RAMZAN KADYROV AND “REAL SPORTS” WHAT WAS THE REAL SCARY PART?

When I first read that Home Box Office / HBO / Real Sports program had pulled off an interview with the Warrior Kadyrov, and make no mistake, that is what he is, I had to ask myself, “why? Why did Kadyrov agree to such a stunt? The first thing that popped in my head was the most obvious. The Tsar! Putin had just completed a four part series, one I wrote about, with Oliver Stone and Showtime, HBO’s competition. Would the Tsar care if Showtime and HBO were in competition? I bet he doesn’t even know much less care. So, what was the reason behind Kadyrov’s interview? Yes, he is out to corner the Fighting Games world market, but would that selfish goal be enough to be interviewed? Would Moscow condone the interview if it were just based on the issue of a Sporting program? Didn’t really make sense to me.  Well, then I did what I should have done from the beginning. I watched the segment on HBO.

GAYS IN CHECHENIA:

Was that it? Was HBO trying to make a point about how Kdyrov is Homophobic? Really? That was the punchline of the HBO interview? As if he cared someone labeled him in that way. Hell, the guy wore the statement like a badge of honor!  Chechenia is a land of ruthless Warriors who loving nothing more than to fight? Did HBO really think that was news to the rest of the world? Kadyrov is mentally unbalanced? Was that part of HBO’s message? Again, someone show the nation that didn’t have this impression already. Chechenia’s “Purge” of Gays was going to ruin Kadyrov’s dream of owning the world’s Mix Martial Arts Fighting program? To HBO, that might be the whole point of the program. Is HBO trying to cut Kadyrov off before his dominance in the sport takes place? Is HBO getting ready to try to corner the market on broadcasting the major MMA fights? Lord knows Boxing is on the downward slide and has been for several years and HBO is heavily invested in boxing. So, what this story about the Homophobic Chechen Leader, or was it about the future of HBO’s sports and the profit lines?

BACK TO THE QUESTION:

Alright. The issue of why HBO wanted this segment is interesting to some, but the much more important issue is, once again, why? Why did Kadyrov allow this spectacle on HBO? Yes, the Tsar knows the fight games are near and dear to his Pitbull’s heat and perhaps the opinion was, “so what? Why not let him have the interview”? Nope! I don’t buy it. Timing. The timing was just all wrong. To have such a controversial interview take place within weeks of the Tsar’s interview, that just seems suspicious to me.  Putin have to have seen some value in the interview. He had to have some opinion on it impacting his overall plan for Russia. The only other option is to accept that he just didn’t care. Again, I don’t buy it.

THE MESSAGE:

What is Chechenia? What does it mean to the Tsar? Geographically, it’s a very small slice of Russia. It’s standing Army is nothing more than a token fighting force in terms of defending Russia. Or is it? Does it? That answer depends on who the enemy is? Can Chechenia defend Russia from the US or China or NATO? No. Not even close. So, why worry about this slice of land? Why invest so much time and capital on Chechenia? Well, Chechenia is much more complicated than that. It’s not the geographical location that the Russians care about. It’s who they are. The gateway of Muslim Fundamentalism into the heartland of Russia is where? Why did the Russians fight so hard in the two Chechen wars? Why did Putin work so hard to win over Ramzan’s Father? What’s the best way to fight Muslim Radicals? With Russian, Orthodox Catholics? No. Why not develop a way to have Muslim’s killing Muslims? Who better understands the real drive behind most radical leaders? Power. They all lust for power! Putin developed a way to get Chechen Rebels to kill Muslim Rebels! Once he had this process underway, why not extend the concept into the heartland of the enemy? Why not set the game so that Muslims were killing Muslims on Muslim land, not Russian soil? Those that love to fight would beg to go to where the fighting is taking place. Does anyone remember Ramzan’s commitment to sending his Warriors into Syria? A battle for the control of the Muslim Faith is a perfect distraction for a land of men who love to fight. “Let him have his interview. Let him have his fight games. As long as he is killing Muslims and those Muslims are not bombing buildings in Moscow, who cares”? Are those more or less the words of the Tsar? What Chechnya is to Russia is tool. What the men of Chechenia are to Russia is cannon fodder. Something to toss into the meat grinder, a meat grinder they love to jump into, just as long as the trouble doesn’t land inside Russia Proper. Did the Tsar even pay attention to the interview? I hope so, because at the very end, Ramzan said something the Tsar may or may not have wanted him to so.

THE “WOOPS”?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the interview series Putin did with Oliver Stone and Showtime. In that review, I made note of Putin’s comment after watching the movie Doctor Strange Love. Rumors. I talked about the long standing rumors of the Russians having a type of Doomsday network. As a matter of fact, it’s a big player in the book I’m writing. So at the end of the interview with Ramzan, he makes a comment that stopped my train of thought. ‘Even if the government is taken out, the nuclear missiles will still launch’! What? Why would the leader of such a small slice of land know such a thing? Just how close would Putin and Ramzan have to be for him to be told such a thing? Better yet, why did this topic come up? For one thing, they said it took place at 2am and you have to wonder how much the Warrior Leader had had to drink by then. Oh…ya….I know…He’s a Muslim…..He doesn’t drink! Right. I wish I had a bottle for every Muslim I’ve spent time with that didn’t drink?  So, Ramzan was responding to a comment made to him about the relationship between the US and Russia? Why would he answer in such a way as to indicate a deep …..deep….secret his good friend the Tsar may have let him in on? Was it a “Woops” moment? Here is a far more freighting point to ponder. It’s the same “Woops” the Tsar had with Oliver Stone. Two “Woops” moments in just two very unusual interviews? We are talking about the most calculating man in the world today. No. Not Ramzan. Putin! What is going on here? What’s the message the Tsar is sending to the US? Could it be, he no longer cares what the US or the West thinks of him? Could it be, in his mind, the time is come that he does want he wants, when he wants? Ramzan is a very different type of “Leader”. He is the loyal Pitbull of the Tsar. Can a Pitbull be trusted forever or do you only keep them around while you need them?