11:50, 21 April 2019

Ramzan Kadyrov takes part in absentia in presidential election in Ukraine

Pyotr (Petro) Poroshenko, Ramzan Kadyrov, Vladimir Zelensky (from left to right). Collage. Screenshot of a video of the debate between Poroshenko and Zelensky on April 19, 2019 года, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfUWkEMJ48o. Kadyrov's photo on his page on the 'VKontakte' social network, https://vk.com/ramzan?z=photo279938622_456266981%2Fwall279938622_318079

At the election debate on April 19, the incumbent president of Ukraine Pyotr (Petro) Poroshenko reproached his rival, Vladimir Zelensky, of public apology to the head of Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov took the side of Zelensky by accusing Poroshenko of inconsistency and recalling that he, after Kadyrov's demand, "had hastily liberated" Russian journalists.

On April 19, at the open debates, Poroshenko reproached Zelensky for apologizing to the head of Chechnya.

Kadyrov has reacted to the mentioning of his name in the debates. "Poroshenko showed himself to be a street brawler by accusing Zelensky that he got frightened of Ramzan Kadyrov. Ukraine, which is in a deep economic, political, military and social crisis, has no other problems, except for clarifying, prior to election, who is afraid of Ramzan Kadyrov," the head of Chechnya wrote in his Telegram channel.

The head of Chechnya believes that it was Poroshenko, who was afraid of him. "Why had you rushed out then, after my tough request, to release the reporters kidnapped on your instruction, if you were not personally afraid of Kadyrov? And now you are trying to ascribe a sort of childish fear to Zelensky," Kadyrov has suggested.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 20, 2019 at 04:18 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.