Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov today called the two ethnic—Chechen Boston Marathon bombing suspects “devils” who had nothing to do with his republic on the southern edge of Russia.
“Today I can say in all confidence that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar (Tsarnaev) are real-life devils — complete devils,” Interfax quoted Kadyrov as telling presspersons in Chechnya.
“Tamerlan, thank god, was killed,” he said. “Dzhokhar has been detained. Otherwise, they could have brought grief to the families of completely innocent people.”
The two brothers were brought up in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. Elder brother Tamerlan is suspected of having visited Chechnya while paying a six-month visit to southern Russia last year.
US security services are checking to see whether the brothers gained any bomb-making expertise from the local Islamic guerrillas who have been fighting Russian troops for most of the past two decades.
But Kadyrov — backed strongly by the Kremlin even though he himself once fought with the rebels before switching sides — said he had no intention of defending the Tsarnaev brothers despite their Chechen roots.
“I do not want to say a single word in their support,” said Kadyrov.
He also suggested that any blame for the incident should be laid with the brothers’ families and the countries in which they were raised.
“They were raised in Kyrgyzstan, and they underwent their preparations in some other countries,” Kadyrov said without going into further details.
“The parents sent them to the US on their own — and there is your result.”
The Tsrarnaevs’ parents were living in the nearby republic of Dagestan until they went into hiding after giving their one and only press conference at the end of last month.