A warlord stands back and watches his

loyal warriors in a mock fight. The

winner will receive great gifts and

status from the warlord and perhaps join

his inner circle. But even if they don't

win, the brutal hand-to-hand fighting

that the warlord urges his men to engage

in will craft them into funny warriors

who he can send out on foreign

conquests.

But this isn't some medieval horse lord

ready to ride out from the steps or a

brutal barbarian tribe preparing to raid

the fringes of the Roman Empire. This is

2025

and the warlord's name is Ramzan Kadov.

He's the head of the Chchin Republic

where he runs a military dictatorship

with strict Islamic law and he's one of

Vladimir Putin's closest allies. Today

on a day in history, we'll tell the

story of how Ramsan Kadirov rose to

power in Cheschna, built a regime upon

faith and fear, and is now using MMA to

build one of the modern world's most

terrifying military organizations.

To understand Khadir, we have to know

where he came from. His homeland of

Cheschna is inhabited mostly by Muslims

who tried to assert their independence

during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kadirov's father, Ahmed Khadov, was an

Imam and one of the militant leaders who

declared holy war on Russia in 1994.

18-year-old Ramzan joined that fight.

Chchna has a long history of being

independent warriors who have fiercely

resisted Russian control for centuries.

Ramzan Kadirov proudly upholds that

Chetchin warrior tradition, even if he

had distanced himself from the fact of

who the Chetchins have usually been

fighting. Given his later loyalties,

Ramzan has always been publicly vague

about his actions during the war.

Several thousand Russian troops were

killed in the first Chetchin war, but

it's up for debate whether Kadiroof

killed any one of them. Some sources

close to Kadirov claimed that he would

boast about killing his first Russian

soldier when he was just a teenager, but

Kadirov himself has always denied he

ever harmed a Russian. The war was

brutal. Entire villages were wiped out

and the Chetchin capital of Grosni was

flattened with the deaths of tens of

thousands of civilians.

However, this brutality did not bring

Russia the success it hoped for. In

1996, with the war dragging on and

becoming hugely unpopular at home,

Russia signed a peace treaty,

withdrawing its troops and recognizing

Chetchin autonomy, but not full

independence. For men like Ramzan Khadi,

the end of the war did not bring peace.

Chachchna was now overrun with

militants, and many of them had embraced

Islamic extremism. Those militants

quickly turned on each other, turning

Cheschna into a war zone once more.

Kadirov and his father were Muslims, but

they rejected the hardline jihadist

stance and wanted to see order brought

to their homeland. When Chetchin

Islamists staged terror attacks on

Russia in late 1999,

Moscow sent troops back into Cheschna

for a second war. Under the direction of

soon to be President Vladimir Putin, the

Russians were much more effective the

second time. The Kadirovs realized that

Russia would win and decided it was

better to make themselves useful to the

victor than be the loser. The Kadirovs

offered to ally with the Russians.

They'd throw their men and influence

behind the Russian war effort and

convince other Chetchins to do the same.

In exchange, Russia would recognize

Ahmed Khadirov as the effective ruler of

Cheschna. Putin accepted the offer and

the Kadirovs became the most powerful

family in Cheschna.

Ramzan spent the next few years focusing

on his family's militia, nicknamed the

Kagurvitz, while his father took on more

powers as president of Cheschna. By mid

2000, Russia and the Kadirovs had taken

control of most of the cities and pushed

the remaining separatists into the

countryside. Ramzan continued to run

anti-gorilla operations and help run

security for his father, who was under

constant threat of assassination.

On May 9th, 2004, one of those

assassination attempts paid off.

Islamist militants detonated a bomb

during a Second World War victory day

parade in Gni, which killed Ahmad

Khadirov and dozens of other people.

Ramzan was not present and suddenly

found himself inheriting his father's

militia and much of his reputation.

