Grozny - The leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, is convinced that the former "representative of Ichkeria" based in London, Akhmed Zakayev, and his "Western bosses" will not be able to throw European Chechens into "the furnace of the civil war" in Ukraine.
“One of the Ukrainian news outlets interviewed Akhmed Zakayev, who asserted that thousands of European Chechens are ready to join this country’s army to fight against Russia. Shallow talk and, what is more, shallow chatter. Russia is not fighting with Ukraine. So Zakayev, if he wants to fight against Russia, should come to Chechnya, try and do something to harm our country,” Kadyrov was quoted by his press office as saying.
“Apparently, Zakayev’s bosses did not want that,” he said. “But practically all European Chechens remain Russian citizens and patriots of Russia. Each summer they travel to Chechnya with their families, rejoicing at the change and supporting the course of the republic’s leader, he says,” Kadyrov stressed.
“Zakayev and the likes of him would want to throw European Chechens into the furnace of the civil war in Ukraine but they will never be able to do so,” he said.
“Zakayev has no sense of shame, no conscience, no motherland and no fatherland. Otherwise, he would not be talking about sending other people’s sons to the war while hiding his own under his wife’s skirt. Zakayev has never been a warrior, nor a politician. He has never had a unit under his command. Like an actor, he would put on camouflage in front of cameras, hiding behind his wife’s back the rest of the time. If he was such a leader and fighter, why did he leave war-stricken Chechnya and shamefully flee to London to the elderly actress? Why did he not stay in Chechnya to fight against the federal forces, against Kadyrov’s supporters?” the republic’s leader said.
He says that “Zakayev’s talk cannot be taken seriously as he has long lost the moral right to refer to himself not only as a politician but also a Chechen, as is also evidenced by his words about thousands of Chechens who will fight in Ukraine against Russia.”
All this talk about Chechens ostensibly fighting against the Ukrainian army is a “piece of cheap propaganda,” Kadyrov said. “Perhaps, someone did go there of their own will, as any war draws people from various countries,” he said.
“But there is nothing astonishing about this, since Maidan leaders themselves acknowledge having fought against the Russian army in Chechnya until they felt they had to get out of there,” the Chechen leader said.
He also called allegations in the Ukrainian media that “dozens of Chechens had contacted the Ukrainian military command and asked for some corridor,” a fake.
“Just like the Americans were delusional about Chechens in Afghanistan and Iraq, so are the Ukrainians about them in the southeast,” Kadyrov said.
