21:38, 14 August 2019

Dispute about Imam Shamil provokes new reproaches to Kadyrov

Imam Shamil. Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Imam_Shamil#/media/File:Die_Gartenlaube_(1860)_b_409.jpg

After the publication of a fragment of Ruslan Kurbanov's interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, some social network users refused to accept Kadyrov's explanations of his words about residents of Dagestan. Authors of many comments rebuked Kadyrov for protracting the public discussion about Imam Shamil.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today Ruslan Kurbanov, a Dagestani journalist and a political analyst, a member of the "Russian Congress of the Caucasian Nations", published a fragment of an interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, who told about his attitude to Imam Shamil and "pushbutton heroes." Within the first four hours, Kurbanov's publication gained 71,900 pageviews.

On the 20th anniversary of the Chechen militants' invasion into Dagestan, Ramzan Kadyrov drew a parallel between these events and the 19th century Caucasian War and accused Imam Shamil of repressions against Chechens for their unwillingness to confront Russia. On August 8, in Makhachkala, several dozen people came to the Avar Theatre to protest against Kadyrov's words about Imam Shamil. The action caused Kadyrov's discontent. People who continue writing "twaddle and nonsense" on the Internet should come to their senses so that not to initiate war against them, Ramzan Kadyrov said in his recent video message.

In the published fragment of the interview, Ramzan Kadyrov has emotionally assured that his words about the followers of Imam Shamil were misinterpreted in Dagestan. "They presented [what] I never said, our enemies – these traitors, shaitans, goats, pushbutton heroes, devils, as I name them. I didn't say a word about Dagestan, and about men and women," Ramzan Kadyrov told Ruslan Kurbanov.

Some Instagram users have accepted Kadyrov's explanations. "Ramzan is right; he hasn't insulted Dagestanis; he spoke about certain heroes. Chechens are our brothers. Do not be fooled by provocations," the user mirzaev_alimirza1 has called.

However, a much larger number of commentators criticized the position of the head of Chechnya. "He became an Imam in our republic; even in this interview he stands his ground," wrote, in particular, the user avar_nation.

"There can be everything: maybe they misunderstood him; maybe they presented it wrong, but I don't understand one thing: why a person of this level, the head of an entire republic, should sit in the Instagram and make video appeals," wrote the user i.z.5380.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 14, 2019 at 04:57 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.