A slap in the face of public taste

Philosophy has a notion of transgression, which is defined as something that breaks through routine taboos and takes people to the other side of reality. Kadyrov is taking transgression to the next level though by making radical violence relevant to everyone. The helpless prisoner that Adam Kadyrov beat up in public was immediately transformed into a humiliated everyman, the avatar of every Russian powerless to avoid one day finding themself in Zhurvel’s place at the mercy of brutal thugs. Kadyrov not only wants people to accept that hierarchy, but to be glad of it.

Kadyrov’s transgression has paralysed Russia's militarised society which, as social researcher Yekaterina Schulmann puts it, relies upon everyone turning a blind eye to everyday horrors and ignoring reality. While most people look away and pretend that nothing is happening, Kadyrov is doing his best to keep the public’s eyes wide open. The Presidential Council on Human Rights has done nothing but issue timid statements. Its chairman Valery Fadeev bows his head before Kadyrov and speaks of the unspeakable crime committed by Zhuravel, begging the Chechen leader to hide violence and keep it behind closed doors. For their part, Russia’s patriotic bloggers are confused: it turns out Russia was fighting its "special military operation" all along just to allow Kadyrov's son to beat up and humiliate ethnic Russians. The nationalists believe the whole thing is nothing but a typical "clash of cultures", but in fact it's nothing of the sort. These people are fighting a war to normalise violence against everyone, to make it akin to a government service.

It’s no coincidence that Kadyrov says that people like Zhuravel deserve beatings for not wanting “to build up the state”. The state in question, the one that has forced the nation into a criminal war, is built upon humiliation, and Zhuravel, who was transported to Chechnya and beaten up on camera, has come to represent all those equally helpless people who were deployed to fight in Ukraine.

The Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was the first person to understand this concept: in the final spell of his career, he glorified violence as the sole means of raising Russia from the abyss. Ultimately, Russia dealt with Prigozhin in the exact same way he was advocating. Kadyrov is now following his footsteps, declaring the rule of force to be Russia's national idea.

Social studies have described a phenomenon called "the boomerang of violence": a society that starts an aggressive colonial war sooner or later welcomes back combatants who see nothing wrong with murder and violence, and soon this becomes a new societal norm. This has already happened twice before in Russia following its wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but this latest boomerang will hit Russia with even greater force. This boomerang will strike a society that has been attempting to free itself of violence for decades.

Kadyrov's actions have two clear victims then. Aside from the obvious suffering of Zhuravel, Adam Kadyrov is being turned loose onto other people for his father’s satisfaction.

The Russian state has always used concern for children as a motive for its actions. Protecting Ukrainian children “from Nazis” was one of the principle justifications for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, only in this case the children were also expected to thank Putin for having destroyed their homes and for having their parents killed. It was in the name of protecting these orphans that they were then adopted by Russians. Children must also be protected online, of course, which is how Roskomnadzor, Russia's media regulator and its de facto online censorship agency, was created. And, of course, children need to be protected from gay people. Yet amid this touching concern, nobody is offering to protect Adam Kadyrov from his father. Indeed, Russia's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, probably has bigger things on her plate since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for her earlier this year.

What Russian soldiers are currently doing to Ukrainians you can do in the comfort of your own home: that’s what the Russian dictator’s war and the video his Chechen client appears to be so proud of are telling us.