Kadyrovites


Kadyrovites or Kadyrovtsy or Akhmat is an informal term of Chechnya-based detachments of National Guard of Russia, Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Russian Ministry of Defence. The name refers to Akhmad Kadyrov, 1st President of the Chechen Republic and father of Ramzan Kadyrov. While technically subordinated to Russian state agencies, they enjoy a special treatment and some describe them as "Kadyrov's private army". Some Kadyrovite units are in charge of guarding Chechnya oil fields and Tsentaroi, now Akhmat-Yurt, Kadyrov's home village.
In 2015 BBC reported that a considerable part of Kadyrovites were Chechen Republic of Ichkeria militants pardoned by Russian president Vladimir Putin under the word of Ramzan Kadyrov, with their numbers informally estimated in the range of 10,000–30,000.
The Kadyrovites have been criticized as being Ramzan Kadyrov's private army, and have been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses such as kidnapping, forced disappearances, torture and murder. Critics claim the Kadyrovites use extrajudicial punishment to cement Kadyrov's autocratic rule. By mid-2000s they surpassed Russian federal servicemen as the most feared organization among Chechnya's civilian population. Under Kadyrov's orders, the Kadyrovites committed anti-gay purges in Chechnya. The Kadyrovites have also been involved in international conflicts including the Syrian Civil War in 2017 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Notable units

Militia

After Akhmad Kadyrov's defection to the Kremlin side in 1999, he and his followers fought for Russia against Maskhadov government troops and Islamist insurgents. The return of Russian rule over Chechnya was declared in July 2000, beginning the "guerrilla phase" of the conflict. Kadyrov was appointed as acting President of the Chechen Republic by Russian president Vladimir Putin, and was elected President of the Chechen Republic on 5 October 2003. The Kadyrovites acted as bodyguards to Kadyrov, who was the target of several assassination attempts. The security detail was headed by Movladi Baisarov.
Technically still a personal militia, the Kadyrovites functioned as an unofficial part of the Chechen Republic's state police, without legal status in either the republican or federal government. In May 2003, the group established effective control over the Chechen OMON, then estimated at 300 men, which had been considered one of the strongholds of anti-Kadyrov opposition. It was led by Musa Gazimagomadov, who died in a road accident under "strange circumstances". Afterwards, the Kadyrovite OMON was run by Ruslan Alkhanov, a former rebel commander amnestied just a year before, and who later became the Chechnya's Interior Minister.

Legalization

Kadyrov was killed on 9 May 2004 in the 2004 Grozny stadium bombing, in what is considered to be a deliberate assassination. Control of the Kadyrovites passed to his son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was second-in-command of the militia. At that point, the backbone of the militia still consisted of former separatist fighters, and their allegiance to the new leader was questioned. Many continued serving as Kadyrovites under Ramzan due to implicit threats on their relatives' welfare; coercion was commonly used in Chechnya to demand compliance. Hostage-taking in particular was widespread and affected many in the country, including former rebel Minister of Defence Magomed Khambiyev. /
Shortly after Akhmad Kadyrov's death, the unit of the Kadyrovites responsible for his protection was formally disbanded. Most of the remaining units were integrated into Russian law enforcement agencies and security authorities in Chechnya under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Later two Kadyrovite units were formed: the "Akhmad Kadyrov" Second Road Patrol Regiment of the Police , and the regiment for the protection oil and gas objects informally known as Neftepolk, headed by the Kadyrov's cousin Adam Delimkhanov.
By 2006, the total number of Kadyrovites, who by then included the PPSM-2, the Oil Regiment, and so-called Anti-Terrorist Centers, was no longer being disclosed. An intern at Memorial estimated that they numbered around 5,000 people, as did a 2007 a similar Reuters estimate.
On 29 April 2006, Ramzan Kadyrov officially disbanded his security service, saying on television that "These structures no longer exist, and those calling themselves Kadyrovites are impostors and must be punished in accordance with the law." Some of the Kadyrovite gunmen were completely integrated into Chechen government power structures, while others, estimated to number at least 1,800, continued serving in semi-legal paramilitary formations. The ATCs were quickly closed down, and some members transferred to newly formed battalions: Sever and Yug.
The Kadyrovites were rearmed and given heavy equipment, such as armoured personnel carriers they previously did not have. Observers have considered that their recognition and legalization as a law enforcement unit was implemented by the Russian government to redeploy some federal troops in Chechnya to the neighboring state of Dagestan, where Islamist insurgency had not been contained. In 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov became the new President of the Chechen Republic and now controlled all Chechen Interior Ministry forces; the top seats of his government were occupied by the former Kadyrovite commanders.
In 2016, after a series of reforms, most of the Russian internal military and paramilitary troops were placed under the command of the newly created National Guard of Russia. Chechen internal troops were placed under nominal control of the National Guard, although still under direct control of Kadyrov. Researcher Gordon M. Hahn, on his blog, and Russian political scientist Gleb Pavlovsky, who heads the analytics department of the Center for Political Technologies, said that one of Vladimir Putin's objectives was to limit Kadyrov's power over his troops by placing them under the control of the National Guard, which respond directly to Putin.

