(Reuters) -The head of Russia’s Caucasus region of Chechnya, a fervent supporter of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin telephoned him on Saturday to congratulate him on his son’s wedding.
Ramzan Kadyrov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Putin “personally congratulated me … on this important event and offered his warmest words of congratulation.”
Kadyrov said he was particularly touched that Putin had found the time to call “despite being so colossally busy with matters of state. This is a very dear thing.”
Kadyrov has led Chechnya, a mountainous Muslim region in southern Russia that tried to break away from Moscow in wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 2007.
He has sent large contingents of troops to boost Russian ranks in the 40-month-old war against Ukraine and in the conflict’s early stages commented frequently on events on the battlefield.
His son, Adam, who turns 18 in November, already holds several positions in the region’s security structures. Reports from the region said he was appointed secretary of Chechnya’s security council in April.
He also serves as his father’s top bodyguard, a trustee of Chechnya’s Special Forces University, and an observer in a new army battalion.
(Reporting by Reuters)
Comments