Officially though, Ramzan had no claim

on his father's title as president of

Cheschna. Instead, Russia backed the

more experienced and loyal Alu Al-

Khanov in the elections held a few

months after Ahmed Khadidov's death,

believing he would do a better job of

bringing order to Cheschna. However,

Ramzan had already proved himself in the

eyes of Chhatchins. He was a successful

militia fighter with a lot of men under

his command. and he carried the torch

for his murdered father. Alhanov

recognized that alienating him was a

recipe for danger. So he appointed

Ramzan as deputy prime minister with a

lot of power. Ramzan wielded that power

well. He had his militia continue to

hunt down separatists and Islamists,

keeping up his reputation as a

successful war leader. At the same time,

he began pitching the rebuilding of

Cheschna to be more grand than ever

before. The star of his efforts was the

massive Ahmmed Kadirav mosque in Grosni,

which Ramzan dubbed the heart of

Cheschna. The richly decorated mosque

was modeled on Istanbul's higher Sophia

and was built as a statement that

Chetchna was no longer the wartorrn

backwater it had been in the past.

Kadirov's influence was also helped by

his immense praise of Putin and he

increasingly presented himself as an

admirer and protetéé of the Russian

leader. Within a few years, Kadirov had

proven himself to be the most popular

and effective in Cheschna and Moscow

knew it too. In February 2007, Putin

dismissed President Alanov and appointed

Kadirov in his place, a position he has

held ever since.

Kadov has ruled Cheschna with an iron

fist for 18 years. In that time, he has

built himself an identity as a tough

Muslim leader who is a big admirer of

Vladimir Putin. With his position

dependent upon Moscow's approval,

Kadirov has presented himself as a

friend and ally of Putin. From posting

photos on social media wearing Putin

t-shirts to declaring Putin a bigger

inspiration to him than his own father,

the Chin leader has heaped flattery on

his superior at every chance. How Putin

truly feels about the man is difficult

to say, but he clearly recognizes

Kadirov as useful. Putin supported

Kadirov's efforts to weed out remaining

separatists in the early years of his

rule. By 2009, Putin ordered most

Russian troops to withdraw from the

region entirely, declaring that Kadov's

good work meant that they were no longer

needed. Certainly, Cheschna is in a much

better state now than it was in the

'90s. The separatists are all but

eliminated, and Islamist militants have

been driven underground. Still, they

pose a threat. In 2009, Kadidov survived

an Islamic assassination attempt after

police shot a militant trying to run a

car bomb at Kadirov while he was giving

a speech. Although he rejects militant

extremism, Kadirov's regime still has a

strong Islamic character and he has

implemented harsh Sharia laws to enforce

Islamic discipline upon society. Access

to alcohol is limited. Gambling is

banned and social media is heavily

controlled to prevent anti-Islamic

beliefs spreading among the population.

Women are barred from many fields of

work and must wear headscarves if

they're in public. Unofficially, Kadidov

endorses honor killings of women accused

of adultery by their families, a

practice that often results in rap

victims being murdered by their own

family to restore honor after the

attack. While Kadirov had presided over

a general recovery of Chetchna from the

chaos of the '90s and early 2000s,

Chetchna is hardly prosperous. It

remains one of the poorest regions of

Russia and its economy is dependent upon

federal subsidies to survive. It is also

plagued with corruption. Kadidov and his

inner circle have been accused of

stealing government funds to purchase

homes, cars, and other luxuries and even

using charities as fronts to steal

money. Despite this, the Russian

government refused to investigate too

deeply or reduce the funding. Keeping

Cheschna stable is worth the cost to

Moscow. Thanks to the restoration of

general order and his enthusiastic

support of Islam, Kadidov enjoys

significant support from the Chchin

people and political class. We cannot

take election results as an accurate

sign of how people feel about Kadirov.

His official results of 98% support for

reelection in 2016 are extremely

questionable. Most observers agree that

Kadirov does enjoy a genuine support

from a sizable majority of Chhatchins.

As for those who don't support him,

Kadirov has solutions for that too.

