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The following are excerpts from an interview with President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, which aired on Russia Today TV on January 31, 2010.
Interviewer: People say that foreign elements are behind the recent activities carried out by some groups in the Caucasus. Are you able to name these elements?
Ramzan Kadyrov: I do not know their names, but there are countries that fight Russian sovereignty. These are Western countries, which are subordinate to the US, and whose goal is to disintegrate Russia, and therefore, they are in need of [Russia's] rivals.
Russia is a superpower, and therefore, they employ a strategy aimed at weakening it, by distributing alcohol and drugs and by spreading prostitution. This is because of the people who drove the USSR to its collapse. They are in the service of the West, and they adopt a filthy policy knowing that the Caucasus is inhabited by Muslims. So they try to exploit what happened in the past and to generate unrest, by spreading alcohol and drugs in Siberia. I say this as a citizen of the Russian Federation.
I blame the Western countries, because due to their policies, I have lost everything. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were killed, thousands are missing, and cities were destroyed, due to the policies of some countries.
[...]
Interviewer: Mr. Kadyrov, let's move to another subject. You are calling for polygamy in Chechnya. How is this viewed in your Republic and in Moscow?
Ramzan Kadyrov: We did not adopt a law [permitting] polygamy, even though the practice exists among the people. We are Muslims, and Allah allows this to us, and so do our customs. We have practiced this through the ages. I support polygamy, and do not have the right to oppose it.