Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov
– Kadyrov blames US, Turkey ‘personal ambitions’ for Syrian crisis:
Washington and Ankara are extremely unwilling to compromise and this position brings suffering to millions of Syrian citizens, the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has told the press.“Because of some personal ambitions, the United States and Turkey are not even trying to get on common ground with Syrian President Bashar Assad, despite the sufferings of millions of Syrians,” Kadyrov said at the major annual press conference in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
“Just imagine, [Turkish President] Erdogan and America are saying that until Assad retires they are not even going to raise the question about stabilizing the situation. So many people are suffering because of their personal ambitions, a whole country has been destroyed because of them,” he added.Kadyrov also said that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) received funds from Arab and European countries.
“Their numbers reach the tens of thousands. They are financed by rich Arab and Western European states. Best military specialists from these states are working with these terrorists. Of course they have a strong and powerful military machine,” he said.
One IS’s objectives is the destabilization of situation in Chechnya, Kadyrov told reporters, but he also noted that law enforcers were successfully containing this threat.
Ramzan Kadyrov is known for his strong anti-IS stance and has made repeated statements in which he expressed his readiness to join the anti-terrorist operation in Syria by providing Chechen special operations units.
In mid-November, Kadyrov called on Muslims across the world to unite and destroy IS. He also reiterated his point that the current Middle East crisis was masterminded by the United States and other Western nations to distract public attention from numerous problems in the region and incite hatred toward Muslims all over the world.
In early December, the Chechen leader also pledged to avenge the death of a Russian citizen beheaded by IS terrorists over his alleged ties with Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB.
“Chechens remember, know and will not leave this unanswered. Those who slaughtered our citizen will not live long,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
Russia is currently conducting a major Air Force operation against IS in Syria at the request of that country’s government. According to the Defense Ministry, air raids have already destroyed thousands of terrorist strongholds, arms depots and other infrastructure. The operation has resulted in the halving of the terrorists’ revenues through illegal oil sales – from $1.5 million to $3 million per day.
In December 2014, Russia branded IS a terrorist organization, outlawing membership or any support for it under threat of criminal prosecution. In addition, two major Russian Muslim groups issued fatwas against IS, announcing that all its members were enemies of Islam and called for their punishment as criminals.