Kadidov's early adulthood in his

father's militia hardened him and

normalized violence in his life. He put

those experiences into practice as ruler

of Cheschna. Kadov's regime has been

accused of a long list of human rights

abuses. These include kidnapping,

torture, murder, and assassination.

Human rights activists believe hundreds

of individuals have been eliminated on

Kadidov's direct orders. On top of the

thousands of people imprisoned and

tortured by his regime for seemingly

innocuous actions like criticizing

Kadira on social media. His police

forces wield the power of the state to

persecute alleged enemies while his

family's militia, the Kad functions like

his private army. Despite now officially

being part of the Russian National

Guard, the Canad have been connected to

numerous murders and abductions around

the world that were probably ordered by

the Chetchin president. One example is

Umar Israel.

Israel served as one of Kadirov's

personal bodyguards in the Kadov in the

early 2000s, and he saw firsthand what

Kadirov was capable of. He alleged that

Kadirov had personally ordered and taken

part in torture

and murder while Israel was working with

him. Israel fled Cheschna in 2006 and

reported Kadira to international

authorities. He went into hiding, but it

could not keep him safe for long. In

January 2009, Israel was shot dead by

four men while walking through the

streets of Vienna. Austrian authorities

caught three of the attackers and

confirmed they were all Chetchins with

close connections with Kadirov. Israel

is one of many critics and opponents

that Kadirov is thought to have

eliminated.

These murders are still going on. As

recently as January 30th, 2020, Imran

Ali, a blogger known for criticizing

Kadirov and Putin, was found dead from

stab wounds in a hotel room in France.

French authorities identified a suspect,

whose name has never been released as a

professional hitman hired by Kadirov,

who then fled France before authorities

could catch him. Kadirov's list of

enemies is long and includes entire

groups of people. His hardline Islamic

beliefs include a total opposition to

homosexuality

which is illegal and heavily punished in

Cheschna. Kadirov has been implicated in

homophobic purges which include

kidnappings, imprisonment, and even

lynchings of people accused of being

gay. The most well-known case was that

of Maxim Lapunov, a gay man who was

arrested and tortured in 2017 purely for

his sexuality. He is one of the few gay

chhatchins who survived and escaped

Kadirov's regime to report the abuse,

but many more weren't so lucky. Kadirov

himself denies that his regime

persecutes gay people. However, he

doesn't say that because he doesn't hate

them. In fact, he's on record describing

gay people as demonic and barely even

human. Instead,

>> Kadirov claims that there isn't any

persecution because Cheschna does not

have gay people. Homosexuality, his

regime says, is a western corruption and

simply doesn't exist in his country.

Speaking in 2017, Kadirov said, "We

don't have these kinds of people here.

We don't have any gays. If there are

any, take them far from us so we don't

have them at home." He has also stated

that he approves and expects families to

perform honor killings on anyone

discovered to be gay.

But if there's one thing Kadirov's

regime has become famous for around the

world, it's his obsession with mixed

martial arts. Kadirov is a huge MMA fan

and introduced the sport to Cheschna in

2015. He founded an official MMA club,

Fight Club Ahmed, to oversee Cheschna's

MMA training and gave a regime stamp of

approval to the sport. Given Kadov's own

militia background and Chetchna's long

warrior culture history, a combat sport

like MMA was a predictable hit with the

Chetchin people. Tens of thousands of

Chetchin boys participate in MMA

inspired training and many go on to

become professional fighters such as the

current UFC middleweight champion Hamza

Chimayv.

Millions of rubles have been poured into

Chetchin MMA in the decades since its

introduction. Kadov funds promising

fighters and treats the best of them

like celebrities. He's even tried to

force his own family into it. In 2016,

he hosted an MMA tournament which

included his own children, all of them

younger than 12, and no protective gear

since he wanted it to be authentic. MMA

officials and several ministers in the

Russian government expressed concern or

condemned the tournament as illegal. But

Kadyrov didn't care. One of his sons,

Zelim Khan Ali Kadirov, made his

professional MMA debut in 2022.

