Putin promotes Chechen leader with ties to murder of Kremlin critic

Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Russian province of Chechnya, gestures while speaking to troops in Chechnya’s regional capital of Grozny on Tuesday Photograph: AP

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has promoted Ramzan Kadyrov to lieutenant-general for his role in the invasion of Ukraine, which the Chechen leader is using to showcase his loyalty to Moscow and his own impunity.

This week Kadyrov claimed that a key ally linked to the 2015 murder of the Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, was injured fighting in the besieged port city of Mariupol.