Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov has offered to send Chechen fighters, military instructors, and wheat to the new authorities in Syria, which deposed the former Russian-allied regime.
Kadyrov made the announcement on Monday through his Telegram channel.
He also suggested that Russia remove Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), one of the main Syrian rebel groups which overthrew Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, from Russia’s list of terrorist organisations.
Russia provided heavy military support to the Assad regime in the decade-long civil war in Syria, playing a key role in preventing HTS and other groups from seizing power in the country.
The Chechen leader also said that he was ready to send Chechen fighters and military instructors to Syria to ‘transfer unique experience and knowledge to Syrian policemen’ — pending Russian President Vladimir Putin’s instructions and approval.
Kadyrov said that Putin ‘has always pursued only one goal: to help the long-suffering Syrian people and protect them from any aggression.’
Lastly, in the post on Telegram, Kadryov declared his readiness to provide Syria with wheat, and that he was ready to ‘take responsibility and provide the necessary amount of wheat for Syria’, even if the deliveries ‘for some impossible and improbable reason’ stopped.
Previously, on Sunday, Kadyrov published an appeal to Syrians in Russian, English, and Arabic, denying that Russia suspended wheat shipments to Syria. The appeal followed a report by Reuters on 13 December, which cited sources as saying that two ships carrying Russian grain had not reached their destinations in Syria.
Kadyrov vowed to deliver the grain through the Akhmat Kadyrov Fund, a Western-sanctioned fund named after his father, the former president of Chechnya.
He claimed that Grozny had previously provided aid to nearly three and a half million Syrians, rebuilt one mosque, and was working on rebuilding another.
The Chechen regime’s media and Russian state news agencies regularly report on humanitarian supplies delivered to Syria from Chechnya.
Syria is home to thousands of Chechens and other North Caucasians who were settled there by the Ottoman Empire following the end of the Circassian Genocide and the Russian–Caucasian war of the 19th century. Smaller groups from the North Caucasus followed suit in the 20th century.
Kadyrov was the only North Caucasus leader to issue statements of support to the new government in Syria. He is traditionally the only federal leader who comments on Russia’s foreign policy.
Elsewhere in the Caucasus, Armenia announced on Monday that it stood ‘firmly by the friendly Syrian people in this decisive moment for their history’ and that it supports the ‘inclusive and peaceful political transition process’.
On the same day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry announced that its embassy in Damascus resumed its activities, after being temporarily stationed in Beirut, Lebanon, following the fall of Al Assad’s regime.
They also said that they intended to resume the activities of the Consulate General in Aleppo at an undisclosed time.
