Implausible Deniability

Is the Putin-appointed dictator of the restive mostly Moslem region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, Putin's "wet work" man in Russia?

Putin is using the old "good bad cop, bad worse cop" routine in Russia:

There is little consensus, but a lot of speculation, about whether Kadyrov’s antics indicate that he’s jumped the shark or is right on message, whether he’s Putin’s loose cannon or the Kremlin leader’s loaded pistol. And there is also little consensus about which is worse.

“So, if you’re worried that Ramzan is murdering with impunity and Putin can’t control him, consider the alternative: What if Ramzan is murdering with impunity and Putin does control him?” the British journalist Oliver Bullough, author of the book The Last Man In Russia and the Struggle to Save a Dying Nation, wrote in The Guardian.

I don't find the notion that Kadyrov has taken his thug role outside of Chechnya in defiance of Putin very credible.