Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has called on Muslims around the world to “unite against NATO,” warning that otherwise the alliance would come “to trample their homeland,” Ukrainian outlet NV reported on December 18, 2022.
A message in Chinese
Kadyrov published the appeal on his Telegram channel in Chinese. He accused the United States and Europe of organising “dozens of wars, military coups and invasions” over the past 100 years and called NATO “a common enemy of the entire Islamic world.”
He urged Muslims to “take one side with their brothers” and claimed that Russia was “confidently moving towards victory” against what he described as evil.
Sanctioned and wanted
Kadyrov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin whose forces have fought in Ukraine, is under sanctions imposed by Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In September, the United States imposed new sanctions on Kadyrov and members of his family.
In November, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) placed Kadyrov on its wanted list as a suspect in a criminal case over infringing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and planning and waging an aggressive war.
Propaganda push
Kadyrov has frequently framed Russia’s war against Ukraine in religious terms and sought to portray it as a confrontation with the West, as the Kremlin seeks support in the Muslim world and Asia.
Sources
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