The Putin of Chechnya’s Flair for Instagram – The New Yorker

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by

Trent
in

The Putin of Chechnya’s Flair for Instagram

Ramzan Kadyrov, the thirty-nine-year-old Chechen ruler and photo-sharing star, presents a case of virtual influence becoming real.

via The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-putin-of-chechnya-shows-his-colors-on-instagram

The feed is a cross between a Presidential news service and a Hollywood film studio; his posts can be bureaucratic, theatrical, or seemingly playful. A photo of Chechen ministers meeting to discuss health-care services lives alongside a trailer for a supposedly forthcoming action movie, in which Kadyrov shoots a machine gun into the air. A shot of Kadyrov playing in a pile of autumn leaves calls on his followers to post similar photos with the hashtag #ЗолотаяОсень, or “GoldenFall.”