CHECHNYA: Chechnya's Strongman Defends Treatment Of Women

Chechnya's strongman Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday shrugged off rights groups' accusations that he is imposing strict Islamic rules on women in the Russian republic.

Kadyrov said Tuesday that Chechen women wear headscarves because they are Muslim and also as part of local traditions.

During a news conference with foreign reporters that stretched past midnight, he added that he personally admires women in headscarves, saying "no hair style, no color could make such beauty."

Rights activists have said that Kadyrov's government has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that forces most women to wear headscarves. There have been paintball attacks on women who failed to cover their heads.

Kadyrov denied exerting any pressure on those reluctant to adhere to Islamic dress.

"You have seen women in short skirts without headscarves in Grozny," he said with a grin. "If I try to force them (to dress differently) I will be removed tomorrow."

Kadyrov has also defied Russian law by encouraging Chechen men to have more than one wife. He said he has just one wife and loves her, but could take another one some day.

"If I see another woman prettier than her, why would I go somewhere and sin if Islam allows me to marry her?" he said.

Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya with an iron hand since succeeding his father, who was killed in a rebel bombing in May 2004. He has been strongly backed by Vladimir Putin, now Russia's prime minister after serving as president in 2000-2008.

Kadyrov's feared security forces have been accused by rights groups of arbitrary arrests, torture and killings of people with suspected rebel links.

But his brutal rule has allowed him to boast of success in suppressing Islamic militants in Chechnya, which has seen two separatist wars in the past 16 years. Kadyrov claimed Tuesday that only several dozen rebels are still hiding in Chechnya's forested mountains and pledged that his forces would soon flush them out.

"We have destroyed many odious gang leaders, and we will also get Umarov soon," he said referring to Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, who has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of Moscow's largest airport in January.

Kadyrov repeated his diatribes against the West, accusing it of fomenting unrest in the Caucasus and sheltering former rebel leaders such as Akhmed Zakayev. Britain and, most recently, Poland have rejected Russia's requests to extradite Zakayev.

Kadyrov also lashed out at the United States, blasting it as the "tyrant of the world community."