The head of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has appointed his daughter, Aishat Kadyrova, First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic. Prior to that, she headed the Firdaws fashion house.

Kadyrov announced on Tuesday on his Telegram channel that the appointment of 21-year-old Aishat Kadyrova was ‘a firmly balanced decision’.  He claimed the Minister of Culture of Chechnya, Khozh-Baudi Daaev, recommended her for the position.

‘Despite her young age, she has vast experience in managing the most complex and large-scale projects, including in the field of culture’, Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel.

Kadyrov also said that in March his daughter received a ‘well deserved’ medal ‘for services to the Chechen Republic’. She is the first of Kadyrov's children to be awarded a state prize and appointed to a high position in the republic’s power structures. All four of Kadyrov's sons and most of his daughters are minors.

In July, the US State Department added Aishat Kadyrova, along with another daughter of Kadyrov, to an expanded sanctions list because of Kadyrov’s involvement in gross violations of human rights in the republic.

Born in 1998,  Aishat is the oldest of Kadyrov's children.

In 2016, she became the head of the Firdaws fashion house, originally founded by her mother Medni Kadyrova, and in 2019 she graduated with a degree in public administration from the Chechen State University.

Aishat Kadyrova's husband, 22-year-old Viskhan Matsuev, became head of the migration department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the Republic of Chechnya in December 2019.

A family affair

This is not the first time that Kadyrov has appointed close relatives to leadership positions in the republic.

In February, Kadyrov appointed his 23-year-old nephew Khamzat Kadyrov as the Minister of Sports of Chechnya. Prior to that, Khamzat had been the head of the Kurchaloyevsky district of the Chechen Republic for two years.

Another nephew of Kadyrov, Yakub Zakriev, is the head of the administration of the head of Chechnya. The younger brother of Yakub Zakriev, Yasin Zakriev, holds a leading position in the Department of the Tax Service for Chechnya. Kadyrov's brother-in-law, Salman Zakriev, is the vice-speaker of the Chechen parliament, headed by Kadyrov's close friend, Magomed Daudov.

Other relatives include the head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and the Minister of Transport and Communications. 

In 2009, Kadyrov's cousin, Islam Kadyrov, who was then 22, became an assistant to the head of Chechnya. After that, he changed various positions in the leadership of Chechnya from the Minister for Property and Land Relations to the Mayor of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, until in 2017 he was removed from leadership positions.

In October 2019, video footage was released, in which Islam Kadyrov and other officials tortured and humiliated people in the Grozny mayor's office, the Investigative Committee of the Republic did not open a criminal case into the matter.