Arab News | Russia’s Kadyrov re-elected leader of Chechnya with almost 100 percent of the vote

GROZNY: Ramzan Kadyrov, a ‌close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been re-elected to a fifth term as leader ​of his southern, mainly Muslim region of Chechnya with almost 100 percent of the vote, Russia’s electoral commission said on Monday.

Russia concluded elections on Sunday to its national parliament, as well as for regional legislatures and governors, a test of the ‌country’s tightly ‌controlled political system after 4-1/2 ​years ‌of ⁠war ​in Ukraine. ⁠Kremlin-backed parties and candidates swept the board after most anti-war candidates were barred from running, results showed.

Kadyrov enjoys wide leeway from Putin to run Chechnya as his personal fiefdom in return for ensuring the ⁠stability of the region, where an ‌Islamist, anti-Russian insurgency ‌raged during the 1990s.

Russia’s Central ​Electoral Commission said ‌Kadyrov took 99.85 percent of the vote in ‌Chechnya, slightly up from 99.73 percent in 2021. International observers have in the past sharply criticized the conduct of elections in the small mountainous ‌region.

Kadyrov, who rejects such criticism as Western-backed attempts to undermine his rule, ⁠regularly ⁠stresses his personal loyalty to Putin and has championed a hard line on Ukraine, where he says his Chechen forces have been fighting since 2022.

His rise to power came after his own father, Akhmat, was killed in a 2004 bombing by insurgents who saw him as a turncoat.

Human rights organizations have long ​accused Kadyrov’s government of ​widespread rights violations, including against journalists and homosexuals, something he denies.