Put in a word about poor Ramzan (weekly review)  By Vadim Borshchev, special to Prague Watchdog
Without a doubt the event of the week, not only for Chechnya but for all of Russia, was Ramzan Kadyrov's declaration of his personal income and assets. As there is little point in giving a detailed account of the news that came as a real shock to all who heard it, I will merely mention the fact that according to his declaration the head of Chechnya owns a three-room apartment with a total area of 36 square metres and an unpretentious 1999 VAZ-21053 Lada saloon car. The Chechen President’s earnings for 2008 at his main place of work (his salary) were 3,422,000,000 roubles (110,214,884 USD), and he has no other sources of income.
The problem is not even that the level of income and the amount of property are understated. They are entered in the document without consideration for the reaction of the general Russian public. Kadyrov hardly needed powers of clairvoyance in order to predict how such a strange declaration would be perceived outside Chechnya (and also in the republic itself). The Chechen leader’s fortune is legendary. Indeed, he readily shows off the luxurious trappings of his life to all and sundry, especially the journalists from the state-run television channels who are frequent visitors to his estate in Khosi-Yurt. Viewers have had more than one opportunity of admiring the magnificent array of lavishly gilded furniture, the private zoo, the expensive cars that Kadyrov likes to drive himself, and the other evidence of the Chechen President’s modest income.
The declaration is a unique document that demonstrates its author's deep contempt for public opinion. At the very least, Kadyrov is indifferent to what people will think and say about him. And if one examines the contents of the declaration more closely, one cannot avoid the sense that they reveal a plan of sophisticated mockery. For they refer to an apartment and car which bear witness, if not to their owner’s complete destitution, then to his poverty. A three-room apartment with an area of 36 square metres is the most wretched form of 1960s Soviet housing design, the so-called "Khruschevka”. Modern apartments of the same type have a different and larger floor-space. A Chechen who owns a Zhiguli-5 is also drawing attention to his extremely low social status.
It would obviously not have cost Kadyrov much effort to present a more neutral declaration, with some elements of plausibility. It looks very much as though he was deliberately trying to provoke indignation, the grumbling resentment of the man in the street. People who are well-acquainted with the Chechen leader’s character can tell many stories about his peculiar sense of humour. One of the most vivid examples of this is Anna Politkovskaya’s article about her visit to Tsentoroi.
It is possible that the declaration points to an insurmountable and mocking desire on Kadyrov’s part (accompanied by a gnashing of teeth) to show how invulnerable he is, how impervious to public opinion, how independent of the control of anyone except his sole master who now sits in the White House in Moscow. He is making it clear that he will not allow anyone to poke their nose into his private affairs. Russia, to which he daily swears loyalty, can go to hell with its interest in the contents of his pockets..
Photo: leteha.livejournal.com. (Translation by DM) (P, DM)
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