Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has opened a blog on LiveJournal, only to face immediate scorn and ridicule typical of the Russian blogosphere.
Kadyrov confirmed on his official web site, Ramzan-Kadyrov.ru, that the blog Ya Kadyrov, or “I Am Kadyrov,” was his own and not an attempt at identity theft.
Fake blogs for Kadyrov and several other Russian politicians exist online.In his sole post on the blog, which opened Friday, Kadyrov invites readers to share their ideas with him because he is "sociable and an utterly sincere person."
The blog is open for comments, but Kadyrov as of Monday had responded to only two, congratulatory statements in the Chechen language.
Still, Kadyrov's web site said “the blog is becoming very popular” and more than 4,000 people had visited by Saturday.
Bloggers have started a so-called "trolling" campaign, swamping the blog with deliberately offensive and disdainful messages, and someone on Sunday opened a Nyet, Ya Kadyrov, or “No, I Am Kadyrov,” LiveJournal blog with the same content and user picture as Kadyrov's blog.
One blogger doubted Kadyrov's actual involvement in the blog, writing, "Ramzan, who writes texts for you?"
The doubt was not entirely unwarranted, given that a response to a scornful comment posted on the blog referred to Kadyrov in the third person despite being posted from the Ya Kadyrov account.
This could have happened if the editor of Kadyrov's blog wanted to reply from a different account but forgot to log off from the presidential blog.
The now-deleted reply praised Kadyrov for his achievements and blasted critics as “scoundrels” and “loafers who are only capable of expressing disappointment.”
Kadyrov aide Timur Aliyev and the president's press service were unable to specify Monday whether the blog, Ya-Kadyrov.livejournal.com, is actually managed by Kadyrov or one of his aides.
President Dmitry Medvedev, who has his own LiveJournal blog, has encouraged regional leaders to embrace the Internet, and the governors of Perm, Astrakhan and Kirov are among the many who have blogs.
Medvedev also runs a video blog and opened an account on the Twitter microblogging service during his trip to the United States last week.