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'Lock up your wives and don't let them use WhatsApp'

The leader of Chechnya made the calls after a story of an arranged marriage spread on the messaging app.

Russia Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov Musa Sadulayev / AP/Press Association Images Musa Sadulayev / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images

THE LEADER OF Chechnya has reportedly called for husbands to lock up their wives and ban them from using WhatsApp.

Reports of an arranged marriage has sparked controversy in the Russian state, with the story spreading on the messaging service.

The boss of the local police force, who is approaching 50, married a 17-year-old girl over the weekend.

The bride was his second wife, which is allowed under Islamic law but not Russian.

Kheda Goilabiyeva, Nazhud Guchigov, Magomed Daudov A scene from the wedding. AP AP

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is considered to have voiced support for polygamy previously – and his chief of staff was best man at the wedding.

Grozny, a state-run television station, quotes Kadyrov as saying that the public need to ‘behave like Chechens’, and not to spread rumours.

“Do not write such things,” he said, according to the BBC, “Men, do take your women out of WhatsApp.”

Lock them in, do not let them go out, then they will not post anything.

He is seen in the footage reprimanding members of the public for sending messages about the wedding.

The story was first revealed by investigative paper Novaya Gazeta, but Kadyrov has branded it “full of lies”.

Kabyrov has enjoyed an exclusive relationship with Putin, who saw him as the linchpin for peace in Chechnya after two devastating separatist wars that killed tens of thousands.

In exchange for restoring stability, Putin gave Kabyrov, a former rebel, carte blanche to run the region in the North Caucasus as his personal fiefdom and funded a costly reconstruction.

Lavish reconstruction projects along with Kadyrov’s promotion of Islamic law and his rejection of federal controls have helped swell his popularity, enhancing stability.

The Kremlin, in turn, has sheltered the Chechen leader from criticism over killings, abductions, torture and other abuses by his feared security forces.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

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17 Comments
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    Mute Sheik Yahbouti
    Favourite Sheik Yahbouti
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    May 20th 2015, 10:24 PM

    It is to be hoped that this particular manky shitbag gets on the wrong side of Putin – very very soon.

    290
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    Mute Robin Hilliard
    Favourite Robin Hilliard
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    May 21st 2015, 1:16 AM

    Unlikely, as Putin is giving Kadyrov a free rein in Chechnya so long as Kadyrov keeps a lid on the place, supplies mercenaries to do some of Putins’s dirty work in East Ukraine and also sorts out political opposition like Boris Nemtsov back in Moscow on a permanent basis.

    Kadyrov is unfortunately likely to be around as long as Putin, and vice versa.

    73
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    Mute Boganity
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    May 21st 2015, 11:43 AM

    More anti Islamic click bait from the Journal in the finest tradition of Murdoch Media.

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    Mute Paddy o'brian
    Favourite Paddy o'brian
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    May 21st 2015, 6:25 PM

    No boganity not anti Islamic just a story about a peadophile who happens to be. A good buddy of comrade Putin.

    18
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    Mute loveslife
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    May 20th 2015, 9:27 PM

    What’s App Equality anyone?

    178
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    Mute Stephen
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    May 20th 2015, 9:33 PM

    It’s when viber and what’s app are treated equal under the app store

    165
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    Mute Buy Say It on iTunes
    Favourite Buy Say It on iTunes
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    May 20th 2015, 10:14 PM

    Russia…..the beacon of human rights and equality, what a horrible place to live as a human unless you’re a heterosexual male.

    177
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    Mute Robin Hilliard
    Favourite Robin Hilliard
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    May 21st 2015, 1:20 AM

    Not so much hetero male, as “rich, with reliable political connections” – then things are ok.

    Otherwise, you’re at the whim of the local political power brokers – a powerless place indeed in Putins’s Russia.

    67
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    May 20th 2015, 11:38 PM

    No same-sex marriage there, I’d say.

    81
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    Mute Lloyd Hetherington
    Favourite Lloyd Hetherington
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    May 20th 2015, 9:38 PM

    Cheek of him.

    69
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    Mute Philip King
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    May 21st 2015, 9:17 AM

    Did everyone miss the whole 50 year old marrying a 17 year old?

    Shivers down my spine…..

    57
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    Mute Kevin Slater
    Favourite Kevin Slater
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    May 21st 2015, 7:39 AM

    Savages. I tell ya we’re heading back to the Dark ages

    35
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    Mute yeboyyah
    Favourite yeboyyah
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    May 21st 2015, 12:11 AM

    Jakers…you could cut the air with a knife looking at those wedding photos..Bet it won’t be the last time she turns her a@#e to him…

    32
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    Mute Wilm J Delaney
    Favourite Wilm J Delaney
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    May 20th 2015, 9:28 PM

    Sweetness what app you done… You silly woman…

    27
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    Mute Kitty Prendergast
    Favourite Kitty Prendergast
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    May 21st 2015, 7:17 AM

    More splits and giggles from the ‘religion of peace’.

    24
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    Mute Colm Flaherty
    Favourite Colm Flaherty
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    May 21st 2015, 9:21 AM

    Is this the kind of sh*t we have to put up with if Donetsk and Luhansk go Russian!?

    9
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    Mute Jeremy D Hartley
    Favourite Jeremy D Hartley
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    Oct 27th 2015, 1:03 PM

    Age and money have no power in love. So many Russian women looking for their love outside their own country. I am 40, all i wanted was to find pure love, and i found it! The girl of my dreams at http://www.rbrides.com. She never asked for money and didnt care about my age or status.

    1
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