It has been more than fifteen years that a million and a half of Chechens are subject to the despotism of Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of this constitutive republic of the Russian Federation. Vladimir Putin has indeed ensured that his Chechen protégé succeeds his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, murdered in 2004, first as head of local government, then, once reached the age limit of 30 years, as full exercise president.
The parallel is striking with the Assad dictatorial dynasty in Syria, where Bashar literally inherited, in 2000, from his father’s absolute power, Hafez. But, where Syria constitutes an essential resource for the Kremlin beyond the Russian space, the Chechen autocracy remains a major cog in the Putin system, including in the offensive triggered for almost a year against the Ukraine.
The Akhmad Federation 2>
With barely more than 1 % of the Russian population, the satrapy of Ramzan Kadyrov exerts an influence without measure with its real weight within Putinian Russia. It is that the Chechen absolutism is distinguished by its functioning at the same time militarist, clan and mafia, again in line with the fundamental springs of the Assad regime. Ramzan Kadyrov can thus exceed in the arbitrariness and brutality his mentor Moscow, who accommodates in return of a customer to the sinister reputation. The comparison between the two systems in the field of combat sports is enlightening in this regard, as this subject, far from being a minor entertainment, reveals dynamics of internal mobilization and external legitimation. This process is so popular with dictatorships that it justified the English term of Sportwashing. Vladimir Putin thus placed one of his followers, Umar Kremlev, at the head of the International Amateur Boxing Federation, IBA, the last of these federations to admit Russian sportsmen in his own colors.
Ramzan Kadyrov launched in 2015 the Akhmad free wrestling federation, a long marginal discipline, designated under the English acronym of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and organized internationally by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Based in Las Vegas. The father of the Chechen dictator is celebrated during tournaments at the Colosseum of Grozny where crowds of supporters chant “Akhmad Sila” (“the power of Akhmad”) and wear t-shirts with the double effigy of Akhmad Kadyrov and Vladimir and Vladimir and Vladimir and Vladimir and Vladimir and Putin.
Boxing legends like Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayweather were invited to Chechnya, who also welcomed training sessions, half a dozen past or UFC champions. But the thousands of young people enlisted by the Akhmad Federation are only a handful to become professional athletes, the overwhelming majority joining the shock troops of the regime: the personal guard of the dictator, the very feared “Kadyrovtsy”, and the units Allegedly “anti -terrorist” Terek, in charge of the low works of the regime and many times denounced by human rights defenders. The Akhmad Federation is also led by the former commander of Terek Abuzayed Vismuradov, a childhood friend of Ramzan Kadyrov, who even promoted him, in 2020, number two of the government.
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