The video of the meeting between Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Chechen leaders “near Kiev”, which was distributed by Chechen media at the beginning of the great war between Russia and Ukraine, was filmed in Chechnya. About this She says In a large study conducted by Novaya Gazeta Europe on how Kadyrov’s army is structured.
Video clipThe report in question was published by ChGTRK Grozny on March 13, 2022, shortly after the large-scale Russian invasion. The TV channel claimed that the President of Chechnya was personally in the combat zone in Ukraine. The recording allegedly showed a meeting between Kadyrov and Chechen security forces, just seven kilometers from Kiev.
The video shows meeting participants wearing camouflage clothing standing in the basement, where a Chechen flag with a picture of Akhmad Kadyrov is hung on one of the walls. The President of Chechnya listens to the report of the Deputy Chief of the Russian Guard in Chechnya, Daniil Martynov, about the Chechen fighters, on the orders of Kadyrov, storming an empty orphanage.
At the end of the video, Kadyrov interrupts, points his finger at the map, and asks: “Is it now seven kilometers from here to Kiev?” Martynov answers: “Yes, from the point where we were, there are seven kilometers left to Kiev.”
The video did not inspire confidence on either the Russian or Ukrainian sides. “If Kadyrov was really close to Kiev, the Ukrainian armed forces would destroy him,” wrote Alexei Aristovich, who at the time was an adviser to President Zelensky. Press Secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov maleThe Kremlin has no official information about the trip of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov to Ukraine. “Well, in my opinion, he did not directly claim that he was there,” the Kremlin representative added.
Kadyrov in response to Aristovich books: “Why don’t you watch the filming or am I knocking on your door?” He did not respond publicly to Peskov.
According to a source from Novaya Gazeta Europe, Kadyrov’s meeting near Kiev was organized by the Chechen president’s PR team. This event was filmed on March 12 in one of the buildings of Akhmat Super in Grozny.
According to the post, some of the participants in the shooting were brought to the “meeting” from a nearby cell in the SOBR basement. Among them, journalists name the commander of the “South” battalion, Huseyin Majidov, and the commander of the “North” regiment, Magomed Toshev, who ended up in a secret prison on charges of smuggling captured weapons, which they took out of Ukraine and hid this fact from Kadyrov.
Chechen riot police chief Anzor Pisayev ended up in the same prison due to a fight with Martynov. According to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe, during the battles at Gostomel Airport, Pisaev hit Martynov because he left the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Chechen riot police commander later escaped, the post said.
The President of Chechnya, his comrades, security forces and Chechen special forces “Akhmat” have been promoting themselves on social networks and pro-Kremlin media since the beginning of the war. That is why they are criticized by Russian “military correspondents” and Z audiences, as well as by the Ukrainian media. The first believes that Kadyrov’s men often sit in the rear during real battles. The latter sarcastically call the Chechen army “TikTok forces” for posting videos that appear to be theatrical clips.
Novaya Gazeta Europe links the active PR campaign of Chechen representatives to the fact that at the beginning of the war, Ramzan Kadyrov was in conflict with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard. This is said to be due to the fact that in the first days of the massive invasion, elite Chechen security forces abandoned the war.