When I first got emails telling me that Kadyrov ordered any “Federals” who would cross the Chechen border shot on sight I dismissed this as utter nonsense.  Then, to my amazement, I found out that this was true.  But the context was very specific.  To make a long and confusing story short:

A group of special police forces from the neighboring region of Stavropol crossed the Chechen border and shot a suspect they were trying to arrest.  Kadyrov claims that neither he not the Minister of Interior of Russia were informed about this.  The Ministry of the Interior categorically states that the local, Chechen, police forces were warned.

Kadyrov is mad at the Stavropol SWAT forces and he may well be right.  The manner in which he expressed his anger is typical of the Caucasus style and is clearly unacceptable.  This is not the first time around.  Kadyrov once threated to expel all the relatives of terrorists and burn down their houses.  Moscow told him to “cool it” and he did.

Bottom line: this is a typical turf battle between cops and not a secession of Chechnia from Russia :-)

The Saker