Chechen leader warns Poland

[Jaga]

news.yahoo.com/chechen-leader-staunch-putin-ally-threatens-poland-over-support-for-ukraine-130655904.html

Chechen leader, staunch Putin ally, threatens Poland over support for Ukraine. Poland helped Chechens a lot in their fight against Russia before the times when Kadyrov family became so pro-Russia.

LONDON — Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, threatened to attack Poland over its support for Ukraine.

Speaking in a video that was posted to social media on Wednesday, the warlord warned that Poland had “better take back” the weapons it supplied to its neighbor.

“The issue of Ukraine is closed,” said Kadyrov, via a translation from a BBC reporter. “I’m interested in Poland. Poland, what is it trying to achieve?”

He added: “After Ukraine, if we’re given the command, in six seconds we’ll show you what we’re capable of. You should better take back your weapons and your mercenaries and beg official forgiveness for what you did to our ambassador.”

[pieter]

Jaga,

This is a serious threat from a very dangerous and influential man, Ramzan Kadyrov, who does not only terrorizes his own population but also Russians, Ukrainians and others.

Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov (Russian: Рамзан Ахматович Кадыров; Chechen: Къадар Ахьмат-кӏант Рамзан, romanized: Q̇adar Aẋmat-khant Ramzan, [qʼɑːdɑːr ɑːʜmɑːt k’ɑːnt rɑːmzɑːn]; born 5 October 1976) is a Russian and Chechen politician currently serving as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly a member of the Chechen independence movement and is a lieutenant general in the Russian military.


Ramzan Kadyrov

He is the son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov who switched sides in the Second Chechen War (offering his service to Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia) and became Chechen President in 2003. Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as president, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post. He was engaged in violent power struggles with Chechen commanders Sulim Yamadayev (d. 2009) and Said-Magomed Kakiyev for overall military authority, and with Alkhanov for political authority. Since November 2015, he has been a member of the Advisory Commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation.

Kadyrov rules the Chechen Republic through despotism and repression. Over the years, he has come under criticism from international organisations for a wide array of human rights abuses under his watch, with Human Rights Watch calling the forced disappearances and torture so widespread they constituted crimes against humanity. During his tenure, he has advocated restricting the public lives of women, and led anti-gay purges in the Republic. Ramzan Kadyrov has been frequently accused of involvement in the kidnapping, assassination, and torture of human rights activists, critics, and their relatives, within both Chechnya as well as in other regions of the Russian Federation and abroad, through the political use of police and military forces. He publicly denies these accusations.

Kadyrov has adopted a macho image where he frequently poses with guns and military garb, as well as displaying his opulent wealth. The Kadyrov family has enriched itself considerably during its rule of the Chechen Republic. The Russian Federation dispenses extensive funding to the Chechen government. The distinction between the Chechen government and Kadyrov are blurred.

Kadyrov's 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the Kadyrovites and the Kadyrovtsy ('Kadyrov's followers'), a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic is a problem. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov - although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia.

The Kadyrovites originated in 1994 as a Chechen separatist militia under Akhmad Kadyrov, and fought against the Russian Armed Forces for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the First Chechen War. Kadyrov defected to the Russian side in the Second Chechen War in 1999, and the Kadyrovites began fighting separatists and jihadists during the "guerrilla phase" as a de facto unit of the state police after he was appointed Chechen President in July 2000.

Kadyrov was assassinated in 2004. Control of the militia was inherited by his son, Ramzan Kadyrov. In 2006, the Kadyrovites were legalized as a motorized regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as the 141st Motorized Regiment. When Kadyrov was elected Chechen President in 2007 its current official role as a personal protective service was established. Besides the 141st, units considered "Kadyrovites" also include the Chechen branches of OMON and SOBR.

The Kadyrovites have been criticized as being Ramzan Kadyrov's private army, and have been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses such as kidnapping, forced disappearances, torture and murder. Critics claim the Kadyrovites use extrajudicial punishment to cement Kadyrov's autocratic rule, and now surpass jihadist insurgents as the most feared organization among Chechnya's civilian population.[6] Under Kadyrov's orders, the Kadyrovites commited the Anti-gay purges in Chechnya, including operating concentration camps for gay men. The Kadyrovites have also been involved in international conflicts including the Syrian Civil War in 2017 and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Human rights violations

A significant number of members of these groups are people with a criminal past, including people who had committed criminal offences in the period between wars. Particularly feared are the PPSM-2, named after Akhmad Kadyrov, and the Oil Regiment. Officially PPSM-2 is responsible for security on the streets and the Oil Regiment for the security of industrial sites. In reality, both structures are involved in so-called "anti-terrorist operations," according to human rights groups accompanied by grave human rights violations. Human rights activists working in Chechnya have said the group has been heavily involved in kidnapping, torture and murder to cement Kadyrov's clan rule.

