Report on creation of military units highlights Kadyrov's loyalty to Putin

By his statement about the formation of three Chechen battalions and a special forces regiment amid one or two units in other regions, Ramzan Kadyrov demonstrates his loyalty to Putin, the political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have pointed out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 26, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that four MoD's battalions would be formed in Chechnya – the "North-Akhmat", "South-Akhmat", "West-Akhmat" and "East-Akhmat", which will be recruited "exclusively by Chechen guys." Two battalions, the "East-Akhmat" and "West-Akhmat", have already been staffed, the "Chechnya Today: News Agency reported on June 28. On July 17, Ramzan Kadyrov threatened those who admitted the idea of refusing to go to Ukraine that they would go to the hell.

"No one will forbid Kadyrov to form military units; they will even support him somewhere," Alexei Malashenko, a chief researcher at the E. M. Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The formation of such military units is a guarantee of one's own security, regardless of participation [in military conflicts outside of Russia] ... You can use them whenever you want ... You never know what can happen in Chechnya itself. Of course, such a formation is an indicator of loyalty to Putin," Mr Malashenko has explained.

The experience of forming Chechen units does not mean that it can be successful in other regions, given the military operation in Ukraine, Gennady Gudkov, an FSB colonel in reserve and a former State Duma MP, believes.

"I think that there are no successful experiments of the formation of battalions in the Russian Army at all. There are mass refusals, understaffing, demoralization; people refuse to obey orders ... Excuse me for the wording, but the poor from low-income strata of the population [are taking part in the military operation], mainly from the repressive regions – where they have no salaries, jobs, benefits, where people are ready to kill for money indiscriminately. I think that Kadyrov wants to receive additional powers from Putin as the leader of the Caucasus. And now there is an opportunity to show that he is one of the few such leaders capable of forming four battalions instead of one," Mr Gudkov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 20, 2022 at 10:03 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.