Moscow,
\nRamzan Kadyrov, the outspoken leader of Russia\u2019s Chechnya republic, said he was ready to step down, leaving it for the Kremlin to choose his successor.<\/p>\n
Kadyrov, a 41-year-old father of 12 whose interests vary from thoroughbred horses to wrestling and boxing, has been accused by human rights bodies of arbitrary arrests and torture of opponents, zero tolerance of sexual minorities and tough political declarations that have embarrassed the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
A former Islamist rebel who had led Chechnya since 2007, he was endorsed by President Vladimir Putin in March last year to carry on in the job, while being warned that Russian law must be strictly enforced in the majority-Muslim region.<\/p>\n
Asked in a TV interview if he was prepared to resign, Kadyrov replied: \u201cIt is possible to say that it is my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce there was a need for people like me to fight, to put things in order. Now we have order and prosperity … and time has come for changes in the Chechen Republic,\u201d he told Rossiya 1 nationwide channel in comments aired early on Monday in central Russia.<\/p>\n
Asked about his would-be successor, Kadyrov replied: \u201cThis is the prerogative of the state leadership.\u201d \u201cIf I am asked … there are several people who are 100 percent capable of carrying out these duties at the highest level.\u201d He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
Kadyrov\u2019s unexpected statement comes as Putin, 65, is widely expected to announce he will run for his fourth term as president in elections due in March.<\/p>\n
The former KGB spy is widely expected to win by a landslide if he chooses to seek re-election, but some analysts have said his association with politicians like Kadyrov may be exploited by opponents during the campaign.<\/p>\n
Chechnya, devastated by two wars in which government troops fought pro-independence rebels, has been rebuilt thanks to generous financial handouts from Russia\u2019s budget coffers. It remains one of Russia\u2019s most heavily subsidised regions.<\/p>\n
Describing Putin as his \u201cidol\u201d, Kadyrov said in the interview: \u201cI am ready to die for him, to fulfil any order.\u201d Kadyrov also strongly denied a Chechen link to the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in 2015.<\/p>\n
In June, a Moscow court convicted five Chechen men of murdering Nemtsov, one of Putin\u2019s most vocal critics.<\/p>\n
Nemtsov had been working on a report examining Russia\u2019s role in Ukraine. His killing sent a chill through opposition circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow, Ramzan Kadyrov, the outspoken leader of Russia\u2019s Chechnya republic, said he was ready to step down, leaving it for the Kremlin to choose his successor. Kadyrov, a 41-year-old father of 12 whose interests vary from thoroughbred horses to wrestling and boxing, has been accused by human rights bodies of arbitrary arrests and torture of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11329,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327\/revisions\/11329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}