John Oliver Clashes With Chechen Leader Over a Cat

He poked fun at Kadyrov's search for lost feline
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2016 2:22 AM CDT

It might be wise for John Oliver to steer clear of Chechnya for a while: The Last Week Tonight host ridiculed Ramzan Kadyrov's search for his lost cat on Sunday, and the mockery did not go unnoticed by the Chechen strongman, the Guardian reports. In the segment, Oliver poked fun at an Instagram post from the Chechen leader asking for information on the missing pet—and at Kadyrov's penchant for wearing Vladimir Putin T-shirts and posting workout videos. "Kadyrov being upset about his lost cat is not good," Oliver said, asking viewers to join the search. "This is a man whose security forces have been accused of kidnappings and torture, and whose Wikipedia page has an entire section dedicated to 'accusations of human rights abuses.'"

Oliver tweeted a photo of himself with a cat—which was altered to show him wearing a Putin shirt in another Instagram post from Kadyrov, which included a long message in mangled English. "John Oliver asks millions of viewers to look for a cat. I knew long ago that in the USA unevenly breathe to my younger friends," Kadyrov wrote. "One day horses aren't allowed to jump, the other—a cat is a real star of a show." He went on to praise Putin and slam the US for starting "new wars and bloody internal conflicts." Oliver had asked viewers to share information under the hashtag #FindKadyrovsCat, which Twitter users have used to share memes and allegations of rights abuses in Chechnya, where Kadyrov is usually "associated with a different kind of unexplained disappearance," the BBC notes. (More John Oliver stories.)

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