Artemy Lebedev apologized to Kadyrov and expressed his “respect” to him

Designer Artemiy Lebedev said that he “personally asked for forgiveness and apologized” to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, “for everything that might have hurt him” in Lebedev’s previous statements.

Lebedev wrote about this on Facebook. The post is titled “It’s time to ask for forgiveness and apologize.” In it, Lebedev writes that he expresses “perfect respect for Ramzan”.

Earlier, Lebedev several times engaged in absentee polemics with Kadyrov, the entourage of the head of Chechnya spoke harshly against him.

As Lebedev wrote, he came to Chechnya, where he “received a diploma as a finalist for second place in an open international competition for the master plan of Grozny.” He did not say who won the first place. Lebedev also published a photo in which he is standing next to Kadyrov with a diploma in his hands. As the designer wrote, “it turns out that his (Kadyrov’s) assistants and press secretaries send him everything that he can be offended by, but they don’t send him anything that he can be proud of. And I always respected Ramzan and often praised him for the decisions he makes, even though in Russia it’s not fashionable.”

Kadyrov has not yet commented on the meeting with Lebedev.

• Artemy Lebedev is a famous Russian designer and blogger. He takes a pro-Kremlin position. Sanctions were imposed against him in Ukraine.
• In 2017, after several high-profile cases, the Russian apologized to Ramzan Kadyrov, Lebedev wrote an “open letter to a mountain brother” on Facebook, in which he mocked, presumably, the head of Chechnya, without calling him by name. In particular, the designer criticized the practice of knocking out an excused person by the authorities of Chechnya and allusively compared the head of the republic to an alcoholic. In 2019, Lebedev wrote another appeal to Kadyrov, in which he acknowledged his merits, but noted: “Respect cannot be won by force. Only fear can be won by force. […] And keep your dogs on chains, please.”
• Lebedev’s current apology to Kadyrov followed shortly after the head of Chechnya admitted that his 15-year-old son Adam had beaten Nikita Zhuravel, accused of burning the Koran, in a pre-trial detention center and approved this concession. Lebelev did not comment on this story.