Kadyrov calls Russian pop icon Alla Pugacheva an ‘enemy of the people’ for praising Chechen separatist leader
Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov has called legendary Russian pop singer Alla Pugacheva an “enemy of the people” for comments she made in her first extended interview since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
Kadyrov pointed to Pugacheva’s praise of Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, who led the republic’s independence movement until his assassination in 1996.
“[Dudayev’s] ambitions as a general, posturing, and indifference to the real problems of the Chechen people led to a surge in banditry and complete financial collapse,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram. He added that “enemies of the people and traitors like Pugacheva” should not “mindlessly speculate about the most difficult period in Chechen history.”
Pugacheva, 76, left Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During her three-hour YouTube interview with journalist Katerina Gordeeva, she said that she knew Dzhokhar Dudayev personally and called him a “decent, respectable, cultured, handsome man.”
And his wife! An artist, a writer, a politician… She would call me, thinking I could somehow help. But what could I do? Nothing. Even now, I’m ashamed to pass on greetings to her. Alla Fyodorovna, if you happen to see this interview, I apologize for not being able to do anything to keep Dzhokar alive.
Pugacheva’s remarks about Dudayev have also prompted a lawsuit seeking 1.5 billion rubles (more than $18 million) in damages. The plaintiff is lawyer Alexander Treschev, a regular guest on Russian state TV talk shows.
