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‘A psychopath': Chechen warlord Kadyrov raises prospect of more brutal phase to Ukraine war – Yahoo News
[Yahoo via MyNewsLink] WASHINGTON — Launched by Moscow in 1999, the second Chechen war elevated the stature of Russia’s new and then little-known prime minister, a former intelligence officer named Vladimir Putin. Intended to bring the mountainous Islamic region back under the Kremlin’s control, the exceptionally brutal campaign endeared Putin to Russians nostalgic for a show of strength from what was considered by much of the world to be a fading nuclear superpower.

"The bandits will be destroyed," Putin said at the time, in an echo of how he would talk of the "Nazis" he now claims to be purging from Ukraine’s government and military. "We must go through the mountain caves and scatter and destroy all those who are armed."

So when Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov announced earlier this week that he was in Ukraine to support Putin’s invasion, it seemed as if the past had caught up with the present. Even though Kadyrov’s journey to the front — he claimed on social media to have nearly reached the capital, Kyiv, which is still under Ukrainian control — may have been fictitious, amounting to little more than a publicity stunt, some say his involvement could lead to an even bloodier conflict.
Posted by: Besoeker 2022-03-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=627976