Smiling former rebel is Putin's man in Chechnya

GUDERMES, Russia, Oct 5: He bounded into the marble-floored office, grinning like a TV game show host primed to crack his opening joke.

But the short, stocky Chechen with the closely cropped hair and trimmed beard is no joker. This is Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's prime minister, the most powerful man in the war-weary region and a figure loved and feared in almost equal measure.

On this sunny autumn afternoon, Kadyrov is focused on charming the handful of foreign journalists who have travelled to his office above his boxing club in Gudermes, 30 km east of Chechnya's ruined capital Grozny.

''I just want to be a true patriot and defender of my people,'' he said sitting at the end of a long table wearing a black denim shirt.

A Muslim who exhorts his troops to fight in the name of Allah and is in favour of polygamy and veils for women, Kadyrov is lionised by some as Chechnya's saviour.

They praise him for spending part of his personal fortune on rebuilding the southern province and providing street security through thousands of his own fighters.

But human rights groups and opponents link Kadyrov's security service -- hundreds of personally devoted former rebels known as ''Kadyrovtsy'' -- to criminal activities, such as kidnappings, extortion and even murder.

''People disappear in Chechnya and people know that Kadyrov and his fighters are linked to all this,'' Ludmilla Alexeeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group human rights organisation, said. Kadyrov denies the accusations.

FAVOURED FIGUREHEAD

The Kadyrov clan forms the cornerstone of Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to localise an unpopular and costly war against Chechen separatists.

Russia sent soldiers to crush an independence drive in the Muslim region in 1994, but had to pull out two years later after a series of bloody defeats.

The army returned in 1999 and Putin has pledged repeatedly to wipe out ''terrorist'' groups who seek to break from Russia.

The Kremlin now says it has restored central authority in Chechnya -- despite continued attacks on its soldiers -- and by boosting the status of the Kadyrovs, Putin hopes to reduce the 40,000 Russian soldiers in the region and let Chechens continue the messy work of hunting down rebel fighters.

his father, a former rebel fighter who switched allegiance to Russia and became Chechnya's president.

So Mr Putin began to groom Ramzan as Chechnya's figurehead-in-waiting. On October 5, Ramzan Kadyrov will turn 30, making him eligible to run for the presidency.

''If it is the will of the people, than it is something we must agree with,'' Kadyrov, who became premier in March, said of becoming president.

Portraits of both Ramzan Kadyrov and his father, often with Mr Putin, smile down from billboards around the region. ''Ramzan Kadyrov, we are with you,'' read the posters in the rebuilt towns of Argun and Gudermes, where Kadyrov's money has paid for clean streets, new park benches, coffee shops and restaurants. Mr Kadyrov's militia fight Chechnya's separatists, and many Chechens care less about allegations of abuses than the added stability the militia bring after a war that has killed thousands.

RUSSIA'S ENEMIES

In central Grozny, a tall Chechen who called himself Shrivany led a group of Kadyrov's fighters checking drivers' documents.

After fighting the Russians in the mountains for years, he joined Kadyrov and his father.

Now, the 35-year-old said he earned 20,000 roubles a month, a small fortune in a region where unemployment is around 80 per cent.

He swore absolute loyalty to Kadyrov.

''Ramzan is truly one of us,'' he said. ''In life and work he wants the best for us.'' Outside the meeting room in Gudermes, a glass cabinet displayed dozens of boxing and wrestling trophies, a reminder of Kadyrov's physical prowess.

Politics has not blunted Kadyrov's outbursts against people he considers his enemies.

During the question-and-answer session with foreign journalists, he made a point of praising Putin but, in a country still not used to criticising officials, he attacked Russian bureaucrats for pilfering cash earmarked for reconstruction work in Chechnya.

But he reserved his sharpest criticism for human rights groups who accuse his militia of abuses.

''Most of them defend the interests of Russia's enemies and want to destroy Russia through Chechnya,'' he said.

Chechnya's President Alu Alkhanov, a former interior minister, has been in the job for two years but some analysts feel he is just keeping the seat warm for Kadyrov.

''When a person works hard and labours all his life, at the end he wins authority and recognition,'' he said coyly when asked at a separate interview about Kadyrov's ambitions.

Behind him a bronze bust of Kadyrov's father looked on.

Reuters