Ramsan Kadyrov
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Ramsan Kadyrov (born in or around 1977) is a militia leader in Chechnya. After his father, Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated on 9 May 2004, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic.
As the head of the Chechen Presidential Security Service, Kadyrov has often been accused of being brutal, ruthless and antidemocratic; according to newspapers, he was implicated in several instances of torture and murder and was falsely rumored to have died of a gunshot wound on 28 April, 2004.
German Human Rights group The Goettingen-based Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) have alleged that up to 70% of all murders, rapes, torture and kidnappings in Chechnya have been committed by Ramsan's 3,000-strong private army, the internal security force he heads known as the Kadyrovtsy.
He has the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin, though it is rumoured recent unauthorised military manouvers carried out by Kadyrov have angered the Kremlin.
External links
- Even Chechnya's Dream Street Is a Dead End; The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/international/europe/23letter.html)