Prescient or preposterous? Vladimir Putin’s absence from public life sparked a frenzy of speculation last week. Some commentators thought a backstage coup was under way or at least a full-scale Kremlin power struggle, in which the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov (a staunch ally of Putin) was ranged against the siloviki of the security and intelligence services. Tensions between rival camps at court are not new, but they have increased following the murder of the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, now being blamed rather unconvincingly on Chechens who disliked his views on Islam.
The speculation had a sinister tone: critics of the regime …read more
Source: European Voice
