Ramzan Kadyrov once again announced the possibility of leaving his post

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, once again announced that he could end his political career in this position. “Now I found out that I am the longest-lived among all the heads of subjects. I have been leading the republic for 15 years,” he said in a video message on his Telegram channel on September 3. He said that there is a proverb in the Caucasus: “No matter how respected, long-awaited the guest is, if he leaves on time, then it is even more pleasant.”

Kadyrov, who has headed the republic since 2007, said he thinks his “time has come before they are kicked out.” According to him, “it turns out that he is already old, but he was once the youngest, inexperienced”: “Now he has remained so, inexperienced, but his youth is gone. We have already begun to think about it and will try to leave in time.” Kadyrov ended his phone-recorded speech with the traditional slogan “Akhmat is strength!” (in honor of his father, the deceased head of the republic Akhmat Kadyrov).

In February 2016, when the next term of his powers as the head of the region expired, Kadyrov, in an interview with the NTV television channel, already said that “the state leadership needs to find another person”: “My time has already come. There is a limit for a person.” At the same time, speaking about his work as the head of the republic, Kadyrov believed that “everything works out” for him. But if you have to leave the position, he said, you can focus on “family, personal life, the study of Islam.” But already in March of the same year, Kadyrov explained to Interfax that he was not going to leave, he did not discuss such a possibility with the country’s leadership, but simply answered journalists’ questions. In the fall of 2016, Kadyrov was elected head of Chechnya.

In November 2017, in an interview on the program “Characters” on the channel “Russia 1”, Kadyrov stated that he “dreams” of leaving the post: “It’s not that I’m tired, I don’t want to serve. I believe that the time has come to make changes in the Chechen Republic.” Then he explained his thoughts by the fact that times have changed: “Once upon a time, people like me were needed to fight, restore order, and today order.”

On January 13, 2020, Kadyrov signed an order to transfer his powers to the Prime Minister of Chechnya – later the authorities of the region explained the appearance of the document by leaving the head of the republic on sick leave – for this it is necessary to temporarily transfer powers. Two days later, on January 15, 2020, it was not the head of Chechnya who resigned, but the government of the Russian Federation after the president’s message, in which he announced the need for changes in the country.

Political scientist and Islamic scholar Alexei Malashenko believes that the current statements are “a game.” “Kadyrov is well aware that he will not go anywhere, and Vladimir Putin needs him exactly in the place that he now occupies. He is quite satisfied with the President in his place and in the current Ukrainian situation,” the expert believes. He called the current statement “outrageous”: “He is such a person, he constantly needs to be in sight.”

Political scientist Dmitry Zhuravlev believes that Kadyrov’s early announcements of his resignation could be considered “a way of fighting for power”: “People went out into the streets – so he proved that without him power in the republic would not hold. On Monday, we will look at the reaction of the population.”

However, now, according to Zhuravlev, Kadyrov does not need such demonstration performances – his position is already strong, including “due to the participation of his people in a special operation”: “So, most likely, now he really leaves. Probably, something interesting has already been offered to him.

This time, Kadyrov’s statement may have some grounds, political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko believes: it is about “a controlled transit of power” and “the transfer of the formal leadership of the republic to someone from his team.” “They began to prepare a successor for him a long time ago, from the moment Ruslan Edelgeriev moved to the position of presidential adviser [с июня 2018 г.]”. – says Minchenko.

“Before, Kadyrov claimed to be the political leader of Russian Muslims,” Malashenko said. “Now it’s just not up to it.”

Malashenko recalled that on September 1, Kadyrov sharply criticized Ministry of Justice: the department included in the list of extremist materials the book “Sahih al-Bukhari”, which is considered by Muslim scholars to be the second most important after the Koran. This is the same regular action as the announcement of a possible departure, the expert says. Kadyrov did the same in 2015, when he called the prosecutor and judge of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk court “shaitans” after the book with explanations to the verses of the Koran “Prayer to God: Its Meaning and Place in Islam” was recognized as extremist literature.

Zhuravlev believes that Kadyrov is unlikely to become one of the officials who informally deal with the Islamic world: “The president already has a person who is involved in this. This is the former head of Dagestan, deputy head of the presidential administration Magomedsalam Magomedov. So this is the least likely option.

Kadyrov, according to Minchenko, still claims to be one of the informal leaders of the Muslim community in Russia and the world. At the same time, the head of Chechnya is still in demand, he notes.