Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Chechnya on Tuesday, marking his first trip to the North Caucasus region since 2011, where he met with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov, a close ally of the Kremlin, has claimed to have deployed thousands of fighters to support Russia’s ongoing military efforts in Ukraine.
Footage shared by RIA Novosti news agency and Kadyrov captured the moment Putin arrived in the Chechen capital of Grozny, where he was greeted by Kadyrov and other officials. The two leaders exchanged a handshake before Putin warmly embraced Kadyrov, and they then departed together in a limousine.
Kadyrov announced on Telegram that the visit would include a “packed program” of events, noting that despite a busy workday, Putin was “full of energy and ready to visit several places in Chechnya.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Putin toured other regions in the North Caucasus, including Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia. In North Ossetia, he paid his respects at the Beslan school, the site of a tragic 2004 siege by Chechen rebels that claimed the lives of over 330 people.
Putin knelt at a memorial and met with mothers who lost their children in the attack, drawing a comparison between the attackers and the Ukrainian forces currently mounting an incursion in Russia’s Kursk region.
Although Putin’s visits to Chechnya have been infrequent in recent years, the region has played a significant role in shaping his political career. In 1999, as prime minister, he launched the second Chechen war, an action that bolstered his strongman image and increased his popularity among many Russians.
Since 2007, Kadyrov, a staunch Putin loyalist, has ruled Chechnya with an iron grip, working to suppress lingering Islamist insurgencies and dissent while overseeing the extensive reconstruction of Grozny. Putin appointed Kadyrov as the leader of Chechnya when he was just 30, following the assassination of his father, Akhmat Kadyrov, in a 2004 stadium bombing.
Putin began his visit by laying flowers at Akhmat Kadyrov’s grave, according to Interfax news agency.
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