Sep 29, 2016
GROZNY, RUSSIA —
Grozny's Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque, named after the father of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, fills up for Friday prayers.
Since his appointment by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the younger Kadyrov has fought a largely successful battle against Islamist insurgents who killed his father in 2004.
But rights activists argue Kadyrov's iron-fisted methods, such as collective punishment for militants' relatives, make the cure as bad as the disease.
“Instead of the dictatorship of the Islamic fundamentalists we get a different dictatorship that is also spreading beyond Chechnya and is a threat to Russia similar to the one that Ramzan Kadyrov is fighting against,” says Oleg Orlov with Russia's Memorial Human Rights Center.
Kadyrov shows a fierce loyalty to Putin, branding Russia's opposition leaders as traitors. And in February, he posted a video showing two of them in a sniper's crosshairs.
The threat came one year after Chechens connected to Kadyrov were arrested for the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down just meters from the Kremlin.
“He's a brother of Putin, maybe [little] brother of Putin,” says the Carnegie Moscow Center's Alexei Malashenko. “And he feels, and he will feel once again after elections, he's able to do everything. Not only in Chechnya but across Russia.”
FILE - Chechnya's regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov smiles while visiting the Chechen State University in Chechnya's provincial capital Grozny, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
Kadyrov denies having anything to do with Nemtsov's murder, though he praised the main suspect-calling him a “real Russian patriot.”
Kadyrov's supporters argue his loyalty to Putin ensures a high degree of autonomy, after two bloody wars failed to bring independence, while his strong arm rule maintains peace.
But Kadyrov's status has angered some in Moscow and officials worry hundreds of Chechens who joined the fighting in Syria may return and recruit those disaffected.
“I know that many cases have been forged,” says chair of the Civic Assistance Committee Svetlana Gannushkina. “And every such case of a man unfairly punished or killed results in new influxes of militants into the underground.”
Critics warn Kadyrov's interpretation of Islam, and demonizing of others, may also drive some away.
Meanwhile, in a Mosque named after Kadyrov's mother, Chechens continue to pray.
Daniel Schearf, VOANEWS,GROZNY.
Olga Pavlova contributed to this report.