Feb 4, 2010

Moscow's New Man in the North Caucusus

There’s a new sheriff in the North Caucusus and his name is Aleksandr Khloponin.

Appointed directly by Moscow, he’s apparently got the local strongmen nervous about job security. So nervous, that eternal over-achiever Ramzan Kadyrov pulled out all the stops to whack a local resistance leader last week and has promised to deliver the head of Doku Umarov (another honcho) on a platter.

Oh, and Ramzan, he now cares about human rights issues. According to some excellent reporting by Jamestown:

“Following Putin's suggestion to provide protection for human rights activists, Kadyrov immediately [said] that Boris Berezovsky was behind the murder of the well-known Chechen human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova.”

And the dog ate his homework. You got a problem with that? Then we can let Grozny go back to this:

Downtown Grozny, 1995.

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