Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly mourned Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death, although the two former allies fell out even before the military uprising launched by mercenary leader Wagner, DPA and Agerpres reported.

“His death is a great loss for the entire state,” he wrote on his Telegram channel Thursday night, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of the “tragedy” Thursday night. Like Putin, Kadyrov sent his condolences relatives of Prigozhin.

Kadyrov and Prigozhin both participated in Russia’s war in Ukraine with troops under their command. For a while, they were united in their criticism of the Russian military leadership, but later diverged.

“We have been friends for a long time,” Kadyrov said in a Telegram post a day after Prigozhin died after the plane he was on with other Wagner group commanders crashed in Russia’s Tver region.

Kadyrov also published on his Telegram channel a photo of Prigozhin handing him a medal. He only briefly touched on the conflict surrounding Prigozhin, saying that in recent months the leader of the “Wagnerites” “lost the big picture.”

“I asked him to put aside his personal ambitions in favor of the most important matters for the state,” Kadyrov wrote.

Observers believed that the alliance between them was probably opportunistic, noting that their criticism of the military leadership was aimed primarily at gaining advantages for their own military groups and strengthening their influence in the power structure of the Russian state.

How Kadyrov’s Chechens turned against Prigozhin

By the way, this became evident at the beginning of June, when two of Ramzan Kadyrov’s closest associates sharply attacked the mercenary leader Wagner. The Kadyrivites were hurt by Prigozhin’s comments through the press service of his Concordia catering company that he did not know where the Chechens were fighting, having handed over positions in Bakhmut to them a month earlier.

Although Prigozhin’s comments, seen in the context of his broader claims at the time, were at least mildly ironic, they angered the Chechens.

The first to attack was Adam Delimkhanov, Ramzan Kadyrov’s right-hand man after the assassination of General Magomed Tushaev in the first days of the “special operation”.

“I just saw a call in Telegram, a question to Yevhen Prigozhin, in which he says that he does not understand what the Akhmat unit does. Zhenya (without shortening from “Yugen”), you clearly do not understand and you should not. As always, the “Akhmat” unit performs all tasks assigned by the Supreme Commander. If you don’t understand anything, we can give you a place and time to explain it to you,” Delimkhanov, head of mercenaries, told Wagner.

“It’s in hand. Second, you become a blogger and tell the whole world that we only have problems, that you have no ammunition, and so on. We all know how many people you killed in Bakhmut (not talking about Russian losses) in the 7-8 months you were the leader. Stop talking and shouting, give us a place to meet. As Ramzan Kadyrov said, we can clarify any issues face to face. Enough!”, the Chechen said.

Speaker of the Chechen Parliament Magomed Daudov had a similar message to Prigozhin.

“You don’t need to know about opportunities and tasks, Zhenya. This is known both to the command, and to the Supreme Commander, who sets these tasks, and to the head of the republic, the hero of Russia, Ramzan Kadyrov. It is sometimes unclear to me what you are trying to achieve with these daily statements. On the contrary, with your statements, you are increasing panic among the population of our country,” said Daudov, who in July of last year said that the Chechens could reach Berlin if “they are left alone.”

Kadyrov himself spoke about the “knife in the back” on June 24 during the mutiny of Prigozhin’s mercenaries.

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