Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) – Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful leader of the Russian Chechen Republic, said on Wednesday that Moscow would not make any concessions in its war with Ukraine, deviating from the official line and implying that its negotiator of the Kremlin was wrong. Kadyrov, who has Chechen forces fighting in Ukraine as part of a Russian military operation, told the Telegram that President Vladimir Putin would not just stop what he had started there. He was speaking after Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, said after talks with Ukraine on Tuesday that Moscow was taking steps to de-escalate the conflict, including reducing military activity around Kyiv. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “We will not make any concessions, it was … Medinsky who made a mistake, made a wrong statement … And if you think that he (Putin) will abandon what started exactly as it is presented to us today, that is not true.” , said Kadyrov. Kadyrov, who rose to power in the predominantly Muslim southern Russian region of Chechnya in the aftermath of two violent wars following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has often described himself as “Putin’s foot soldier.” Moscow has channeled huge sums of money to rebuild the region under him. Although he wields enormous power and is one of the country’s most important regional leaders, his statements contradicting Medinsky by name were very unusual on such a sensitive issue as the war. “This is, of course, a serious problem for Putin,” Tatiana Stanovagia, a political analyst, told the Telegram. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Reuters. curated by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
