RUSSIA Moscow, Kadyrov’s Chechens and his rise to power

In addition to the leader of the Chechen Republic, the deputy of the duma Adam Delimkhanov, nicknamed the “commander of the TikTok armies”. After Putin’s defeats in the Ukraine, Kadyrov is positioning himself for a greater role in Moscow. Power plays began in the Kremlin.

Moscow () – In the Russian withdrawal after the occupation of many towns in Ukraine, Adam Delimkhanov continues to make headlines. This is the representative of the Chechen Republic in the duma Russian state. Many newspapers define him as the “most dangerous deputy in Russia”, but also as the “commander of the TikTok armies” of the “kadyrovtsy”, the Chechen warriors engaged in the war in Ukraine.

More than military maneuvers, the politician is dedicated to taking propaganda photos holding weapons, images that are later disseminated on social networks. Delimkhanov, Chechen President Kadyrov’s right-hand man – and his possible replacement should the leader rise to the upper echelons of Russian politics – is also implicated in an endless series of scandals. Some, quite lurid, including attacks and political crimes.

The popular Chechen deputy loves to appear in photos in the company of other soldiers, also called “the TikTok fighters” because of the frequency of their presence on social networks, even more than on the battlefield. journalists from slydstvo.info they determined that most of the propaganda photographs of Delimkhanov and his warriors were taken in the occupied city of Mariupol. And to be more specific, in a single neighborhood, close to the Russian border, within a radius of no more than one kilometer.

In this “occupied zone” are organized tours for journalists in which “the strength and greatness of the Chechen armies” is shown, which they want to extol as the spearhead of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, at least in terms of image. Delimkhanov was also decorated by Putin, who distinguished him with the “Gold Star” and the title of Hero of Russia. This, despite the fact that he currently integrates the rosgvardija (the presidential guard), which is mainly in charge of policing the occupied territory.

Kadyrov’s most faithful is always absent in the duma from Moscow. However, in June he was elevated from a simple deputy to first vice president of the Parliamentary Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption. In his 15 years of activity in the duma, Delimkhanov has put his signature on a total of 19 legislative projects, most of them unsuccessful. In addition, he received the title of “taciturn deputy” because during 2017 he never uttered a word in the assembly and did not join any parliamentary initiative.

A distant relative of President Kadyrov, Delimkhanov is a veteran of the Chechen war of the 1990s, in which he was a member of the group led by legendary commander Salman Raduyev. In 1999, on the eve of the arrival of the Russian army in the self-proclaimed independent “Ičkerija”, he went over in time to the side of Akhmat Kadyrov, father of the current president. Thus he became a member of the Chechnya security services along with Ramzan, who succeeded his mother after his sudden and mysterious death in an attack at the Grozny stadium.

In 2006, the then-future Chechen deputy of the duma he was designated as a suspect in the murder of an FSB (internal secret service) colonel. The murder occurred in the center of Moscow and the victim was a fellow countryman, the commander of the “Ardents” brigade Mavladi Baysarov, confronted with Ramzan Kadyrov. Another Chechen politician, Beslan Gantamirov, testified that Baysarov had been killed with a gun belonging to Delimkhanov.

Ramzan was appointed interim president after his father’s death, and since then his faithful comrade Delimkhanov has represented the Caucasian republic in the Duma. Many associate his name with the assassination of the main opposition politician to Putin: former Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, assassinated on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge, in front of the Kremlin, in 2015.

Since 2009, Delimkhanov has been considered “the successor” of the Chechen president, who is trying by all means to move to Moscow -especially after the Kherson debacle- backed by the other hawk of the Russian war, Evgenij Prigožin, head of the Wagner mercenary company. The withdrawal of these days from Kherson could trigger a changing of the guard in the Kremlin, to make way for the leaders of extreme war propaganda, the TikTok generals and soldiers.