The 141st Special Motorized Regiment (), also known as the Kadyrovites, Kadyrovtsy (from , after Akhmad Kadyrov) and the Akhmat special forces unit, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia. As of 2023, the regiment's official commander was Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov.
Akhmad Kadyrov, the then chief mufti of separatist Chechnya, defected to the Russian side in the Second Chechen War in 1999, and the Kadyrovites began fighting separatists and jihadists during the "guerrilla phase" as a de facto unit of the state police after he was appointed Chechen President in July 2000. Kadyrov was assassinated in 2004. Control of the militia was inherited by his son, Ramzan Kadyrov. In 2006, the Kadyrovites were legalized as a motorized regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as the 141st Motorized Regiment. When Kadyrov was elected Chechen President in 2007 its current official role as a personal protective service was established. Besides the 141st, units considered "Kadyrovites" also include the Chechen branches of OMON and SOBR.
The Kadyrovites have been criticized as being Ramzan Kadyrov's private army, and have been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses such as kidnapping, forced disappearances, torture and murder. Critics claim the Kadyrovites use extrajudicial punishment to cement Kadyrov's autocratic rule. By mid-2000s they surpassed Russian federal servicemen as the most feared organization among Chechnya's civilian population. Under Kadyrov's orders, the Kadyrovites committed anti-gay purges in Chechnya, including operating concentration camps for gay men. The Kadyrovites have also been involved in international conflicts including the Syrian Civil War in 2017 and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
History
Militia
After Akhmad Kadyrov's defection to the Kremlin side in 1999, he and his followers fought for Russia against Maskhadov government troops and Islamist insurgents. The return of Russian rule over Chechnya was declared in July 2000, beginning the "guerrilla phase" of the conflict. Kadyrov was appointed as acting President of the Chechen Republic by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was elected President of the Chechen Republic on 5 October 2003. The Kadyrovites acted as bodyguards to Kadyrov, who was the target of several assassination attempts. The security detail was headed by Movladi Baisarov.
Technically still a personal militia, the Kadyrovites functioned as an unofficial part of the Chechen Republic's state police, without legal status in either the republican or federal government. In May 2003, the group established effective control over the Chechen OMON, then estimated at 300 men, which had been considered one of the strongholds of anti-Kadyrov opposition. It was led by Musa Gazimagomadov, who died in a road accident under "strange circumstances". Afterwards, the Kadyrovite OMON was run by Ruslan Alkhanov, a former rebel commander amnestied just a year before, and who later became the Chechnya's Interior Minister.
In October 2003, Akhmad Kadyrov became the President of the Chechen Republic. By this time, his Security Service (SB) was already Chechnya's largest security body; Kadyrov claimed that it numbered 3,000. According to his successor, President Alu Alkhanov, by 2005 this figure had grown to 7,000.
Legalization
Kadyrov was killed on 9 May 2004 in the 2004 Grozny stadium bombing, in what is considered to be a deliberate assassination. Control of the Kadyrovites passed to his son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was second-in-command of the militia. At that point, the backbone of the militia still consisted of former separatist fighters (more than 70% in 2004, according to the Russian military sources), and their allegiance to the new leader was questioned. Many continued serving as Kadyrovites under Ramzan due to implicit threats on their relatives' welfare; coercion was commonly used in Chechnya to demand compliance. Hostage-taking in particular was widespread and affected many in the country, including former rebel Minister of Defence Magomed Khambiyev.