‘Whomever I trust, I appoint,’ says Kadyrov of his relatives in Chechnya’s government

Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov said he finds it “funny” when he’s accused of breaking the law by giving his relatives government posts.

Kadyrov was responding to an article from Sevastopol local news outlet ForPost on the “Kadyrov dynasty.” Among other things, the article mentions Ramzan Kadyrov appointing his 26-year-old nephew, Khamzat Kadyrov, deputy prime minister for real estate and private property.

“To listen to these horror stories, you’d think that the entire republic will fall apart because, out of hundreds of thousands of employees in the region, a few are my close relatives. Don’t make me laugh,” the Chechnya governor posted on his Telegram channel. “The demand is ten times greater on my relatives in any institution or position, because they have to prove that they’re working not thanks to me, but in spite of me. Whoever I trust, I appoint.”

In 2018, Russian BBC estimated that out of 158 senior officials in Chechnya, 30 percent were Ramzan Kadyrov’s relatives, 23 percent were from his village, and another 12 percent were his friends or their relatives.