In October 2006 German human rights group the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), which branded Kadyrov a "war criminal", has alleged that up to 75 percent of recent incidents of murder, torture, rape and kidnapping in Chechnya have been committed by Ramzan's paramilitary forces.

The Memorial group investigator stated in its report: "Considering the evidence we have gathered, we have no doubt that most of the crimes which are being committed now in Chechnya are the work of Kadyrov's men. There is also no doubt in our minds that Kadyrov has personally taken part in beating and torturing people. What they are doing is pure lawlessness. To make matters worse, they also go after people who are innocent, whose names were given by someone being tortured to death. He and his henchmen spread fear and terror in Chechnya. (...) They travel by night as death squads, kidnapping civilians, who are then locked in a torture chamber, raped and murdered,".

Anna Politkovskaya, a veteran Russian reporter (murdered in 2006; case unsolved as of April 2008) who specialized in Chechen reporting, claimed that she had received a video footage of a man identical in appearance to Ramzan. "....On them (the clips) were the murders of federal servicemen by the Kadyrovites, and also kidnappings directed by Kadyrov. These are very serious things; on the basis of this evidence a criminal case and investigation should follow. This could allow this person to be brought to justice, something he has long richly deserved," she said. She was allegedly working on an article revealing human rights abuses and regular incidences of torture in Chechnya at the time of her murder. Some observers alleged that Kadyrov or his men were possibly behind the assassination.

The Kadyrovites are often accused of working as a death squad against Kadyrov's enemies. Ramzan is rumoured to own a private prison in his stronghold of Tsentoroi, his home village south-east of Grozny. Fields around Tsentoroi are reportedly mined and all access routes are blocked by checkpoints. On May 2, 2006, representatives of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) stated that they were prevented from entering the fortress. They have also begun using cell phones to record videos of them beating and humiliating ordinary Chechens accused of crimes. The videos are later circulated, with the intention of intimidating civilians.

According to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Unofficial Places of Detention in the Chechen Republic" report, many illegal places of detention exist in the Chechen Republic. Most of them are run by Kadyrovites. In Tsentoroi (also known as Khosi-Yurt, present-day Akhmat-Yurt), where the Kadyrovite headquarters is located, there are at least two illegal prisons functioning. One consists of concrete bunkers or pillboxes, where kidnapped relatives of armed Chechen fighters are held hostages while the second prison in Tsentoroi is evidently located in the yard—or in immediate vicinity—of the house of Ramzan Kadyrov.

On November 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch published a briefing paper on torture in Chechnya that it had prepared for the 37th session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The paper covered torture by personnel of the Second Operational Investigative Bureau (ORB-2), torture by units under the effective command of Ramzan Kadyrov, torture in secret detentions, and the continuing "disappearances." According to HRW, torture "in both official and secret detention facilities is widespread and systematic in Chechnya." In many cases, the perpetrators were so confident that there would be no consequences for their abuses that they did not even attempt to conceal their identity. Based on extensive research, HRW concluded in 2005 that forced disappearances in Chechnya are so widespread and systematic that they constitute crimes against humanity.

On March 1, 2007, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group rights organisation, stated "Kadyrov is to blame for kidnappings of many innocent people. Their bodies were found later with signs of torture."

Jaga, what threat can these Kadyrovites be to Poland? Are there Kadyrov lyalistists amongst the Chechen refugees in Poland? The Chechens that fled the Chechen wars and Ramzan Kadyrov's regime? Chechnya is a country with about 1,395,678 people and Poland is a country with about 38,179,800 people. In the past Poles used to have positive attitude towards Chechens, who were perceived as victims of Stalin’s regime and ardent nationalists. Poles also apraised resistance of religious people against atheist communism. Acts of terror were commonly attributed to provocations of Putin’s corrupted regime. The attitude gradually changed, when aim of fight in Chechnya moved from secular nationalism into religious motivated islamism and more and more acts of terror harmed innocent civilians, including children. In recent years, a popular opinion turned against Chechen fighters, nevertheless Poland accepted 80 000 Chechen refugees due to humanitarian reasons. There are few sportsmen among refugees who gained popularity in Poland.

Pieter

Links
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadyrovites
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzan_Kadyrov
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzan_Kadyrow
www.quora.com/What-do-Polish-think-of-Chechens-and-Chechnya

[pieter]

[Jaga]

Pieter, it is so strange for me that Chechens have a leader that supports Russia. The only way I understand it - is that it allows him to have a dictatorial power in his own country while being under Russian protectorate. The same is true with Belarus leader and even with Modi from India - they all like Putin since it allows them to remain dictators in their own small zone of interest.