Issue of collector coins with Kadyrov's portrait means personality cult, experts say

Stamping of collector silver coins-medals bearing the image of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has been launched in the city of Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk Region. Political analysts interviewed by the ‘Caucasian Knot’ said that this initiative is a typical manifistation of the personality cult.

In total, the factory in Zlatoust will make 25 coins, each of which weighing a kilogram. Instead of the traditional coin reverse with nomination, they will bear a portrait of Ramzan Kadyrov, while the coin heads will have the image of the Chechen mosque "Heart of Chechnya" named after Akhmad Kadyrov, Vladimir Vasyukhin, the Director General of the factory named "Oruzheinik", where the coins are stamped, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The production is carried out at his expense, businessman has stressed.

In the opinion of Oleg Orlov, a member of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", such medals are an evidence of "bad taste".

"It's an obvious manifestation of personality cult. Since some officials call Kadyrov a Padishah in their speeches, then, stamping medals becomes a normal practice," he said.

Dmitry Oreshkin, a political scientist and a former member of the Presidential Council for Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, has also treated the production of these medals as a predictalbe development. According to his story, it is a normal for political trajectory "of this kind of leaders" under "this kind of regime."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.