Ramzan Kadyrov is threatening to close his Instagram account after a colorful three months using the photo-sharing site.

The Chechen leader issued the warning after he posted a photo earlier this week of himself standing with an ethnic Chechen man who was widely believed to still be in jail for participating in the killing of an ethnic Russian soccer fan in 2010.

Bekkhan Ibragimov, pictured with Kadyrov on Instagram on May 14, was convicted of hooliganism and causing bodily harm for his part in the fatal knifing of Yuri Volkov, a fan of the Moscow-based soccer team Spartak FC.

Volkov’s killing stoked nationalist protests in the Russian capital and heightened animosity toward the North Caucasus. The picture has rekindled some of that tension.

In a caption that went with the controversial photo, Kadyrov explained he was helping Ibragimov deal with corruption at the local Federal Migration Services so that he could receive identity documents. Kadyrov reportedly fired an official.

But as soon as the identity of Ibragimov was established on the Instagram account, Kadyrov’s feed was flooded with angry comments.

“I'm tired. Fed up,” Kadyrov wrote on his blog on May 17.

“I no longer understand my subscribers at all. One minute you say we need to fight corruption and punish bribe-takers, but when you see real action in this direction you start discussing and condemning the person that exposed illegal action by a bureaucrat,” Kadyrov said in earlier comments cited by Russian media. “Your comments are worth absolutely nothing. It is just empty chatter. That’s why I think it’s probably better for me to delete [my] Instagram [account] and work without taking an interest in your opinions on this or that issue.”

Ibragimov received a sentence of five years and three months in connection with Volkov’s killing, while an accomplice was given 17 years in prison. Ibragimov was reportedly released on parole after a ruling from the Chechen Supreme Court in early May.

The daily “Moskovsky komsomolets” on May 17 criticized the Federal Penitentiary Service and suggested there were violations in the “miraculous way” Ibragimov “was freed” after serving less than half his sentence.  

Registered in February this year, Kadyrov’s Instagram account has garnered more than 130,000 subscribers.

After Kadyrov’s threat to stop using Instagram, Twitter was inundated with sarcastic tweets directed at the Chechen leader. One user tweeted: “Allah gives and Allah takes.” Another wrote: “What a shame, I’m literally sobbing!” And another: “Hoorah, Kadyrov’s deleting instagram!”

Kadyrov has used the photo-sharing service to post photographs of himself petting a tiger cub and a wolf, as well as hanging out with French actor Gerard Depardieu.

UPDATE: According to the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, Kadyrov on May 17 reversed himself, saying he would "continue to be on Instagram, Twitter, and LiveJournal."

-- Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW -- Forget bewigged "spies" and the impasse over Syria. Could chess and convicts take the sting out of U.S.-Russia ties?

On May 15, 20 prisoners from the United States and Russia are scheduled to clash over the chessboard in an online tournament. It is the first of its kind.

Russia has drafted a 10-man team from prisons in Krasnodar Krai and the oblasts of Astrakhan, Samara, Saratov, and Sverdlovsk. They will come face to face with 10 convicts from Chicago online via Skype.

The fixture is not quite redolent of the ideological face-offs between the Soviet Union and United States that featured chess greats Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov.

But the tournament certainly comes at a difficult time for the old Cold War foes. Disagreement over missile defense, adoptions, and human rights has seen mutual trust plummet. The United States and Russia have also failed to agree on how to resolve the civil war raging in Syria that has claimed some 70,000 lives.

The glimmer of closer security cooperation that emerged after last month's Boston Marathon bombings also looks in jeopardy. On May 14, Russia said it had intercepted a CIA agent using diplomatic cover to lure a Russian spy to work for the United States in return for a huge financial reward.

Moscow said the American was apprehended with Inspector Clouseau-esque spy accoutrements including wigs, a compass, a map of Moscow, and a flashlight. It certainly wasn’t the sinister spy craft of John le Carre, but it once again signaled how Washington and Moscow are far from bridging the gap in trust.

The series of chess matches -- which presumably required high-level clearance -- is unlikely to offer a way out of the stalemate.

Plans for the tournament were set in motion after Russian chess legend Anatoly Karpov last year made a trip to Chicago where he met the head of Cook County Jail.

The meeting was held in April – the month before President Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin and ushered in a frostier relationship with Washington.

Karpov, a State Duma deputy, will present winners of the tournament with certificates. Interfax cited a spokesperson for the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) as saying that the event will be attended by Karpov and the FSIN management as well as counterparts from Chicago.

The "Rossiiskaya gazeta" government newspaper notes that prisoners who take part do not qualify for early release. But it reports that “taking part in the chess event, in the eyes of the FSIN, is evidence of a desire to set out on the road to correction.”

