Free Republic

In a September 1 CBC TV interview, Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic, rejected claims that he was a dictator. If you show my photo to any Chechen child, he will say: "That's Ramzan, and I love him," said Kadyrov, adding: "Indeed, I am dictatorial against Europe and the kharijites of our age." Noting that the wars have led to an imbalance in the female-male ratio in his country, Kadyrov called upon Chechens to practice polygamy, saying that otherwise, "where will these poor girls go?"

<p>Among the detained is the Russian – Chechen national Ahmed Chataev (a.k.a. Akhmed Shishkani) who is believed to be the mastermind behind the deadly attack on Turkey’s most busy international airport. Chataev has on several occasions avoided extradition to Russia on terrorism related charges because he had refugee status in Austria.</p>

Another powerful, controversial man is taking to reality TV to find an assistant — not Donald Trump, but the leader of Chechnya. Russian state television on Thursday broadcast Live — The Team, soliciting viewers to apply for a competition to become an assistant to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The competition seeks applicants who have significant concepts for developing the Caucasus republic, which endured two separatist wars with Russia over the past 20 years.

The Russian M240 240-millimeter mortar, along with its vehicle-mounted counterpart the 2S4 Tyulpan or “Tulip,” is possibly the largest-caliber tube artillery, not including rockets, used in combat today. Its massive shells were intended to smash apart heavy military fortifications, but just as often they have been employed to rain devastation upon densely-populated urban areas.

Let's take a break from the violence now part-and-parcel of this year's presidential election to take a look inward — and see where San Francisco political donors are dropping their dollars. Despite an endorsement from Mayor Ed Lee for Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has many friends in San Francisco. In fact, two of the highest-contributing ZIP codes in the country are in San Francisco: the Mission (94110), where Sanders has gleaned $59,649 in contributions, and the Castro/Noe Valley (94114), where denizens have written $52,109 in checks for the Bern. That sounds great if you’re a Bernie Bro (or...

Russia challenging Saudi Arabia’s dominance in world energy market Oil will be high on the agenda at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weekend summit meeting with George W. Bush at Camp David ­ Russian oil for US consumers, to reduce dependence on Saudi Arabia. Across the globe in Beijing, Putin’s prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, this week haggled with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jaibao, on building a 2,400-kilometer, $2.5 billion oil pipeline from Siberia to China, which is crying out for energy to fuel its burgeoning economy. Saudi oil may be far cheaper to produce, but a steady supply from Russia is...

The circumstances of the death of the Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center of Gazprom for Corporate Security, whose body was found in the prestigious village of Leninskoye in the Vyborg District of the Leningrad Region, are being established. A note was found nearby, law enforcement officials told 47news. A month earlier, in the same village, the body of a top manager of another division from Gazprom's orbit was found. Both of the now deceased previously worked at Gazprom Transgaz. As it became known to 47news, in the early morning of February 25, the police received a message...

Fox News is now reporting that the Russians are moving in on the city of Kyiv.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening speech that a lot of cities were under attack, although reportedly, none have fallen yet.Zelenskyy in his evening speech: "This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our state are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys and girls in the Donbas, the cities of the south, special attention to Kyiv. We can't lose the capital." https://t.co/QoEBDwV5ET pic.twitter.com/k5LfSowxiO— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) February 25, 2022The Ukrainians have put up a brave fight, taking out a...

Former foreign minister of breakaway territory in country's east accuses Kyiv of stirring up provocations, says instigators will be tried like "Nazi collaborators" were. "To end the war we must win it, there are no other options"---this is the conclusion of Alkesandr Kofman, leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), established in East Ukraine eight years ago. Kofman, who is Jewish, served as the DPR's foreign minister during the last round of fighting in East Ukraine in 2014, and today heads the quasi-state's public bureau. He sat down with Ynet and sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth to...

For the last several years, Russian security services have driven Islamist radicals and others out of the North Caucasus and other regions of the Russian Federation under paid of jail or death to fight for ISIS in Syria, Israeli expert Avraam Shmulyevich says. Now that the last redoubts of the Islamic State in that country have fallen, these same services, exploiting Chechens in Syria, have begun to extract these same people back to Russia, an action that strongly suggests, the president of the Israeli Eastern Partnership Institute says, that Moscow plans to make use of them elsewhere – and may...

Threats of violence against "errant" women are viewed as "acts of patriotism." "They have come to Germany because they wanted to live in Germany, but they keep trying to turn it into Chechnya with its medieval ways." — Social worker interviewed by Meduza. "Everyone's attention is fixed on the Syrians, but the Chechens are the most dangerous group. We are not paying sufficient attention to this." — Police in Frankfurt (Oder).[snip]A hundred Islamists are now openly enforcing Sharia law on the streets of Berlin, according to local police who are investigating a recent string of violent assaults in the German...

