Kadyrov, 33, said last year’s attack by Georgia on South Ossetia was part of a Western plot to seize the whole Caucasus region.
“If they get control of the Caucasus, you could say they’ll get control of virtually all of Russia, because the Caucasus is our backbone,” Kadyrov said.
The conversation was conducted at his exotic private offices near the town of Gudermes. The complex features a zoo, a racecourse for his horses, two large golden lions guarding the entrance and an artificial mountain lit up in different colors at night.
“The Russian government needs to work out a strategy. It needs to attack,” Kadyrov said. “Georgia, South Ossetia, Ukraine, all this will go on and on. It’s Russia’s private affliction. Why should we always suffer if we can eradicate this for good? We are a great power. We have everything — an army, technology. We need to attack.”
Kadyrov took pains in the interview to counter accusations by human rights groups that he had been involved in the murders of activists, journalists and opponents in Russia and overseas.
Dressed in a dark blue Ralph Lauren velvet-finish shirt, his hair and beard carefully groomed, Kadyrov smiled frequently but became animated when asked why many of his opponents at home and abroad had met violent deaths.
Human rights groups have linked him to the murders of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya, activist Natalya Estemirova, opposition Chechen exiles in Austria and Turkey and rival Chechen clan chiefs shot dead in Moscow and Dubai.
Kadyrov, who was guarded by armed, black-clad militiamen wearing balaclavas embossed with his initials, said he had personally helped many of the murder victims and their families and was not their enemy.
“I don’t want to kill,” he said. “Who did I fight? I fought terrorists. Who did I protect? I protected the whole of Russia so that people in Moscow or St. Petersburg … could live in peace. … They accuse me of killing women and children. It’s not true.”
Kadyrov dismissed a claim on an Islamist web site that fugitive Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov was behind a bomb attack Nov. 27 that derailed a Moscow-St. Petersburg train, killing 26 people. Umarov, he said, lived in a cave in the mountains and had no idea what was going on.
“Today there are very few [rebels] left,” he said. “This year we destroyed a great many terrorists in Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya.”
Asked how many remained, Kadyrov replied: “If I knew how many and where, I would have destroyed them a long time ago.”
Kadyrov said the remaining rebels were kept going by Western money and guns.
“The West is financing them,” he said. “I officially declare this: Those who destroyed the Soviet Union, those who want to destroy the Russian Federation, they stand behind them.”
Kadyrov said it would be good for Washington if the United States followed more friendly policies toward Russia. “And if not,” he said, “we have a very strong politician of global stature, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. There is no one like him on the world stage.”
Kadyrov made several references to Prime Minister Putin during the one-hour interview last week but did not mention President Dmitry Medvedev.
At pains to appear modest and show his loyalty to the Kremlin, Kadyrov shrugged off suggestions that he might extend his responsibilities to cover the entire North Caucasus.
Kadyrov said being president was a difficult job and he would prefer to dedicate more time to his seven children and the study of Islam. His official residence features a huge private mosque visible from the marble staircase of the main building. “To get to heaven, you have to work very hard,” he said. “I want to go to heaven so I will try to pray more.”