Kadyrov Not Following Chechen or Islamic Traditions with His Blood Feuds but Violating Both, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 21 – Ramzan Kadyrov routinely uses the term “blood feud” to explain some of his repressive policies, a use that leads many unfamiliar with the details of that concept to conclude that the Chechen leader is acting within the traditions of Islam or traditional Caucasian law (adat).

            But in fact, experts surveyed by the Kavkazr portal say, Kadyrov is acting in ways that violate the principles of blood feud, principles that are intended not only to limit violence in society by raising the stakes for those who might commit a crime but to make forgiveness possible (kavkazr.com/a/ni-po-adatu-ni-po-islamu-krovnaya-mestj-v-chechne/33410709.html).

            What Kadyrov is doing, experts like Mairbek Vachagayev and Dzhabulat Suleyamanov says, accomplishes neither. Instead, it exacerbates the criminogenic problems of society and prevents the limitation and resolution of conflicts that in fact blood feud traditions have done in the past.

            Indeed, they and other historians say, whatever Kadyrov calls what he is doing, it is in fact in the service of increasing repression in society and shoring up his own power rather than regulating violence. (For a thoughtful discussion of blood feud traditions and the ways they limit rather than increase violence, see kavkazr.com/a/krovnaya-mestj-na-severnom-kavkaze---vcherashniy-denj-ili-realjnostj-/31912386.html.)