26 February 2022•Update: 26 February 2022
ANKARA
The head of the Chechen Republic is being heavily criticized on social media for showing up with $1,500 boots during his address to special forces.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, has already announced his support to Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine.
Calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “apologize to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to save Kyiv,” Kadyrov said he has 70,000 fighters in Chechnya to fight alongside Russia.
But besides his speech, the Chechen leader came under censure for wearing the expensive Prada boots.
While some made fun of him saying how could one be an anti-imperialist who wears such pricey boots, others accused him of being a “so-called Muslim [and] Putin’s man.”
This, however, is not the first time Kadyrov has come under criticism.
His remarks on the situation in Syria, and position on the events in the Chechen Republic have also been denounced by many.
Photo of him wearing a T-shirt with Putin’s photo was also shared on social media and he was accused of “giving up the Chechnya cause.
Meanwhile, Kadyrov’s name is also associated with many human rights violations including torture and extrajudicial killings.
He was sanctioned by the US on July 20, 2020, and by the EU over Ukraine crisis in 2014.
Putin announced a “special military operation” on Thursday, days after recognizing two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting on the third day of the attack is said to have reached the streets of the capital Kyiv, with the UN Refugee Agency estimating more than 150,000 Ukrainian refugees having crossed into neighboring countries.
