Following news that the suspected Boston Marathon bombers have ties to Chechnya, Chechen strongman and leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied that the region has any connection to the Tsarnaev brothers.
In remarks to journalists reported by Russian news outlet RIA Novosti, Kadyrov blamed the attacks on a failure of American security efforts, and complained that his country gets blamed for everything — “even a tsunami.”
“We know nothing about the Tsarnaevs; they never lived in Chechnya, they lived and studied in the United States,” Kadyrov said from the Chechen city of Grozny, according to RIA. “It has become a tradition to blame everything on Chechens, even a tsunami.”
“Accusations are not proof of their involvement,” he said, saying that the brothers were raised and educated in the U.S.
“What happened in Boston was the fault of the American security services,” Kadyrov said.
On his Instagram account, Kadyrov expressed condolences to residents of Boston and the American people for the attack that killed three people and injured more than 180, but also criticized authorities that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during the attempt to capture him.
“Apparently the security services needed a result at any cost in order to settle the people,” he wrote.
Chechnya is a particularly troubled region of the world and has experienced two brutal, Islamist-separatist-led civil wars with Moscow since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kadyrov, a former militia leader whose father, former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in 2004, is credited with bringing a sense of stability back to the war-ravaged country.
Kadyrov made headlines in February when he ordered a crackdown on wizardry.
Gene Barsukov contributed to this report