The extravagant leader of Russia's republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said he has received an honorary degree and title of professor from a theological university he helped found.
"I have declined honorary degrees from dozens of colleges," Kadyrov said on his Instagram account Wednesday, without naming any.
"But I have accepted a diploma and gown from the [Kunta-Haji] Islamic University [in the Chechen capital Grozny]," he said.
The university, opened in 2009, was founded at Kadyrov's insistence, according to its official website.
The first 19 graduates on Wednesday celebrated the completion of their five-year studies at the university, named after a 19th-century pacifist Sufi mystic known as the "Chechen Mahatma Gandhi."
Kadyrov, 37, a former Islamist insurgent-turned-Kremlin loyalist who runs Chechnya with an iron fist, is known for his many additional titles.
Contrary to his claims, this includes honorary academic degrees, mostly from Chechen-based colleges but also from the controversial Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, which counted in its ranks the likes of the late anti-Semite occultist Nikolai Levashov.
Kadyrov is also a "hero of Russia" and a recipient of the Akhmad Kadyrov Award — named after his late father, the first Chechen president — as well as a "guardian of the relics of the Prophet Muhammad" and the honorary president of the Terek Grozny football club.
Most recently, Kadyrov, who is also reportedly an avid sports-car and racehorse collector, was inducted into Russia's best-known motorcycle club, the Night Wolves, which has recently abandoned counterculture ideology in favor of fervent pro-Kremlin nationalism.
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