Putin faces Chechen civil war after rebels attack Kadyrov’s militia in ‘massive’ shootout

The rebels opened fire on the Kadyrovites with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, before legging it.

By John Varga

14:07, Mon, Oct 17, 2022 | UPDATED: 15:24, Mon, Oct 17, 2022

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Vladimir Putin is facing a serious Chechen crisis, after army refuseniks and Kadyrov loyalists engaged in a major armed confrontation over the weekend. The fighting has raised fears that the Islamic republic may be sliding back into civil war and bloody strife, that afflicted the country for a large part of the 1990s. The country, located in the Caucasus, is ruled by Putin‘s close ally Ramzan Kadyrov.

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The Chechen leader is renowned for his brutality and his regime has been accused of widespread human rights’ abuses.

He has been a staunch supporter of Putin’s war in Ukraine, and has sent thousands of his private militia, known as Kadyrovites, to help the Russian army.

• However, many in Chechnya have little appetite to go and fight in Putin’s war and have sought to avoid the recently announced nationwide draft.

A group of ten Chechen refuseniks became involved in a “massive” shootout with members of Kadyrov’s militia, according to local reports.

The incident took place on Saturday in a forest in the vicinity of the village Samashki, located on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The draft dodgers opened fire on the Kadyrovites with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, before legging it.

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Kadyrov loyalists were involved in a massive shootout with rebels (Image: Kavkaz Centre Twitter)

Kadyrov has pledged to send another 70,000 Chechen troops to Ukraine (Image: Ukraine News Twitter)

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The incident has sparked a republic wide search by Chechnya’s security forces.

Local sources reported what they called “large-scale targeted cleansing” by Kadyrov’s henchmen.

The village was the scene of a massacre carried out by Russian forces between April 7-8 1995, during the first Chechen war.

A 1996 report by United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) claimed that over 100 civilians in the settlement were slaughtered by Russian soldiers.

The report’s authors wrote: “According to the accounts of 128 eye-witnesses, Federal soldiers deliberately and arbitrarily attacked civilians and their dwellings in Samashki by shooting residents and burning houses with flame-throwers.

“The majority of the witnesses reported that many OMON troops were drunk or under the influence of drugs.

Video images purportedly show thousands of Chechen soldiers (Image: Ukraine News Twitter)

Ukraine War (Image: Getty)