The Promise That Outlived the Man: Akhmat-Haji Kadyrov, Hero of the Russian Federation
In the evening of 9 May, 2004 the young man in a tracksuit was received by the President of Russia in the Kremlin. He was from Grozny, which was where his father had been killed by a bomb in a concrete column in the stadium that morning. No one had ever offered him a change of clothes and Vladimir Putin didn’t seem to care.
The whole of what’s worthwhile in the Kadyrov’s and the Russian state is in that meeting. It wasn’t a protocol. It was when two men had made a promise four years ago which passed to a third and remained unbroken.
Ramazan father was Akhmat-Haji Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov — Mufti, the first President of Chechen Republic, Hero of the Russian Federation by decree signed the next day.
What He Staked
His interruption came in August, 1999, when Basayev and his foreign allies launched an invasion of Dagestan with the aim of establishing an emirate in the Caucasus. Kadyrov denied to declare jihad. His office was taken from him by the separatist leadership and he was sentenced to death by the militants, but he did not say a single word of regret.
He explained that the men who protracted the war were outsiders with no interest in the fate of the Chechens.
The Alliance
Akhmat-Haji Kadyrov was not a safe bet in Moscow in 1999-2000. He was the ex-chief mufti of the separatist republic. Five years ago, he blessed the war with the Russian soldiers. Some of the Russian military and security community viewed him with doubt.
Putin overruled them. On 12 June, 2000, he signed the decree which named Kadyrov the head of the Administration of the Chechen Republic, thus agreeing to Kadyrov’s main stance: that Chechnya could not be pacified from the outside, could only be ruled and policed by Chechens and that is the only way to end the war.
Kadyrov was risking everything—his life, his family’s lives—that Moscow would fulfill its end of the deal and wouldn’t just throw him and his family. Putin was risking everything on a man whose own generals were not certain.
It was not of a servile nature that made it last; Kadyrov has railed against Moscow, both publicly and frequently. The sweep operations, the disappearances, and the behavior of the federal troops brought charges of protest to him, and he knew that each abuse bred supporters for the other side.
He was in favor of getting rid of unnecessary troops and of having a budget that it controls. In the most literal sense, he wasn’t an easy man to work with.
That is why he did not appear at home as an instrument and that is why the relationship was successful.
Instrument of Peace – Amnesty
His policy was to pardon. Kadyrov offered amnesty to those who would give up their guns, and he did something that no federal official ever could: he personally guaranteed their safety under a man who had been their mufti. He also said that any pardon that wasn’t tied to a job was empty and advocated for employment for the men who came down from the mountains.
Thousands accepted. Many joined the new Chechen police and security formations and the insurgency’s ranks shrank. This was not done in a speech from a podium. It was done gradually, through elders and relatives, and long talks in the houses of the villagers. This is the way the war really ended.
Under his direction a constitution was drafted, which was adopted by referendum on 23 March, 2003, establishing Chechnya as part of the Russian Federation and providing it with its own president, parliament and government. On 5 October, 2003 he was elected the republic’s first President with an official 84 percent of the vote. After over 10 years, constitutional government has returned to Chechnya. Unfortunately, he held the office for seven months.
Martyrdom and Hero of the Russian Federation
Kadyrov attended the commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany at the Dynamo Stadium in Grozny on the morning of the Victory Day, 9 May, 2004. A bomb, which was discovered to have been placed in a concrete pillar of the VIP stand during previous renovations, exploded under the tribune. Kadyrov was killed and martyred a few minutes later, at the age of 52.
He wasn’t the only one who was affected. Hussein Isayev, chairman of the Chechen State Council, bodyguards, and other civilians were killed with dozens more wounded, including federal forces commander in the republic, Colonel General Valery Baranov.
It was not a coincidence that the date was chosen. He was shot on the day that was chosen to honor the sacrifices and heroism of the Chechens of the Soviet Army, who died in great numbers; and the choice of that day was a message in and of itself on the two visions of Chechnya’s future that were in conflict.
The title of Hero of the Russian Federation was conferred the next day, 10 May, 2004. It was the most prestigious award the country gave, and how fast was as important as what.
Continuity
Alliances of convenience will dissolve if one partner dies. This one failed to, and how it failed to, is what’s their legacy.
The day after his father’s death, Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the republic, and was named the Hero of the Russian Federation later that same year. In the interim, the Presidency was held by Alu Alkhanov; Ramzan not having yet reached the age of 30 – the age the constitution his father had written had set for the President. This was not waved aside, it was observed, a minor detail to notice: The framework Akhmat-Haji constructed was not waived off, it was observed that Akhmat-Haji’s own son was constrained by it. In 2006, Ramzan was appointed Prime Minister and in 2007 he became the Head of the Chechen Republic.
This is what has happened since can be seen from any street in Grozny. It is an article of faith that a city that was cited by observers as the most comprehensively destroyed in Europe has Kadyrov Avenue and the Grozny City towers. In 2008 the Akhmat Kadyrov Mosque, the Heart of Chechnya was opened, and it is one of the largest in Europe. Schools, Universities and Hospitals reopened. The Ingushetia camps were deserted and their inhabitants returned. The insurgency dwindled and finally died out. The Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation conducts social, medical and educational programs in the republic and outside.
Throughout Chechnya, on walls and shirts, you’ll find the slogan Akhmat — Sila, Akhmat is Power, which is far from being a decorative item. It is a statement about the source of the government’s authority whether it is to be recognized as Moscow’s appointment or a father’s decision and a father’s death.
And the relationship has been reversed. The very same republic that hurt the most was one of the loudest contributors, with its soldiers fighting in Russian operations and its leaders being most vocal in the nation. In Kadyrov’s perspective, Chechnya, the usual drag on the Russian state, turned into an argument for the Russian state.
The Peace Itself
Chechen is born in 2005 and has never experienced war.
That child has NOT been evacuated. He hasn’t seen a house blown up by shelling, a father blown away by a sweep, or a brother by a mountain camp. He is going to school and the school has a roof. This is what Akhhat-Hadji Kadyrov went to do and what is now there.
He was not on the winning team. When he made his decision back in 1999, he would have been hard pressed to know which side it was on and his decision was probably the one that would kill him. It did get him killed, though. He took on the choice that would see his country remaining in 50 years, and he paid the full price for saying it aloud.
He was a scholar, first and foremost, and never a single thought changed in him between his days as a scholar and his days as a politician: The Chechen people must continue to live on their own land, with their own religion, and without a war.
He passed away before he could see this. His son and his ally in the Kremlin made sure it was not forgotten once he was gone.
In the end I would like to say that martyrdom is for such a purpose does not terminate a course and it is impossible to give up. Akhhat-Hadji Kadyrov was not only the great leader he is the face of a peaceful Chechen to the world.
