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Kadyrov Announces 'World-Class' Training Center for Special Forces

"The Chechen republic will become one of the top world centers for training special forces," the republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced. Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

Chechnya will soon host a state of the art special forces training center the size of a city, the republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced.

"The Chechen republic will become one of the top world centers for training special forces," Kadyrov announced via Instagram late Wednesday.

It was unclear when construction would be completed, but Kadyrov said the project involved an entire city that would exist specifically for counter-terrorism training purposes.

"In the unique tactical city there are high-rises, schools, hospitals, kindergartens and a theater, all meant for drills on freeing hostages and destroying terrorists," Kadyrov wrote. "The center can accommodate parachute, mountain, forest, water and other kinds of training. Construction on a wind tunnel is under way as well," he wrote.

The announcement comes after thousands of special forces gathered at a stadium in Grozny last December to declare their "readiness to fulfill any order or task of the president of Russia," according to the BBC's Russian service. The statement was broadly interpreted at the time as a vow to fight in Ukraine if the conflict there escalated.

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