(Reuters) – Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Russian lawmakers from neighbouring regions of attempting to commission his assassination, and threatened them with a “blood feud” unless they prove otherwise, state news agency TASS reported.
TASS cited Chechen-language comments by Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to a meeting of Chechen security officials. Video of the meeting was published on Kadyrov’s personal Telegram channel on Wednesday.
The news agency translated Kadyrov’s comments as: “There are witnesses, there are people from whom they tried to commission, whom they asked how much they would take for the order.”
TASS cited Kadyrov as naming three members of Russia’s legislature – two from Dagestan and one from Ingushetia – as being behind the alleged plot.
“If they do not prove otherwise, I will officially declare a blood feud,” he was quoted as saying. In Chechnya, blood feuds are a traditional custom of extracting revenge by killing an enemy or his male relatives.
Reuters was not able to verify TASS’s translation of Kadyrov’s remarks.
Chechnya borders both Dagestan and Ingushetia, and Kadyrov has in the past laid claim to parts of both regions’ territory.
A former Chechen independence fighter who fought Russian forces during the mostly Muslim region’s bid to break away in the 1990s, Kadyrov eventually switched to Moscow’s side. He became leader of Chechnya in 2007, three years after the assassination of his father.
Putin has given Kadyrov wide latitude to run Chechnya as his personal fiefdom in return for maintaining stability in the region. He has become a significant player in politics and the military, including by providing soldiers for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Felix Light in Tbilisi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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