Kadyrov praises Wagner Group, announces plans to start his own private military company

Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov published a Telegram post praising Kremlin-backed tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin, founder of the private military company Wagner Group, saying that Wagner Group’s actions in Ukraine have inspired him to start his own private military company. 

Kadyrov wrote that the private military company has achieved “very impressive results” and that Wagner assault brigades “take on an extremely difficult part of the work” and apparently “achieve their goal in any situation.”

“I’m seriously planning, after I finish my work in the civil service, to compete with our dear brother Evgeny Prigozhin and create a private military company,” Kadyrov added.

Kadyrov’s Telegram post appeared after American think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote, on February 18, that Kadyrov had declined to support Prigozhin in an “informational campaign against the Russian Ministry of Defense.” Prigozhin is apparently trying to assert that Wagner Group “is not subordinate to the Ministry of Defense and ‘has nothing to do with the Russian army.’” The ISW suggests that Kadyrov’s formal ties to the Kremlin are more important to him than his relationship with Prigozhin.