Ramzan Kadyrov is successfully exploiting the situation in Chechnya to garner support and stay in power.
Russia’s experience in Chechnya showed that it would have to change its approach to controlling these republics not through the old Soviet methods but by giving them a measure of autonomy so long as certain red lines are not crossed.
On March 1, Russian president Vladimir Putin, having accepted President AliAlkhanov’s resignation two weeks earlier, nominated acting president Ramzan Kadyrov (pic right, with Putin) for the presidency of Chechnya. Shakhid Dzhamaldayev and Muslim Khuchiyev were also nominated as a purely formal gesture. The next day, the nominations were taken to the Chechen parliament, where Kadyrov was confirmed as the next president; 56 of the 58 votes cast were for the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov, one MP voted against and one abstained.
