ramzan kadyrov has become one of the main providers of news of the russian-Ukrainian war to the population of the rf, probably seeking to transform into a further career the political points gained for serving to please putin and taking an active public position.
Likewise, in 2015, kadyrov evolved from putin’s brutal servant into a federal-level public figure. For instance, today no russian governor dares to demand that putin order the storming of Kyiv or Kharkiv or post videos of his countrymen at war on social media. There are also buryats, bashkirs, and tatars engaged in warfare, but we hear only about chechens.
The “scarecrow” in the form of kadyrov and his demonization is part of russia’s information field, aimed at the domestic audience. He is allowed to say whatever he wants, but what the kremlin cannot officially voice.
At the same time, the kadyrovites rarely take part in combat clashes, but they are better equipped and, unlike ordinary russian military, are allowed to use smartphones and be active on social media.
The myth of “fearless kadyrov’s men” has dissolved with the myth of the greatness of the “second army in the world”. They are poorly integrated into the russian army, “fight” mostly 20 kilometers from the contact line, and at the same time constantly demonstrate their subordination to kadyrov personally.
The fighters of kadyrov are used as a psychological weapon against the civilian population, they mostly act as punishers in the occupied territories and form the image that the russian army depends on chechen gangs, i.e. on kadyrov himself.
The russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated for covering the war in Chechnya, gave an accurate description of him, saying that he was “a boy who stood in the corner and, at best, could go over to pour tea for the elders while they were talking” and “he knows how to lick the hand of the great white tsar”.
However, attempts to intimidate Ukrainians by kadyrov’s men show a deep misunderstanding of the mood of Ukrainian society by russian elites. In Ukraine, people are not afraid of kadyrov and, moreover, ridicule and mock him, nicknaming him “don-don”. And videos of him shooting at traffic lights, gates, and empty houses, distributing looted food and praying at russian petrol stations only arouse ridicule among Ukrainians.
