Putin’s Chechen enforcer - The alarming world of Ramzan Kadyrov

THE ECONOMIST ^ | 6 Feb 16 | Unknown

[elhombrelibre]

RAMZAN KADYROV has few inhibitions. Last week, just before the first anniversary of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a liberal Russian opposition leader, by a member of Mr Kadyrov’s security services, the Chechen strongman posted a video on his Instagram page. It depicted Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister, in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle. “Kasyanov is in Strasbourg to get money for the opposition,” Mr Kadyrov commented under the video, in a clear warning to opposition politicians. “Whoever still doesn’t get it, will.”

Mr Kadyrov has been ratcheting up the invective for a while. Last month he called liberals “vile jackals” who should be treated as “enemies of the people”. In an article in the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, Mr Kadyrov offered psychiatric treatment to opponents of President Vladimir Putin. He also staged a large rally in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, lest anyone doubt his popular support.

For many Russians, and not only opposition figures, Mr Kadyrov’s latest antics went too far. Ella Panfilova, a human-rights ombudsman in the Kremlin, said his statements should be examined for signs of “extremism”. The Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found 60% of Russians thought Mr Kadyrov’s threats unacceptable. Konstantin Senchenko, an independent politician from Krasnoyarsk, called Mr Kadyrov “a disgrace to Russia” on his Facebook page. The next day, after threatening calls from Chechnya, Mr Senchenko was forced to apologise profusely.

[elhombrelibre]

Yeah, when was the last time you were there and where were you then, oh, old sage of Russia?

[cynwoody]

I don’t understand your comment. Is it purposely cryptic?

The article is behind a paywall. Naive clickers don't get to read it.

Which fact you would have missed, had you either (1) had a subscription or (2) accidentally arrived via a search engine.

I provided a link to accomplish (2) for those of us too cheap to subscribe to The Economissed. That population includes me.

Google for the Referer header. And how to configure how your user agent (that would be your web browser, for those of you in Rio Linda) handles said header.

Some sites put up paywalls but realize, if that's all they do, nobody will read them, and their paywall income will then dry up or never get off the ground in the first place. So, they offer freebies to folks arriving from the likes of Google, in the hope of converting them to paid subscribers. Good luck with that!

In the current instance, I was too lazy to bother with configuration (if I land on Economissed more that once or twice a year, I might be motivated), so I just posted a link which doesn't need any browser extensions or configuration menus.