Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov has received international condemnation for alleged human rights violations including murder, torture, and threats of physical violence, corruption, theft of public funds, and protection of criminals of Chechen origin. However, his latest misadventure was sporting in nature.
Russian television showed three of his sons, Akhmad, Eli, and Adam, all participating in MMA bouts. The controversy arose because Akhmad is ten years old, Eli in nine, and Adam is eight.
They all won.
The greatest heavyweight in MMA history, Fedor Emelianenko, was not impressed.
Needless to say that kids under age of 12 cannot even attend MMA fights [in Russia] as spectators, but here we had little ones as young as eight beating each other up in front of happy adults,” posted Fedor, who is the head of the MMA Union, the governing body of Russian MMA.
The reaction to Emelianenko’s remarks was swift.
On Friday Kadyrov posted a video of children shooting up drugs juxtaposed with footage of the youth fights.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLPQlblAZbn
Kadyrov argued that there are no crimes against children in Chechenya, and that his kids fighting was an example of physical and moral education.
We grow up as patriots and defenders of Russia, wrote Kadyrov. Fedor, you are in the wrong. Russian heroes do not act this way.
Kadyrov’s cousin Adam Delimkhanov was more direct in his criticism; it has since been removed from Instagram.
Delimkhanov questioned Fedor’s morals, citing the controversial decision he got over Fabio Maldonado. Then he asked if Fedor is so commmitted to educating the younger generation, then why did his younger brother Aleks do drugs and rape women. Then Delimkhanov said he had learned about what Fedor was like as a child.
“Decent guys from reputable and respectable circles never let Fedor come near them because of his complete inability to embody authentic masculine concepts and values,” wrote the parliament member. “In conclusion, whoever he is, he will have to answer for every word in the address of my dear nephews! Allahu akbar!”
In other words, it was nearly word for word identical to the latest presidential candidates debate.
The UFC-signed Chechen fighter Abdul-Kerim Edilov, who had accompanied Kadyrov’s sons to the cage, also had harsh words for Fedor, charging that The Last Emperor’s “time has passed.”
These criticisms of Fedor in turn generated counter criticisms.
Then it came to an end, via Kadryrov’s Instagram, as translated by RT.
Dear friends! I am persistently asking you and recommend that you not publish any posts that may affect the honor and dignity of Fedor Emelianenko. Firstly, I am addressing those who have done so under the influence of emotions, saying that they support us. If you do, indeed, support us, which I don’t doubt, do not write things of that kind. And [please] delete your [earlier] posts. The conflict should not be escalated, the honor of the person [Emelianenko] cannot be affected.”
So that’s over.
And to put the entire episode in geopolitical context, Russia, a historically Christian nation, engaged in two disastrous wars with separatists from predominantly Muslim Chechenya, which remained a Russian republic after the dissolution of the USSR. In 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin installed Kadyrov as the leader of Chechenya; he had been one of several warlords in the region. While the two do not see eye to eye on every issue, the differences are not sufficient to start a third war over, and Kadyrov is vocal in his support for Putin. Still, Putin is insistent that Kadyrov follow the rules.
The USSR long used sport for political ends, and the method endures. Fedor enjoys a high-profile friendship with Putin, and it is for lack of a better term unseemly for Fedor’s character and worth to be challenged in front of Kadyrov’s millions of followers on his social network.
So it stopped.
