Power and Propaganda in Modern Chechnya

Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist and little regard for human rights since 2007. Yet repression is not the only means he uses to reinforce his power. He also has more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram and regularly posts photos of himself in an eclectic variety of guises: in full military garb, sparring with Mike Tyson, in his private zoo or wrestling (and defeating) a large python on a beach. To shed rare light onto the intricacies and workings of Kadyrov's Chechnya, his Instagram account is here the focus of Karena Avedissian's scrutiny, supplemented by a range of secondary sources and several years' interviews with NGO representatives and journalists working on human rights in Russia. Each chapter focuses on a theme relevant to Kadyrov's rule - Islam, sports, gender, government and dissent/repression - and demonstrates the complex ways that Kadyrov uses social media as a tool of 'soft power' to manufacture consent and strengthen his authoritarian rule. In addition to providing insight into the dynamics of modern Chechnya, Avedissian contributes to a range of other timely scholarly debates, including the balance between hard and soft power mechanisms in authoritarian regimes, populism, propaganda, information warfare and Internet communication.