Son of Chechnya Strongman Receives 3rd State Medal for Prisoner Beating

Adam Kadyrov, the teenage son of Chechnya strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, has received yet another award from Russian officials for beating up a prisoner who allegedly burned a copy of the Quran.

The younger Kadyrov received what was his third state award for “the strengthening of traditional Islamic values.”

Rashid Temrezov, head of Russia’s Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, presented the highest state award to Adam Kadyrov for his “personal contribution to the development of interethnic and interregional unity” on Wednesday.

In a Telegram announcement, Temrezov also praised the young Kadyrov for being a “true patriot of his small motherland of Chechnya and of his fatherland.”

This is the third award that Adam Kadyrov has received over the incident, the first one being the “Hero of the Chechen Republic” title, which was awarded by his father. Rustam Minnikhanov, head of Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, then presented the “Duslyk” (meaning “friendship” in Tatar) state award to young Kadyrov earlier this month.

Minnikhanov’s award came after a Tatarstan official criticized – and later apologized for – Kadyrov’s awarding his own son for beating up a prisoner.

“What legal field do we exist in? The head of a region of the Russian Federation awards the title of a ‘Hero’ to his son for beating up a man?” Khamaev, Tatarstan’s State Council deputy said during a parliamentary meeting. He later issued an apology, saying it was an unbacked “personal opinion.”

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The original incident took place on Sept. 25, when Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video of his son beating up a man called Nikita Zhuravel, who was arrested for burning a copy of the Quran in Volgograd.

Zhuravel was transferred to Chechnya for trial even though the incident took place outside of the Caucasian republic.

Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist since 2007 and has been suppressing dissents there through violent means, going as far as sanctioning assassinations in Europe. He has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and claimed that he would send his three sons to fight in Ukraine.