GUDERMES, Chechnya -- Ramzan Kadyrov's personal empire is a sports complex filled with boxers and bodybuilders. But his influence emanates far beyond the sweaty halls of the "Ramzan" boxing club in Chechnya's tattered second city.
A muscle-bound boxer himself, Kadyrov runs the security service for his father, Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. The 1,500-strong paramilitary force has been accused of sowing fear throughout the republic and guaranteeing the president's grip on power.
In a rare meeting with foreign journalists last week, Ramzan Kadyrov, 27, brushed aside concerns by human rights groups and said it was his dream to kill rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev and exterminate radical Islamists.
"The prophet said it is a holy duty to kill every one of them, not to talk to them or argue with them. You see one, you shoot and you leave. If there is any resistance -- salaam aleikum!" said Kadyrov, punching the air with his bruised knuckles.
Human rights groups say it is exactly this shoot-first, ask-questions-later attitude that is the trouble with Kadyrov's forces. According to the Chechen presidency's own statistics, there were 477 disappearances last year. Human Rights Watch has estimated 60 disappearances per month in the first half of 2003.
When President Vladimir Putin launched a second military campaign in Chechnya in 1999, Kadyrov's father was the republic's head mufti. A former supporter of rebel leader Maskhadov, Akhmad Kadyrov switched sides. Putin appointed him head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in 2000.
Ramzan Kadyrov's security service has been accused of intimidating Chechens into supporting the Kremlin line in a number of key votes last year: a March constitutional referendum that paved the way for presidential elections in October, as well as the State Duma ballot in December.
The senior Kadyrov won the election -- in which he was the only candidate -- with more than 80 percent of the vote, in balloting that the Moscow Helsinki Group said was "a shameful farce." Large international organizations refused even to monitor the election.
The number of voters participating in the Duma elections in Chechnya was 11 percent higher than the republic's voting population, according to the Central Elections Commission. United Russia, the pro-Kremlin party, won more than 80 percent of the Chechen vote.
The Kremlin bills these votes as evidence of increasing stability in Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov has since been charged with heading Putin's re-election campaign in the republic, according to Kadyrov assistant Shamsail Sarliyev.
"Although the people may have some complaints about their safety here, in general they are positive [that Akhmad Kadyrov took power]. This was proven by voter turnout at the constitutional referendum -- it was as high as in Soviet times," said FSB Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in Chechnya.
Ramzan Kadyrov said it was his duty to bring constitutional order to the republic so that the Chechen people "can live normally like in other places, like England, France and Moscow."
In the meantime, he travels with an entourage of equally burly men in pinstriped suits driving unmarked silver Ladas.
Like his father, Kadyrov and his cousins fought against Russian forces in the first Chechen war, from 1994 to 1996. Many of the men now under his command were rebels who were amnestied and have now taken up arms for the pro-Moscow side, he said.
"My work would be more difficult without their help," the senior Kadyrov told reporters on a separate occasion.
Human rights groups, however, have detailed how the security force deals with people considered enemies.
The Moscow-based Memorial organization has published eyewitness accounts of alleged abuses by Ramzan Kadyrov's men, known locally as "Kadyrovtsy."
"I looked outside the window and saw ... that they were dragging him by the legs face down in the earth. His arms were broken, you could see the bones, there was blood. It was so cruel," reads the account of a nurse from a hospital in Sleptsovskaya, Ingushetia, where a large number of Chechen refugees have been staying. Kadyrov's men are believed to have staged a raid there in August that resulted in the killing of one man and the disappearance of five.
Memorial also reports a raid by Kadyrov's men in the Zavodskoi district of Grozny in September, which left two of his men dead, possibly by friendly fire.
According to witnesses, Kadyrov's masked men picked a house at random and entered it, saying "two of ours were killed, we have to take someone away." As a result, the men led away Zainalbek Khakimov, 20, and Kazbek Visaitov, 24. The two men were beaten and released several days later without being charged.
When confronted with such accounts, Kadyrov leaned forward on his elbows, his head seemingly riveted to his shoulders.
"I don't want our mothers and sisters to cry, I don't want our people to be kidnapped," he said, his voice almost as raspy as his father's.
Kadyrov refused to take journalists to a former chicken farm outside Gudermes that human rights activists allege is the site of detentions and beatings. He said those reports were no more than rumors.
Accounts of excesses by his men are fabrications by "the enemies of Russia," Kadyrov said. "People who sympathize with the terrorists are the ones who say I do these things."
Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen Boxing Federation, prefers to focus on the good he has done for Chechnya, like helping create the sports club where he held the news conference.
Kadyrov staged an elaborate fighting show by young boxers and then put on a pair of gloves himself to show off his prowess. Dozens of teenagers in a neighboring building exhibited their skills as weightlifters and wrestlers.
When Ramzan unsuccessfully attempted to lift a hefty weight for the TV cameras, an assistant swiftly took his place, bench-pressing the massive barbell without taking off his tie.
Whether or not they fear Kadyrov, people in Chechnya are well aware of his influence.
Makka Salamova, 55, stands outside the Ramzan sports center every few days in the hopes of telling its namesake about the disappearance of her two sons.
