Last Updated on July 20, 2020, 6:55 PM AST by Anthony Morris
On Monday, the US Department of State imposed sanctions on the leader of Russia’s southern region of Chechnya and has barred him from travelling to the US because of the accusations of gross violation of human rights which include torture.
Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, said in a statement that he was concerned that the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, was using the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse of inflicting further human right abuses on the people of the region.
Pompeo said that the Department has a lot of credible information which points out that Kadyrov drove is responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights dating back more than a decade, including torture and extrajudicial killings.
Kadyrov responded on his Telegram channel to the announcement with a photo of him standing and smiling in what looks like an armoury filled with weapons, holding light machine guns with tripods.
He said that accept the fight and this would get interesting.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, wrote on Facebook in response to the sanctions that it would be difficult to respond tit-for-tat, but we would think of something.
This sanction also bars Kadyrov’s daughters and spouse from travelling to the US.
The US has previously blacklisted Kadyrov, the head of Chechen under a 2012 law named, the Magnitsky Act, which imposes asset freezes and visa bans on the Russian officials linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old Russian auditor and whistleblower in prison.
Kadyrov became head of Chechnya in 2007 in the aftermath of two brutal wars between Russia’s military and separatist and Islamist forces following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Moscow credits Kadyrov with reining in a radical Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, but human rights advocates accuse him of presiding over widespread abuses.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
