Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has called recent US coalition missile raids on Syria an “anti-Russian provocation,” and said that “regiments, battalions and brigades” of Chechen infantry can go to the Middle East to enforce order.

In a recent interview with Rossiya-24 television, Kadyrov said that he saw the recent strikes on Syrian locations as a fight against Russia. “When they bomb a sovereign state and don’t ask about any rules, I think that this is the ongoing fight with Russia,” he said.

“I think that if such things continue to happen, Russia would have to take measures,” the Chechen leader added. When reporters asked him about the type of such measures, he said: “Force measures.”

“If you ask me, Ramzan Kadyrov, I would say that any provocation against Russia must be destroyed on the spot,” he stated.

When asked if there were any Chechen units in Syria, Kadyrov answered positively, but refused to specify the strength of those units. “There are as many as necessary,” he told reporters. The head of the Chechen Republic also said that he and his people were ready to deploy additional forces to Syria if such need arises. “Regiments, battalions and brigades are ready to be deployed. We are ready to execute any order regardless of how difficult it might be. As the commander-in-chief says, so it will be,” he stated, referring to President Vladimir Putin’s official status of the commander-in-chief of the Russian military forces.

In the same interview, Kadyrov mocked the personal sanctions imposed on him by Western nations, jokingly promising to jail US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and freeze their assets if they ever come to Chechnya.

He also reiterated his position concerning polygamy, saying that God allowed Muslim men to have four wives, but the union did not require registration in any civil office; so no legislative steps are planned to legalize polygamy in the republic.