"There's no access to him," she said in tears. "My two sons where taken away three months ago, I don't know by whom. I want him to help me find them."
A muscle-bound boxer himself, Kadyrov runs the security service for his father, Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. The 1,500-strong paramilitary force has been accused of sowing fear throughout the republic and guaranteeing the president's grip on power.
In a rare meeting with foreign journalists last week, Ramzan Kadyrov, 27, brushed aside concerns by human rights groups and said it was his dream to kill rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev and exterminate radical Islamists.
"The prophet said it is a holy duty to kill every one of them, not to talk to them or argue with them. You see one, you shoot and you leave. If there is any resistance -- salaam aleikum!" said Kadyrov, punching the air with his bruised knuckles.
Human rights groups say it is exactly this shoot-first, ask-questions-later attitude that is the trouble with Kadyrov's forces. According to the Chechen presidency's own statistics, there were 477 disappearances last year. Human Rights Watch has estimated 60 disappearances per month in the first half of 2003.
When President Vladimir Putin launched a second military campaign in Chechnya in 1999, Kadyrov's father was the republic's head mufti. A former supporter of rebel leader Maskhadov, Akhmad Kadyrov switched sides. Putin appointed him head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in 2000.
Ramzan Kadyrov's security service has been accused of intimidating Chechens into supporting the Kremlin line in a number of key votes last year: a March constitutional referendum that paved the way for presidential elections in October, as well as the State Duma ballot in December.
The senior Kadyrov won the election -- in which he was the only candidate -- with more than 80 percent of the vote, in balloting that the Moscow Helsinki Group said was "a shameful farce." Large international organizations refused even to monitor the election.
The number of voters participating in the Duma elections in Chechnya was 11 percent higher than the republic's voting population, according to the Central Elections Commission. United Russia, the pro-Kremlin party, won more than 80 percent of the Chechen vote.
The Kremlin bills these votes as evidence of increasing stability in Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov has since been charged with heading Putin's re-election campaign in the republic, according to Kadyrov assistant Shamsail Sarliyev.
"Although the people may have some complaints about their safety here, in general they are positive [that Akhmad Kadyrov took power]. This was proven by voter turnout at the constitutional referendum -- it was as high as in Soviet times," said FSB Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in Chechnya.
 Simon Ostrovsky / MT Makka Salamova waiting outside the Ramzan club for news of her missing sons. |  |
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In the meantime, he travels with an entourage of equally burly men in pinstriped suits driving unmarked silver Ladas.
Like his father, Kadyrov and his cousins fought against Russian forces in the first Chechen war, from 1994 to 1996. Many of the men now under his command were rebels who were amnestied and have now taken up arms for the pro-Moscow side, he said.
"My work would be more difficult without their help," the senior Kadyrov told reporters on a separate occasion.
Human rights groups, however, have detailed how the security force deals with people considered enemies.
The Moscow-based Memorial organization has published eyewitness accounts of alleged abuses by Ramzan Kadyrov's men, known locally as "Kadyrovtsy."
"I looked outside the window and saw ... that they were dragging him by the legs face down in the earth. His arms were broken, you could see the bones, there was blood. It was so cruel," reads the account of a nurse from a hospital in Sleptsovskaya, Ingushetia, where a large number of Chechen refugees have been staying. Kadyrov's men are believed to have staged a raid there in August that resulted in the killing of one man and the disappearance of five.
Memorial also reports a raid by Kadyrov's men in the Zavodskoi district of Grozny in September, which left two of his men dead, possibly by friendly fire.
According to witnesses, Kadyrov's masked men picked a house at random and entered it, saying "two of ours were killed, we have to take someone away." As a result, the men led away Zainalbek Khakimov, 20, and Kazbek Visaitov, 24. The two men were beaten and released several days later without being charged.
When confronted with such accounts, Kadyrov leaned forward on his elbows, his head seemingly riveted to his shoulders.
"I don't want our mothers and sisters to cry, I don't want our people to be kidnapped," he said, his voice almost as raspy as his father's.
Kadyrov refused to take journalists to a former chicken farm outside Gudermes that human rights activists allege is the site of detentions and beatings. He said those reports were no more than rumors.
Accounts of excesses by his men are fabrications by "the enemies of Russia," Kadyrov said. "People who sympathize with the terrorists are the ones who say I do these things."
Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen Boxing Federation, prefers to focus on the good he has done for Chechnya, like helping create the sports club where he held the news conference.
Kadyrov staged an elaborate fighting show by young boxers and then put on a pair of gloves himself to show off his prowess. Dozens of teenagers in a neighboring building exhibited their skills as weightlifters and wrestlers.
When Ramzan unsuccessfully attempted to lift a hefty weight for the TV cameras, an assistant swiftly took his place, bench-pressing the massive barbell without taking off his tie.
Whether or not they fear Kadyrov, people in Chechnya are well aware of his influence.
Makka Salamova, 55, stands outside the Ramzan sports center every few days in the hopes of telling its namesake about the disappearance of her two sons.
"There's no access to him," she said in tears. "My two sons where taken away three months ago, I don't know by whom. I want him to help me find them."