Khorezm, a horse that's reportedly from the ample stables of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has won the 2,400-meter President of the Russian Federation Prize horse race, according to Itar-Tass and Interfax. Another of his horses, Erjais, was said to have won a separate race.
It's ironic that a thuggish Kremlin-backed autocrat was enjoying one of the perks of a personal fiefdom on one side of Rostov-na-Donu -- collecting more than 1 million rubles in purse money (more than $30,000) -- at the same time that observers on the other side of the same city were noting an emerging climate of listless formality between the European Union and Russia.
Unlike the furor over a Kadyrov horse's Melbourne Cup finish and its fallout, there are not likely to be any qualms about these payouts.
In fact, they could signal that Kadyrov's star is not, in fact, on the wane in the North Caucasus.
-- RFE/RL Central Newsroom
It's ironic that a thuggish Kremlin-backed autocrat was enjoying one of the perks of a personal fiefdom on one side of Rostov-na-Donu -- collecting more than 1 million rubles in purse money (more than $30,000) -- at the same time that observers on the other side of the same city were noting an emerging climate of listless formality between the European Union and Russia.
Unlike the furor over a Kadyrov horse's Melbourne Cup finish and its fallout, there are not likely to be any qualms about these payouts.
In fact, they could signal that Kadyrov's star is not, in fact, on the wane in the North Caucasus.
-- RFE/RL Central Newsroom