Condensed from “Chechnya's Leader Kadyrov Calls for Putin to Return as President,” copyright Reuters, published in the Cambodia Daily, Oct. 27, 2010. All text below is copyright Reuters.
The leader of Russia's volatile Muslim Chechnya region Ramzan Kadyrov has called for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to return as president in the 2012 elections and serve for life.
“I want him to be the president as long as he lives,” Kadyrov told Newsweek magazine. “As long as Putin backs me up, I can do everything,” he said.
Kadyrov is widely credited by Russia's leaders for rebuilding Chechnya, but rights groups accuse him of heavy-handed tactics such as torture and abduction. Analysts say the Kremlin allows Kadyrov to run Chechnya as a personal fiefdom in exchange for relative stability.
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