-- Tom Balmforth

UPDATE: "The Chicago Sun Times" reports that the final score in the match was Russia: 14, United States: 5

The Week Ahead is a detailed listing of key events of the coming week affecting RFE/RL's broadcast region.

Now on Twitter! Daily updates at @The_Week_Ahead.




MONDAY, May 13:

Azerbaijan/Austria: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev travels to Vienna for an official visit.

Belarus/Armenia: Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka visits Yerevan to meet with Armenia's leadership.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: UN Special Rapporteur Farida Shaheed visits Sarajevo  to assess the country’s implementation of cultural rights (to May 24).

EU: European finance ministers meet in Brussels (to May 14).

Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek holds a week against homophobia and transphobia.

Norway: Hundreds of world's most influential people meet at the fifth annual Oslo Freedom Forum to promote free and open societies (to May 15).

UK/Ukraine: Chatham House in London hosts a discussion titled "Ukraine's Foreign Policy Priorities."

U.S./Afghanistan: Center for Strategic and International Studies presents the "Building on Progress in Afghanistan: 2014 and Beyond" forum in Washington.

U.S./Russia: Wilson Center in Washington hosts a discussion titled  "Enforcing Laws on Human Trafficking in Russia."

U.S./UK: U.S. President Barack Obama meets British Prime Minister David Cameron in the White House.


TUESDAY, May 14:

Balkans/Turkey: Ankara hosts a trilateral summit among presidents of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Turkey (to May 15).

Middle East: Arab Media Forum begins its work in Dubai (to May 15).

NATO: NATO chiefs of defense meeting takes place in Brussels (to May 15).

U.S.: Two Kazakh students appear in court to face charges of obstructing the investigation of Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

U.S./Russia: Carnegie Endowment in Washington hosts a panel discussion titled "North Caucasus Under the Spotlight."


WEDNESDAY, May 15:

Belarus/Vietnam: Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung travels to Minsk to meet with his counterpart, Mikhail Myasnikovich (to May 17).

EU/Georgia: European Policy Center in Brussels hosts a discussion titled "Political Reforms in Georgia: Challenges and Perspective in the Transition Period."

EU/Iran: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton meets Iran's nuclear negotiator Said Jalili in Istanbul, aiming to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

EU: European Business Summit opens in Brussels (to May 16).

Iran/IAEA: Negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran take place in Vienna.

Russia: Trial of Russian opposition activist Aleksei Navalny resumes in Kirov.

Russia: Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square reopens to public after being closed for half a year.

Russia: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attends International Legal Forum  in St. Petersburg (to May 18).

Sweden: Swedish city of Kiruna hosts a ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, which consists of the eight Arctic countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

UN: International Day of Families.

U.S./Iran: U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee holds hearings on Iran.


THURSDAY, May 16:

EU/Ukraine: The European Policy Center in Brussels hosts an event titled "EU-Ukraine: Prospects for the Vilnius Summit."

Germany: Academic scholars and decision makers come together at the Munich Economic Summit to discuss important European issues (to May 17).

Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan: Bishkek hosts a Kyrgyz-Tajik intergovernmental commission meeting (to May 16).

U.S./Turkey: U.S. President Obama meets with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Washington.


FRIDAY, May 17:

Armenia/Azerbaijan: Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian meets his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, in Krakow, Poland.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Sarajevo Business Forum opens.

EU/Poland: Foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group countries meet in Krakow.

EU/Poland: Eastern Partnership ministerial council meeting begins in Krakow (to May 18).

World: International Day Against Homophobia.


SATURDAY, May 18:

Armenia/CoE: Armenia assumes the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

World: Grand Final of Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

World: International Museum Day.


SUNDAY, May 19:

Croatia: Local elections.

U.S./Iran: The U.S. and Iranian wrestling teams face in an exhibition match in Los Angeles.

The Metropolitan of Montenegro has raised eyebrows in some circles by announcing that he is going to propose a controversial 19th-century prince-bishop for canonization.

According to Balkan Insight, Bishop Amfilohije Radovic will put the name of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos forward at a session of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church later this month.

Radovic suggested that Petrovic-Njegos (1813-1851), who is also a renowned poet and philosopher, had long been considered an eligible candidate for sainthood, saying that "people throughout history have spoken about him with awe as a holy man."

Although, the move will be welcomed by many Serbs and Montenegrins, who revere Petrovic-Njegos and his literary oeuvre as an important part of their national and cultural heritage, it is unlikely to go down well in other Balkan countries.

