Chechnya's Kadyrov returns to blog after two years

Grozny, April 24 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has returned to his LiveJournal blog after almost two years of silence.

"Good afternoon, dear friends! Today I met with LiveJournal bloggers, we discussed a number of issues and proposals, and I decided to write my blog again," Kadyrov said on his LiveJournal page, which was launched in April 2010 and currently has more than 2,600 subscribers.

Kadyrov became an internet celebrity in February after the Chechen government's press service said he had opened an official account on Instagram, a popular photo sharing service to which he proceeded to upload several images a day.

The account, called kadyrov_95, has over 121,000 subscribers and a total of 548 images, a mixture of official and personal.

In June 2012, Kadyrov opened a Twitter account, @RKadyrov, which has more than 36,800 followers.

The 36-year-old leader's activities on social networking sites present a lighter side to his established image.

Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by various rights activists of human rights violations, charges that he has consistently denied.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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