In the Court of the Chechen King 3/3

Reporter Antony Butts
Director Dom Rotheroe
Producer Mike Chamberlain
http://www.antonybutts.com/
UK tx to Al Jazeera English 24 min.

Ramzan Kadyrov is the infamous iron man of the Caucasus - the President of Chechnya - and a man who does not shy from torture and murder of innocents to achieve his own brand of "order".

But is the Kremlin-backed "King Ramzan" a stooge, an autocratic gangster or a genuine politician doing what is necessary to rebuild a destroyed and traumatised republic?

This investigation into who Ramzan Kadyrov includes several meetings with him - increasingly rare for journalists these days. It uncovers a man loved by almost everyone for the astonishing rate of rebuilding that has happened. The remnants of war barely remain compared to vastly more money spent in Afghanistan and Iraq where progress often seems non-existent. In person, the man reveals himself to live in a sort of hyper-reality, apparently barely seeking and nervous, causing him to almost stutter over his words. The society his feverished efforts are creating is increasingly diverging from the secular one of the Russian state, giving Chechnya a kind of cultural de facto independence that has placated all but the hardcore jihadis in the mountains. Kadyrov is using this to embrace certain repressive Islamic customs which is causing rising injustices among women especially. His brutal policy to anyone suspected of being involved with the jihadis has created a culture of intense fear in Chechen society.
But despite all this, there is no doubt that on balance, people prefer living in modern rebuilt towns and cities than the squalor of just a few years back. Kadyrov may be a brutal dictator, but for now he is the people's dictator.


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