of Islam.
  • Within Chechnya, Kadyrov uses religion to galvanize supporters and demonstrate his political power.
  • Kadyrov, meanwhile, also uses Islam to boost his profile on the international stage and bolster his political standing in Russia.

‘I am the boss!’

  • He presides over Chechnya – which waged two wars against Russia in the past 30 years in pursuit of independence – with impunity.
  • I am at the steering wheel!” Kadyrov boldly proclaimed in 2011, a mere four years after Putin installed him as the republic’s president.
  • Russian law seems powerless to hold Kadyrov accountable, a fact the Chechen strongman underscored in 2015.
  • While he remains loyal to Putin, he has his own agenda and cannot afford to be seen as weak.


The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Ukraine war: why Putin's appeals to masculinity to recruit for the military will not work

Retrieved on: 
Friday, June 2, 2023

Instead, Russia is attempting to persuade thousands of men to enlist voluntarily as contract soldiers.

Key Points: 
  • Instead, Russia is attempting to persuade thousands of men to enlist voluntarily as contract soldiers.
  • The Kremlin’s recruitment campaign is designed to appeal to their sense of national pride and injured masculinity.
  • But my research with working-class men – the primary targets of the campaign – suggest it is unlikely to succeed.
  • And, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they left Russia in their droves.

Needed: cannon fodder

    • The country has already squandered tens of thousands of lives in its disastrous war in Ukraine – including many of those mobilised in the autumn of 2022.
    • The campaign shows it’s ordinary working-class men – most of whom have military training – to whom Putin is appealing.
    • This affected working-class men more than any other socio-demographic group, with psycho-social stress, accidents, suicide and alcoholism all featuring highly.

A pragmatic working class

    • Army service was framed pragmatically, as an opportunity to build physical strength and personal discipline.
    • It was also viewed as a means of improving one’s earning capacity as a manual worker – literally “becoming a man”.
    • An unstated aim of the current recruitment campaign, then, is to provide a veneer of consent for what can now only be achieved through coercion.
    • Men will still be found to be sent to the Donbas, but few will go there willingly.

'Stalin-style' show trials and unexplained deaths of opposition figures show the depth of repression in Putin's Russia

Retrieved on: 
Monday, April 17, 2023

The 41-year-old, who holds Russian and British passports, was originally detained in April 2022 and charged with criticising the Russian army.

Key Points: 
  • The 41-year-old, who holds Russian and British passports, was originally detained in April 2022 and charged with criticising the Russian army.
  • But the charge list was subsequently expanded to include treason and working for an undesirable organisation.
  • He has also been involved in anti-regime parties and think tanks including the Institute of Modern Russia and the Open Russia Foundation.
  • He was a key proponent of the Magnitsky Act, which enabled the US government to freeze the foreign assets of Russian elites.

Opposition decapitated

    • In this respect, we’ve gone beyond the 1970s – all the way back to the 1930s.
    • There has been a long history of opposition leaders and anti-Putin activists being killed or persecuted.
    • The removal of opposition figures and the constitutional changes introduced in 2020, which effectively mean that Putin can remain in power until 2036, are strong indications of the president’s desire to remain in power indefinitely.
    • The Kremlin routinely manipulates the political process to ensure it retains power via controlling the Russian media and even via “virtual politics”, where fake parties are created in a fiction designed to divide any opposition to Putin’s regime.

Consolidation of a police state

    • Putin’s heavy-handed approach has even led to children being arrested in Moscow in March 2022 for laying flowers outside the Ukrainian embassy.
    • Another child, Masha Moskaleva, now 13, who drew a anti-war picture and was denounced to the authorities by her school principal, was sent to an orphanage.
    • In early March 2022, the Russian parliament passed legislation giving 15-year prison sentences for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.
    • Meanwhle in late March, the Wall Street Journal’s Russia correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, was arrested and charged with espionage.