<p>Even for Ukrainians hardened by more than a year of war here against Russian-backed separatists, the appearance of Islamic combatants, mostly Chechens, in towns near the front lines comes as something of a surprise — and for many of the Ukrainians, a welcome one.</p>

MOSCOW, December 16 /TASS/. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Tuesday that he wanted to quit his high state post and leave for Ukraine’s Donbas region to help the local militias, the NTV channel reported on its website. Commenting on initiation of criminal proceedings against him in Ukraine and Kiev’s threats to put him on the international wanted list, Kadyrov told NTV’s “Bez Kupyur” (Without Banknotes) program that they could keep wagging their tongues for as long as they liked. “They can keep saying whatever they like. But I am going to ask the (Russian) president for permission to quit...

Be it Boston, Ukraine, Afghanistan, or the Middle East:  wherever there's some bloody mess, seems you find Chechens... While I do believe we need to go kill all of the ISIS scum we can find -probably meaning boots on the ground in Iraq/Syria (indirectly and unfortunately allying ourselves with Russian interests there)- and also think that these blood-drunk monsters are on their way to American soil, if not here already- it's the Russians who really have something to worry about. Revenge a dish best served cold: Although Chechnya seems to have been tamed by first Vladimir Putin -now maintained by his back-slapping buddy, the brutal, pro-Kremlin...

Chechen Residents: Dozens of Those Killed in Battle in Ukraine Have Been Delivered to the Republic. Local residents say that several dozen residents of Chechnya, who took part in the fighting in Ukraine and died in the Donetsk region, have been brought back to their homeland in the last few days, giving numbers from 35 to 40-45 dead. The Republic’s security agencies declined to comment on these reports, writes a correspondent for Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot has reported that, following the change of power in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, clashes broke out in the towns of...

"Our president [Ramzan Kadyrov] gave the order. They called us and we came,” 33-year-old Zelimhan tells VICE News. The bearded fighter, a member of a unit known as the “Wild Division,” says he arrived a week ago with 34 Chechen men who volunteered to come and support their “brothers” in the People’s Republic of Donetsk. Russia and the authorities of the rebel republic have repeatedly denied allegations that foreign groups are crossing into Ukraine to fight alongside the rebels. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has said that the country is under “undisguised aggression” from Moscow, which is “exporting foreign terrorism” to the...

Today's combat in and near Slovyansk between Russian-backed insurgents and Ukranian military personnel resulted in 30 insurgent/terrorist dead, according to a Ukranian government statement... But the interesting thing is that Chechen soldiers were amongst the 'rebels' killed in the battle for a key checkpoint north of the city- what the hell are they doing there? Furthermore, local Ukrainians taped 'rebels' who just appeared manning another ('pro-Russian) checkpoint who were speaking a strange foreign language that was clearly not Slavic...  [video/graphics] Earlier reports also had some Transdniestrans -from a breakaway strip of Moldova that wants to be annexed by Russia- showing up...

Chechnya's Russian-backed president has hit out at America for killing one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and blamed the US for moulding them into terrorists. Chechen-born Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died from gunshot wounds and possible blast injuries after a fierce gun battle rocked the Watertown area of Boston hours after a police officer was shot dead at the nearby MIT campus. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokha, fled the shoot out and is on the run, reportedly having strapped explosives to his body. But President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former Chechen rebel himself, told US authorities that 'any attempt to draw a...

A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' has been unleashed in Ukraine to detain or kill a set of specific Ukrainian officials. Each soldier was reportedly given a special 'deck of cards' with Ukrainian officials' photos and descriptions on them, a Moscow Telegram channel with links to the security establishment reported. The list is of officials and security officers suspected of 'crimes' by the Russian Investigative Committee, the report added. It came as Ukraine's president admitted he is 'target number one' for Russian assassins in his capital, while his family is 'the number two goal' for Putin's hitmen. The Chechen...

The warlord who runs Chechnya held a rally of an estimated 10,000 fighters who could be dispatched to Ukraine to take part in the invasion. The servicemen gathered in the Chechen capital, Grozny, after Friday prayers in a show of strength by Ramzan Kadyrov, an erstwhile separatist rebel who became one of President Putin’s most loyal henchmen. Addressing the uniformed men, Kadyrov, 45, said that fighters would serve in the “hottest spots in Ukraine”, and that he could muster 70,000 volunteers. Video showed the Muslim fighters standing in serried ranks in a central square and crying in unison: “Allahu Akbar!”...