"The State Department strongly advises US citizens from traveling to the north Caucasus, listing all regions. Why? Apparently the whole 'north Caucasus faces civil unrest and terrorist attacks.' As the saying goes, they lie and without batting an eye!" the Chechen leader wrote on his Telegram account.
"What unrest and terrorism is the State Department talking about? Perhaps they've mixed up the United States and Russia. Are the systematic massacres of children in American schools also presented as something taking place in Russia?" Kadyrov asked, pointing to the spate of school shootings that plague the US.
Kadyrov then turned the wrath of his virtual pen to the Western media's biased coverage of the Russian World Cup, specifically as it relates to Chechnya. Earlier this month, The Guardian published a story titled "All eyes on Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechnya hosts Egypt in World Cup," with author Andrew Roth calling the Egyptians' training base in Chechnya a "dubious grand prize."
"Dubious prize? Whose opinion is the newspaper stating here? The Egyptians are based at the best football complex in all of Europe, they live in a beautiful hotel, are surrounded by thousands of fans, and are happy with how they've been received. It's absolutely incomprehensible where The Guardian is coming from here," Kadyrov wrote.
Ramzan Kadyrov has been known to engage in online altercations with Western officials and media. Last month, the Chechen Republic head had words for French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian over a Chechen-born French national who committed a terror attack in Paris. Before that, he attacked US officials, who added him to the Magnitsky Act sanctions list, suggesting Washington could not forgive him "for devoting my life to fighting foreign terrorists." Kadyrov had his Facebook and Instagram accounts blocked in late 2017; the leader argued that he was banned for his "honest" and "frank" opinions on "US actions in the countries of the Islamic world."
Russia is in the midst of hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The Russian team is set to face off against Egypt on Tuesday after trouncing Saudi Arabia 5-0 on June 14. Egypt lost its opening game against Uruguay 1-0 last week.
