Incident with maroon berets shakes Kadyrov's authority among militaries

Ramzan Kadyrov should react to the scandal with the receipt of maroon berets by Chechen law enforcers and punish the violators, so as not to cause negative attitudes towards himself in the army, law enforcers believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this October, a conflict broke out among servicemen of the "Rosgvardiya" (Russian National Guard), when passing tests for obtaining maroon berets. The "Vityaz" fighters stated that law enforcers from Chechnya received berets, although they were removed from the march distance for deception – their friends gave them a lift in cars during the test. Sergey Lysyuk, the head of the Association of the "Vityaz" Brotherhood of Maroon Berets, has stated that a relative of the head of Chechnya was removed from the tests. Maroon berets have used to be awarded deservedly; therefore, the scandal sparked a sharp reaction from militaries, experts assert.

The incident could affect the attitude to Kadyrov among military servicemen, Evgeny Chernousov, a Moscow lawyer and a retired colonel, has noted.

Magomed, the chairman of the Dagestani police trade union, treats it necessary to publish the names of all the Chechen law enforcers who had received maroon berets with violations.

Even if Kadyrov had not known about the violations committed by Chechen law enforcers, he should have already publicly reacted to this incident, a reserved colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) is sure. He believes that there is no systemic negative attitude towards the head of Chechnya among militaries, but "this is not far off."