Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has accused Russain lawmakers from the neighboring Dagestan and Ingushetia regions of conspiring to kill him, warning them of a potential blood feud if they cannot demonstrate their innocence.
Kadyrov claimed that there are witnesses who have stated that the lawmakers solicited the murder and inquired about payment for the hit during a meeting with Chechen security forces.
A blood feud
He specifically named Dagestani senator Suleiman Kerimov and two State Duma deputies, Bekkhan Barakhoev from Ingushetia and Rizvan Kurbanov from Dagestan, as being behind the alleged conspiracy. He warned that if they fail to prove otherwise, he would formally announce a blood feud, which in Chechen culture involves avenging a serious insult through violence against the enemy or their family.
During the same meeting, Kadyrov accused the three men of being connected to a shooting incident at the Moscow office of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, which occurred in September.
Ramzan Kadyrov makes first public remarks
This was Kadyrov’s first public remark regarding the shooting that resulted in the deaths of two ethnic Ingush security guards.
The incident happened two months after a merger between Wildberries and another firm, Russ, which is reportedly owned by Senator Kerimov and allegedly supported by the president’s office in Moscow.
Vladimir Bakalchuk, the estranged husband of Wildberries CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk, opposed the merger. With his wife receiving backing from Putin, Bakalchuk collaborated with Kadyrov to thwart the deal and is said to have stormed the office with other men, including Chechens. He has since been charged with murder, a claim he refutes.
Kadyrov has not publicly acknowledged any involvement of his men in the shooting and instead characterized such allegations as attempts to incite conflict among different ethnic groups over internal issues.
A covert conflict between Kadyrov senator Kerimov
Kadyrov adopted a less confrontational stance in a Russian-language post that accompanied the video, expressing his displeasure with attempts to incite conflict among entire nations over internal disagreements.
Russian business publications describe the merger of Wildberries and Russ into the new entity RVB as a covert conflict between Kadyrov and the powerful billionaire senator Kerimov.
Additionally, the merger might be part of a broader wartime effort in Russia to redistribute business assets, which has favored figures connected to the Kremlin.
Wildberries and Russ have obtained President Vladimir Putin’s endorsement, claiming that the merger will establish a new financial, media, and retail giant capable of competing with Western technology firms and enhancing Russia’s economy.
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