But Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is also a former warlord accused of running the Russian republic 'like a medieval tyrant'.  

The 38-year-old came to power in 2007 after a vicious armed struggle with a number of other Chechen strongmen and a political battle with the man he succeeded as leader, Alu Alkhanov.

Claims that Kadyrov keeps a 'murder list' of 300 names of people to be liquidated surfaced in 2008.  

Yet the brutal reality of how Kadyrov maintains his grip on power has been glossed over by his social media skills and voracious appetite for posting on Instagram.

The father-of-eight has uploaded more than 4,800 posts and has around 905,000 followers to his kadyrov_95 account on the photo-sharing site.

He has shown a particular fondness for snaps of himself with cute fluffy kittens, baby birds, lambs and even tigers.

In May 2013 he posted snaps of himself with Liz Hurley and a white kitten on Instagram after meeting the actress when she arrived in Chechnya to film thriller Turquoise with French actor Gerard Depardieu.

The pair were seen apparently bonding over the tiny animal having been introduced by Kadyrov's friend Depardieu.

In another shot the Chechen strongman leans across the Austin Powers star and runs his finger over the smartphone she is holding as the two appear perfectly at ease with each other.

Depardieu met the Chechen leader at his birthday celebrations two years previously and later controversially accepted Russian citizenship after quitting France to avoid a planned 75 per cent tax on millionaires. 

The two are seen laughing and joking out and about with Hurley in the Chechen capital Grozny. 

Kadyrov's fondness for the high life is revealed as the devout Muslim and some of his cronies are seen cruising through the streets of Grozny in a Rolls Royce.

Things get weirder as he shows a fondness for medieval costume in another shot and poses with yet more fluffy cats perching on his shoulder and reclining in his arms.  

The burly enforcer has a go at playing the world's biggest softy as he lovingly cups a baby chick in his enormous hands. 

And the shots of him with a tiger are probably the most bizarre of all, as he pillows his head on the young big cat on top of an ornate rug and has it on his lap with a lead around its neck as he sits between two associates.   

And yet this is the man whose widely feared 'Kadyrovtsy' militia several thousand-strong, are accused by human rights groups of involvement in kidnappings, assassinations and torture throughout their patron's rise to power.

They were formed during the first Chechen war for independence between 1994 and 1995 when Kadyrov's father, Chechnya's Grand Mufti or highest Islamic official, declared jihad against Russia.

But the Kadyrov clan switched their allegiance to Moscow at the beginning of the second Chechen war in 1999, since when continued insurgents against the Kremlin have been ruthlessly dealt with by the militia.  

The paramilitary clashed with forces loyal to fellow warlord Sulmin Yamadayev in March 2008 and a year later Kadyrov's rival was dead, assassinated in Dubai in a hit reputedly ordered by one of Kadyrov's cousins.

The son of assassinated former Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov also prevailed in his fight with paramilitary leader Said-Magomed Kakiyev, while Kadyrov successfully angled for Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismiss Alkhanov and appoint him leader instead.

Since then it is widely accepted that Putin has given Kadyrov carte blanche to run Chechnya as his own personal fiefdom, provided he keeps the separatist forces which temporarily ripped the republic from the Kremlin's grasp in the 1990s are kept in check.

Aside from Yamadayev a string of other Kadryov opponents have wound up dead in locations stretching from Moscow to Istanbul and Vienna, though the man himself has always denied involvement in any of their killings.

Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the capital in October 2006 while she was reportedly working on a story about torture and human rights abuses in Chechnya. Some observers laid the blame for the killing at Kadyrov's door.

A month later Movladi Baisarov, a former commander of the Chechen presidential security services turned Kadyrov opponent, was also shot dead in Moscow.

He had branded Kadyrov 'a medieval tyrant', adding: 'If someone tells the truth about what is going on, it's like signing one's own death warrant.

'Ramzan is a law unto himself. He can do anything he likes. He can take any woman and do whatever he pleases with her. 

'Ramzan acts with total impunity. I know of many people executed on his express orders and I know exactly where they were buried.'

And In a remarkable statement posted on Instagram, Kadyrov praised one of the men charged with the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow as a 'fearless and brave' 'patriot of Russia' who was 'ready to give his life for the Motherland'.

(dailymail.co.uk)