That's because the poet's magnum opus, "The Mountain Wreath," which looks at a south Slavic leader's efforts to regulate relations between the region's warring tribes in the 18th century, seems to contain a sympathetic description of the massacre of Muslims.

Naturally, given the recent atrocities that occurred during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, this has raised the hackles of many. In the eyes of some detractors, Petrovic-Njegos's epic is a seminal text that inspired the horrors of that decade, with one critic even describing it as "a paean to ethnic cleansing."

Those who defend the poet, however, maintain that "The Mountain Wreath," which has nearly 2,800 verses, is far too complex a work to be interpreted so baldly.

They argue that the poem should be read within the context of the time in which it was written, and that it says more about the political, social, cultural, and economic conditions that prevailed in the Balkans in the early 19th century than it does about more recent events.

It's a debate that looks set to get a lot more attention in the coming months as preparations begin for celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the poet's birth on November 13.

-- Coilin O'Connor

A major fad in Russia, video cameras mounted on car dashboards -- known as "dash cams" -- have been used to document horrific car crashes, instances of police corruption, freakish episodes like a tank crossing a busy highway, or just plain reckless driving.

(RFE/RL’s Moscow correspondent, Tom Balmforth, wrote about the trend in November.)

The dash cams have even recorded terrifying plane crashes and, most famously, perhaps, a large meteor ripping through the atmosphere in the skies above Chelyabinsk in February, causing widespread damage and injuries.



So it’s refreshing to see a compilation of dash-cam videos that captures -- not moments of terror -- but random acts of kindness across Russia.

It’s hard to choose a favorite clip from the LiveLeak video, which is set to a swelling Hollywood-style score.

Is it the driver who gets out of his vehicle at a busy intersection simply to help a cat cross the road? Or the man who stops his car to help a pedestrian on crutches as he tries to stand up after having slipped in the middle of an icy street? (Although it can't help but be noted that many people drive right on by and don't bother to stop.)

In perhaps the most dramatic sequence, a small child, barely able to walk, is seen stumbling onto a highway into the path of oncoming traffic, his parents -- indeed, any adult -- nowhere in sight. A truck driver stops and rescues the child.

Why not take a few moments to watch this video and restore your faith in humanity?

-- Grant Podelco

The Week Ahead is a detailed listing of key events of the coming week affecting RFE/RL's broadcast region.

Now on Twitter! Daily updates at @The_Week_Ahead.




MONDAY, May 6:

Azerbaijan: The world’s largest forum of former democratic presidents and prime ministers, the Club of Madrid, holds its South Caucasus Forum in Baku (to May 8).

Azerbaijan/OSCE: OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on South Caucasus Joao Soares visits Baku (to May 7).

Estonia/Tajikistan: Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip visits Dushanbe (to May 9).

Kazakhstan/U.S.: Kazakh Senate delegation makes a working trip to Washington and New York.

Russia: Russian opposition holds a protest rally on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square.

Ukraine/U.S.: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara visits the United States (to May 9).

U.S./Iraq: United States Institute of Peace in Washington hosts a discussion titled "Amidst Iraq's Turmoil: What Can We Do?"


TUESDAY, May 7:

Georgia/OSCE: OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on South Caucasus Joao Soares visits Tbilisi (to May 9).

Iran: Official registration of candidates for Iran's upcoming presidential election starts.

Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds meeting to assess implementation of the decrees he issued at the beginning of his presidential term last year.

Russia/U.S.: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (to May 8).

U.S./Russia: Wilson Center in Washington hosts a discussion titled "Putin's First Year in His Third Term: What Happened? What's Next?"

U.S./Pakistan: Days before the election, Carnegie Endowment holds a discussion titled "Pakistan's General Election 2013: Stakes and Prospects."


WEDNESDAY, May 8:

Global: World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.

U.S./Afghanistan: New America Foundation in Washington hosts a discussion titled "Auditing Afghanistan."


THURSDAY, May 9:

Armenia/OSCE: OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on South Caucasus Joao Soares visits Yerevan.

EU: Europe Day celebrates peace and unity in Europe.

Russia: Annual Victory Day Parade takes place on Moscow's Red Square.


FRIDAY, May 10:

Turkmenistan/Kazakhstan: Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov pays an official visit to Astana (to May 11).

UK/G8: The British Foreign Secretary William Hague hosts his counterparts from the G8 countries in London (to May 11).


SATURDAY, May 11:

Pakistan: General elections.

Russia: The third G20 Sherpas' Meeting begins in St. Petersburg (to May 12).


SUNDAY, May 12:

Ukraine: The 6th Europe-Ukraine Forum opens in Budapest (to May 14).

World: International Nurse's Day.