After the failed uprising in Russia, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is positioning himself as a warlord ready to fight for Vladimir Putin.
But unlike the Wagner paramilitary group, which Moscow now wants to dismantle, Chechen special forces have earned a reputation as “TikTok fighters” who prioritize their social media presence over battlefield success.
Following the mutiny of rival warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, Kadyrov tried to emphasize his continued close ties to Putin by posting a selfie with the Russian president on his Telegram channel on Wednesday and boasting about their meeting the previous day. But his private army’s record raises questions about whether Chechen fighters will be able to provide the Russian military with the same level of support that Wagner did.
Hours after Prigozhin’s march on Moscow, a Kadyrov battalion posted a video on Telegram showing its troops dramatically patrolling an abandoned bridge, clad from head to toe in camouflage and armed with machine guns.
“Whoever they are, whoever they are, we will bury these traitors and carry out any assignment assigned to us,” boomed one of Kadyrov’s fighters while giving a thumbs-up at the camera.
However, there was a problem with the footage: it appears to have been filmed during Saturday’s Moscow sunset – after Prigozhin’s uprising had already ended – and in Kostroma – a town Wagner fighters never got close to during the uprising.
Kadyrov has ruled the troubled Chechen Republic since 2007, and his fighters have already been active in Ukraine. Since joining the fighting there in February 2022, Kadyrov, an early Instagram user, and his fellow fighters have been extensively posting their music video-style social media posts, which are typically montages of fighters fighting marching around in military fatigues – often with no apparent sign of a firefight.
The actual military successes of the fighters were significantly lower.
“The Chechen armed forces give the impression that they are very strong and they display their gear and equipment in a very menacing manner,” said Alex Kokcharov, a risk analyst specializing in Russia. “On the battlefield in Ukraine, we have not seen any significant influence of Chechen forces, especially along the front lines.”
Chechen forces are most prominent in parts of Ukraine already under Russian control, he said. In contrast, Prigozhin’s Wagner fighters had achieved some real military successes during their time on the ground, contributing, for example, to Russia’s capture of the city of Bakhmut, he added.
That was not always so. When Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, Kadyrov dispatched several Chechen military units to the front lines, where they were expected to play a crucial role in Moscow’s ultimately failed plan to take over Kiev.
However, shortly after the war began, the units suffered heavy casualties, leading Kadyrov to reconsider involving his forces, said Emil Aslan, a Caucasus specialist and professor of security studies at Charles University in Prague.
“He knew he was going to lose a lot of his people. And he can’t afford that,” Aslan said, adding that Kadyrov relies on his legions of veteran fighters to maintain his political standing at home.
“To survive, Kadyrov needs two things: Putin’s support and the persistence of his personal army. From then on, he wavered between demonstrating that he is using forces that he will sacrifice for the benefit of leader Vladimir Putin. . . And on the other hand, we are trying to save the lives of the most experienced Kadyrovtsy,” Aslan said, referring to the elite fighters that make up Kadyrovtsy’s personal army.
The burly, bearded leader has been able to stay in power in Chechnya thanks in large part to his close political alliance with Putin, who lavished federal funds on the region and helped Kadyrov maintain his long-running rule.
The relationship also allowed Kadyrov to create his own private army of mercenaries accused of war atrocities in Ukraine and the torture and murder of Kadyrov’s domestic opponents and critics.
In his relationship with Putin, Kadyrov was unrivaled—until Prigozhin and his own rival private mercenary force emerged. While Kadyrov has sided with Prigozhin in some of his criticisms of Russia’s top military, the two have also clashed on social media and repeatedly thrown digs at each other.
On Saturday, as Prigozhin’s uprising was unfolding, Kadyrov used Telegram to denounce the Wagner leader and accuse Prigozhin of “a heinous treason.”
“I have repeatedly warned that war is not the time to express personal grievances,” Kadyrov said. “We have a popularly elected commander-in-chief who knows the entire situation, down to the last detail, better than any strategist.”
Apti Alaudinov, commander of Kadyrov’s Akhmat Battalion, said his fighters were deployed to Rostov to repel the uprising and got within 500-700 meters of Wagner fighters.
Alaudinov said many Chechen fighters did not travel to Rostov as they were “responsible for defending the front line in Ukraine”. He claimed that the Russian Defense Ministry had specifically urged Chechen forces “not to engage in combat operations in the hope of resolving everything peacefully.”
However, some military analysts remain skeptical. “It appears [Kadyrov’s forces] “We waited to see what happened next,” said Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
“No one really wanted to face Prigozhin’s troops last weekend, except for the few planes and helicopters that were shot down.”