Chechnya leader's son, 17, becomes head of Chechen security council
FILE PHOTO: Adam Kadyrov, son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and head of his security department, takes part in a tactical shooting competition at the private Russian University of Special Forces named after President Vladimir Putin, in Gudermes, Russia April 28, 2024. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Adam Kadyrov, son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and head of his security department, takes part in a tactical shooting competition at the private Russian University of Special Forces named after President Vladimir Putin, in Gudermes, Russia April 28, 2024. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov/File Photo
The teenage son of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has been appointed secretary of the region's security council, according to the council's Telegram channel.
Adam Kadyrov turned 17 in November 2024. It is the fourth time he has been appointed to an official position since 2023, when he was 15.
He already serves as his father's top bodyguard, a trustee of Chechnya's Special Forces University, and an observer in a new army battalion.
Ramzan Kadyrov has led Chechnya, a mountainous Muslim region in southern Russia that tried to break away from Moscow in wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 2007.
He 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 continued for around a decade after the end of full-scale conflict there in the early 2000s.
His rise to power came after his own father, Akhmat, was killed in a 2004 bombing by insurgents who saw him as a turncoat.
In September 2023, Adam Kadyrov was shown, in a video posted by his father on social media, beating a detainee accused of burning the Koran. Ramzan Kadyrov said he was proud of his son for defending his Muslim religion.
The detainee, Nikita Zhuravel, has since been sentenced to three and a half years in prison. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
36 minutes ago
- Business Times
Trump and Japan PM discuss tariffs, Israel's attacks against Iran
[WASHINGTON] Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and US President Donald Trump held a phone call on Friday (Jun 13) in which they discussed tariffs and Israel's attacks against Iran, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Trump has sought to leverage his tariff threats to strike bilateral trade deals with many countries, including US ally Japan. Japan will remain steadfast in its request for a review of US tariffs and would not accept a partial agreement, Tokyo's chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Friday. On the diplomatic front, the two leaders agreed remain in close communication on Israel's strikes against Iran that began late on Thursday US time and on Friday Middle East and Asia time. Japan has condemned Israel's strikes by calling them escalatory while the US has called those a form of 'unilateral action' and said Washington was not involved. 'Prime Minister Ishiba reiterated Japan's views on the U.S. tariff measures, taking into account the results of the Japan-US Consultations on the US Tariff Measures to date,' the Japanese foreign ministry said. It added that the two leaders 'concurred to accelerate the consultations between the ministers in charge in order to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement.' A White House official confirmed from the US side the call had taken place on Friday. The Japanese foreign ministry added that the two leaders agreed on the importance of peace and stability in the Middle East. Trump and Ishiba are expected to meet in Canada on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting next week. REUTERS
AsiaOne
36 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
White House reviews SpaceX contracts as Trump-Musk feud simmers, sources say, World News
WASHINGTON - The White House earlier this month directed the Defence Department and Nasa to gather details on billions of dollars in SpaceX contracts following the public blowout between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, four people familiar with the order told Reuters. Sparking an ongoing review, the administration ordered the agencies to scrutinise Musk's contracts to ready possible retaliation against the businessman and his companies, these people said. As Reuters reported on Thursday (June 12), Pentagon officials are simultaneously considering whether to reduce the role that SpaceX, Musk's space and satellite company, may win in an ambitious new US missile defence system. Reuters couldn't determine whether the White House intends to cancel any of the approximately US$22 billion (S$28 billion) in federal contracts SpaceX now has. But the review shows the administration is following through on a threat by Trump during his spat with Musk last week to possibly terminate business and subsidies for Musk ventures. "We'll take a look at everything," the president said, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on June 6. In an email to Reuters, a White House spokesperson didn't answer questions about Musk's business, saying the "Trump administration is committed to a rigorous review process for all bids and contracts." In a separate statement, a spokesperson at Nasa said the agency "will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the president's objectives in space are met." Neither SpaceX nor officials at the Defence Department responded to requests for comment. The people familiar with the order said the contract scrutiny is intended to give the administration the ability to move fast if Trump decides to act against Musk, who until recently was a senior advisor to the president and the head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The review is "for political ammunition," one of the people said. Whether the US government could legally, or practically, cancel existing contracts is unclear. But the possibility underscores concerns among governance experts that politics and personal pique could improperly influence matters affecting government coffers, national security and the public interest. "There's an irony here that Musk's contracts could be under the same type of subjective political scrutiny that he and his DOGE team have put on thousands of other contracts," said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group based in Washington. "Any decision shouldn't be based on the egos of two men but on the best interests of the public and national security." Musk's SpaceX in recent years has become a crucial partner of the US government in much of its aerospace and defence work - launching satellites and other space cargo and potentially managing a crucial element of the "Golden Dome" missile shield planned by Trump. Although Musk in recent days has sought to walk back some of his critiques of the president - such as calling for Trump's impeachment last week and linking him to a convicted sex offender - his outbursts nonetheless highlighted the government's reliance on SpaceX. Before reversing course, Musk threatened to decommission the company's Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, as part of a roughly US$5 billion contract with Nasa, is the only US vessel currently capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX is also building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, a US intelligence agency. The contract was a pivotal transaction for SpaceX, deepening its ties with US defence and intelligence services. [[nid:719028]]
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Israel's strikes on Iran's most important nuclear facilities: Here's what you need to know about them
Israel's strikes on Iran's most important nuclear facilities: Here's what you need to know about them Iran's nuclear industry is well-established, with important centres spread over the country, and some buried deep underground, to protect from the kind of aerial attack Israel has just launched. Here are the main centres of Iran's nuclear programme: Natanz Roughly 225km south of Tehran, the capital, Natanz is considered Iran's main centre for uranium enrichment, and it was a prime target of the Israeli strikes. The damage to it appeared to be severe. It is only partially underground and was recently reinforced. It contains a range of sophisticated centrifuges, including the most advanced models, for enriching uranium to high levels. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, says there are nearly 14,000 centrifuges at work there, with thousands more in place but inactive. Uranium enriched at low levels can be used as fuel for civilian uses, such as producing energy. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons. Natanz has been targeted in the past, with a computer virus, Stuxnet, some 15 years ago, and with sabotage and explosions as recently as 2021. Iran has always repaired the damage and increased the sophistication of its centrifuges. Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, confirmed on June 13 that Natanz had been hit but said that no radiation leak had been detected so far. He condemned attacks on nuclear facilities in general, as he has done in Ukraine, as very dangerous. 'Any military action that jeopardises the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region and beyond,' he told the agency's board of governors in Vienna. Fordo Iran's best-protected nuclear site, Fordo, near the city of Qom, is deep inside a mountain, estimated to be about 800 metres below ground to protect it from bombing. Israel did not appear to have attacked it. To do so would require repeated use of huge 'bunker buster' bombs, and most experts think that cannot be done by Israel alone, without US help. Fordo was operated secretly by Iran until it was exposed in 2009. It contains Iran's most advanced centrifuges and is considered crucial for Iran to enrich uranium to 60 per cent, close to bomb grade. It is said to contain close to 3,000 sophisticated centrifuges, more than half of them the most modern type, with the capacity to install at least 1,000 more. Parchin Parchin is a military complex south-east of Tehran, where Iran has tested high explosives, which can be used as triggers for nuclear warheads. It is widely suspected that the site was used in the past by Iran in efforts to weaponise enriched uranium. Iran has denied ever doing nuclear work there but has refused to allow the IAEA access it has demanded. Bushehr Bushehr is Iran's only operating nuclear power plant. Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, it uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
