Through mutual correspondence

On February 3, the press secretary of the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, Alvi Karimov, through the official website of the Chechen government, addressed an open letter to the EU Ambassador to the Russian Federation Vygaudas Usackas

The short message contains reproaches and insults: the diplomat allegedly exceeded his authority and offended Kadyrov with offensive suspicions.

The appeal, of course, did not appear just like that. Late in the evening of January 31, Kadyrov posted a short video on his Instagram: PARNAS party leader Mikhail Kasyanov and Open Russia coordinator Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. are shown through an optical sight. The video was accompanied by the comment: “Kasyanov came to Strasbourg for money for the Russian opposition. Those who do not understand will understand!”

Kasyanov understood and demanded the reaction of the Kremlin (which did not follow), and also filed a statement with the Investigative Committee and the FSB. The video was removed by Instagram for violating community guidelines. Kadyrov was offended and wrote (on Instagram): “As soon as I said a few words about the watchdogs of the United States, they immediately deleted the post on Instagram. Here it is the vaunted freedom of speech in American style! You can write whatever you want, but don't touch the dogs of America, friends of the State Department and Congress." Responsible officials tried to calm the passions. The head of the Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, saw in the video the “language of metaphors”, and the United Russia deputy from Chechnya Khozh Magomed Vakhaev said on the air of one of the radio stations: “Let Kasyanov live in peace, he is abroad. He (that is, Kadyrov. - NT ) will not go to kill him. Nobody will kill him."

Branded threats against opposition politicians by Ramzan Kadyrov have become a familiar part of the political landscape. This is the norm here: the head of one of the regions regularly and almost directly hints that he is ready to deal with opponents of the regime as harshly as possible

But not everyone was able to calm down: in a telephone conversation with Kasyanov, EU Ambassador to the Russian Federation Vygaudas Usackas called the ill-fated video "undisguised threats that cannot be tolerated"; this prompted Karimov's response - he demands from the diplomat "data of linguistic expertise" proving the presence of a threat of murder in the ill-fated video. Kadyrov himself, apparently tired of fighting the enemies of the people, closed the topic for a while, suggesting that the “cardboard heroes”, terribly frightened of his laughter, go to court.

In fact, it is Karimov's letter that is the most interesting part of this story. One can wonder why Kadyrov conducts this constant correspondence with the opposition, either to remind Vladimir Putin that he has a loyal and expensive “infantryman” in the Caucasus who needs to be regularly fed, or simply out of sincere patriotism. This is curious, but let's agree: Ramzan Kadyrov's signature threats against opposition politicians have become a familiar part of the political landscape. This is the norm here: the head of one of the regions regularly and almost directly hints that he is ready to deal with opponents of the regime as harshly as possible. This may be outrageous, but no longer surprising. And it fits perfectly into the overall picture of savagery, degradation of social relations in late Putin's Russia.

But it seems that the leaders in the production of savagery within Russia are becoming crowded. They are trying to make savagery a subject of national pride and turn it into an export commodity. As if in order to replace them with cheaper oil. And what, in the domestic market, after all, it is doing quite well.