Akhmetkhanov's homecoming reveals his social kinship with Kadyrov people

Ramzan Kadyrov has allowed Aslambek Akhmetkhanov to return home, since the businessman is a socially close person to the Chechen leadership and has accepted the inflicted insult, while his financial resources may be useful for the authorities, the Caucasian researchers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 1, the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company) showed a story about how Ramzan Kadyrov, in harsh terms, chastised Aslambek Akhmetkhanov, the head of an oil company, for drinking alcohol and shooting into the air. The latter publicly apologized to Kadyrov, but after that, according to his fellow villagers, he did not appear in his village of Gekhi and stopped contacting. In late April, villagers reported that Akhmetkhanov returned home.

He was allowed to return home, because he had reconciled with Kadyrov's humiliation, said Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civil Assistance" Committee. "Akhmetkhanov has accepted the situation, and his further relationships [with Kadyrov] will follow the latter's scenario. It also depends on economic goals, because he is a wealthy person; and it's not excluded that this can play its role to some degree," Ms Gannushkina told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She has recalled that after such incidents Kadyrov sometimes, after people admitted humiliation and recognized that he was right, brought such people closer to him.

The Chechen authorities have extracted everything they wanted from the conflict with Akhmetkhanov, and even more than that, Timur Alkhastov, a political analyst, believes. "Once again, everyone got convinced that in Chechnya, everything is decided by one person, who can execute or pardon. It seems to me that Akhmetkhanov at large is more profitable to authorities. He can earn incomes, including for certain funds. Moreover, he is ideologically close to those who define the republic's fate: the same expensive pistols, the same pomposity, only at a different scale. Kadyrov admits that according to his concepts, Akhmetkhanov is far from his ideals, but he, although with certain flaws, is of the same kin," Mr Alkhastov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 1, 2020 at 11:05 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.