International activities

Syria

As part of Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war, Kadyrovite police units were deployed on the ground in Aleppo to "preserve order" and engage in civic outreach.

Ukraine

Chechen militants loyal to Kadyrov have been active in the Russo-Ukrainian War since 2014. These forces include the Vostok Battalion and the Chechen Death Battalion.
Kadyrovite volunteer units participated in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February. Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed on 26 February that the Kadyrovites had been deployed in Ukraine. According to Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, they were deployed to capture and kill Ukraine's leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Foreign Policy described the deployment of Chechen Kadyrovites as "leveraging the very presence of Chechen soldiers in Ukraine as a psychological weapon against Ukrainians".
The Kyiv Independent reported the destruction of a Chechen column of 56 tanks by Ukrainian missiles near Hostomel on 27 February. According to Ukrainian sources, the missile attack had been delayed because the Kadyrovites had been hiding in civilian infrastructure. On the same day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said that the Alpha Group of the SBU had ambushed a convoy of Chechen troops in Hostomel and killed the commander of the 141st motorized regiment Magomed Tushayev. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied this, saying he was still alive and posted a video which he said showed Tushayev alive. Chechen media posted video it said was of Tushayev denying his death on 16 March 2022.
According to Ukrainian media, Chechen troops have been used as barrier troops, used to address low morale by executing Russian deserters. In 1 April, Ukrainian media reported that Chechen troops executed conscripted soldiers of the Luhansk People's Republic who refused to fight. There were unconfirmed reports that Chechen troops were executing Russian troops who were too injured in field hospitals. On 29 April, Ukrainian intelligence alleged that a unit of Buryat soldiers and Chechen troops exchanged fire on the village of Kyselivka in the Kherson Oblast. Supposedly the conflict was caused by the sharing of loot, exacerbated by tensions with what the Buryat soldiers saw as favoritism of the Chechen troops, as the Buryats had to be in the frontlines and conduct offensive operations while the Chechens are better-equipped and stay behind as barrier troops or conduct anti-partisan warfare.
On 1 March, Kadyrov said that Chechen fighters in Ukraine had sustained losses of two killed and six wounded. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Chechen units suffered "hundreds" of casualties while being deployed around Kyiv and were withdrawn to Chechnya on 13 March 2022. Chechen troops were seen fighting in the Siege of Mariupol. The National Guard of Ukraine released a video appearing to show fighters from the Azov Regiment, based in Mariupol, greasing bullets in lard to be used against Chechen troops as an insult, in reference to the prohibition of pork in Islamic law.
Chechen troops in Ukraine have become known for publishing videos on social media, including combat footage from Mariupol. Kadyrov was widely mocked online as a "TikTok warrior" after a picture meant to show him traveling in Ukraine showed him praying at a gas station whose brand only exists in Russia.
In late June 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov announced the creation of four new battalions consisting only of ethnic Chechens. These battalions would be named Север-Ахмат, Юг-Ахмат, Запад-Ахмат, and Восток-Ахмат, according to Kadyrov, and that they would be sent to fight in Ukraine.