The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, makes his sons share in his power in this small republic in the Russian Caucasus. Since this week, one of his teenage sons has been a supervisor at the University of the Special Forces of Russia (RUS, for its acronym in Russian), located in the city of Gudermes, which bears the name of Vladimir Putin in honor of the president of Russia
On Sunday, the Chechen leader visited the center on the occasion of the “tactical shooting” competitions. After reporting on his Telegram page that his own security service team had won, he made an announcement.
“At the request of my dear brother, the director of the RUS, Baibetar Baikhanov, I have decided to appoint Adam Kadyrov as supervisor of the RUS. He is very familiar with the activities of the famous university, so he will perfectly fulfill the assigned responsibilities”, he wrote.
The rise of young Adam, only 16 years old and according to them, Kadyrov’s “favourite”, began abruptly last year. His father released a video in September showing his son, then 15, beating a man arrested in a detention center in Grozny, the Chechen capital.
The victim, a Russian citizen named Nikita Juravel, had burned the Koran in Volgograd in May 2023. The Investigative Committee, in charge of criminal investigations in Russia, decided that the trial should be held, claiming that there had been “ numerous requests” from that republic. They transferred the accused to Groznya in August and, then, he had the misfortune to feel the fists of the teenager Kadyrov.
In the video of the interrogation, published by the FSB, the detainee said that he had acted on the orders of the Security Services of Ukraine “to incite religious discord between Christians and Muslims in Volgograd.” He assured that he had been paid 10,000 rubles (about 100 euros).
There was some criticism of what had happened in the hard-line Russian pro-government sector, but Ramzan Kadyrov said he was proud of Adam for standing up for Islam. “For what reason do they have to punish him? To hit an agent, a man, who burned the Koran? It would have been good if I had killed him”, he ruled in December.
In February, they declared Juravel guilty of insulting “the feelings of believers” and of “vandalism” and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison. Ramzan Kadyrov, who is 47 years old, has been the leader of Chechnya since 2007 and has the approval of the Kremlin to rule with an iron fist in exchange for stability in a region that suffered two wars after the end of the USSR. In recent years he has shown loyalty to Putin by sending thousands of fighters to Ukraine.
Some opponents and activists have accused Kadyrov of allowing the intimidation and torture of opponents, as well as violating the rights of minorities, including the LGBT community, in recent years. Last year, the journalist Ielena Milàixina and the lawyer Marina Dubróvina, annoying to the Chechen authorities for their criticism, were violently assaulted during cases about extrajudicial kidnappings and the persecution of the gay population.
After beating the detainee in prison, Adam Kadyrov received honors and awards. He was awarded the title of Hero of Chechnya. Soon after, his father appointed him head of his security team, the same position he held when Akhmat Kadyrov, Adam’s grandfather, was president of Chechnya.
Ramzan Kadírov’s relatives regularly receive medals and awards from different levels and positions in the regional administration. Last year his eldest son, 18-year-old Akhmat, visited the Kremlin and had a personal interview with Putin. There are observers who believe that Ramzan is preparing their children so that in the future the family will still control power.
His eldest daughter, Aixat, who is 25 years old, was the Minister of Culture of Chechnya between 2021 and 2023, and since last year has been one of the deputies of the Chechen Prime Minister, Muslim Khutshev. His second daughter, Khadijat, born in 2000, was appointed in February as first deputy head of the Chechen Administration.
