Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday made a surprise visit to Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first trip to Chechnya in nearly 13 years, amid three weeks of relentless attacks by Ukraine across the border into western Russia.
Kiev’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region is changing the course of the war and raising the morale of Ukraine’s war-weary public. However, it is not yet possible to predict the final outcome of this offensive. This is the first attack on Russia since World War II.
Putin was welcomed by Chechnya’s self-proclaimed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Putin visited the special forces academy there and interacted with volunteer fighters who train there before being deployed to Ukraine.
The academy is named after Putin. According to reports from Russian government agencies, Putin praised these volunteer fighters and said that as long as Russia has people like them, “no one can defeat” it. Kadyrov said in a post on his official ‘Telegram’ channel that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the center since Moscow began its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Chechen fighters have fought on both sides of the conflict with Ukraine. Pro-independence fighters have been at war with Russian government forces for several years since the collapse of the then Soviet Union.
Pro-Kiev volunteers loyal to the late Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev are bitter foes of Putin and the Chechen army backing Kadyrov, who was a pro-independence leader. Putin on Tuesday also visited the grave of Kadyrov’s father and former Chechen leader Akhmat Kadyrov, a command post and a mosque in the local capital, Grozny.