Kadirov's use of MMA isn't just that of

an enthusiastic fan by pouring money

into training fighters and promoting

champions. Kadirov hopes to attract more

money back into Cheschna through

publicity and business deals, which

makes a lot of sense when you realize

that the UFC, the premier MMA

organization in the world, is valued at

about $1 billion, while Cheschna's

annual GDP is estimated at less than $4

billion. But it goes even deeper than

that. Kadidovv believes that MMA

promotes the warrior culture he wants

for his Chetchin nation. Every fighter

in the ring is a fighter for the

battlefield. MMA is a safe way to

harness and promote the Chetchin warrior

spirit without risking pointing it at

Cheschna's traditional enemies in

Russia. Nowhere has this been more

obvious than in Ukraine. Kadirov

declared his full support for the

invasion in 2022

and Chetchin troops were among those

deployed to occupy the country. The

Chetchins have earned a reputation for

their brutality and fearlessness in

battle. Two traits that Kadidov himself

has always valued and two traits that

many believe his MMA support is designed

to encourage. Hundreds if not thousands

of Chetchin men who trained with Fight

Club Ahmed went on to serve in Ukraine.

The head of Fight Club Ahmmed, Abu Zed

Vism Murdov, is also Kadirov's

right-hand man and was reportedly

involved in selecting MMA recruits to be

sent to Ukraine. Chetchin fighters have

taken part in many of the most brutal

battles of the Ukraine war, including

the battle of Marupole and the capture

of the Zaporitzia nuclear power plant.

They have been credibly accused of war

crimes, including massacres and of

Ukrainian civilians and executions of

captured soldiers and mercenaries.

The Chetchin reputation for brutality is

so infamous that the Russian military

actively recruits Chetchin soldiers to

run prisons for Russian deserters and

defectors. Knowing that ending up in

Chetchin hands is enough of a punishment

to scare potential deserters into

staying.

With some of Russia's best available

soldiers at his command and a

potentially dangerous region securely

under his thumb, it's no wonder that

Khadirov is seen as one of Putin's most

valuable allies. However, the alliance

between the governments in Moscow and

Grosni is still new and is far from

guaranteed. Kadirov is aware that his

power rests entirely on Putin's approval

and he could be officially dismissed at

any moment just like his predecessor. He

jealously guards his power from any

Russian intrusion as he did in 2015 when

he called for Chetchin troops to shoot

at any non-Chin police from elsewhere in

Russia who tried to interfere in his

territory. At the same time, Putin knows

that Khadirov commands intense loyalty

and a lot of armed men in Cheschna and

is reluctant to upset him. Kadov's

actions from promoting Sharia law to

running child MMA fights have caused

awkwardness for Moscow, who officially

condemns such behavior, but doesn't lift

a finger to stop him. Both men

understand that a wrong move could

trigger a third Chetchin war which could

devastate Chetchna and humiliate Russia

once again while claiming thousands of

lives on both sides. Their alliance

holds in the meantime, but there is no

telling how their relationship may

change or whether Putin's successor will

inspire the same loyalty in this brutal

and proud warlord. In the long run,

Kadidovv clearly intends to keep his

family in power. His son, Adam Khadidov,

is believed to be his intended

successor. Ramzan has presented him as a

devout Muslim who had memorized the

entire Quran, but also a fierce warrior

and MMA fighter who was every bit as

brutal as he is. When video leaked of

the then 16-year-old Adam beating a

prisoner in 2023, Ramzan praised him,

promoted him, and gave him several

medals for his supposed bravery. For now

though, the Chetchin warlord with his

brutal regime of strict Muslim law and

MMA trained soldiers is one of the

strangest and most controversial regimes

on Earth. As he continues to wage war in

Ukraine and suppress opponents at home,

Ramzan Kadirov has earned his reputation

as the modern world's most powerful

warlord.