Russia’s troubled region of Chechnya prepared to install as its president on Thursday a 30-year-old amateur boxer whom human rights groups accuse of murdering and kidnapping civilians, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday.

Chechen authorities have bolstered security and planned lavish parties for the inauguration of Ramzan Kadyrov, credited by locals with restoring order after two wars since 1994 between federal soldiers and rebels wrecked the region.

Kadyrov, a former rebel turned Moscow ally who has his own militia force, has been a key tool in a Kremlin strategy to isolate the remaining separatist forces in Chechnya.

“Ramzan Kadyrov is an excellent guy and a strong president,” a 43-year-old man also called Ramzan said as he knelt by a Grozny roadside banging cobble stones into a new pavement —- part of the frenetic reconstruction Kadyrov has overseen.

“After he became head of the government all has been well.”

The stocky, bearded Kadyrov, who has always denied allegations of rights abuses, became prime minister in the region’s pro-Moscow administration last year and took over as president-designate in February.

He is following in the footsteps of his father, killed by a bomb in 2004 when he was Chechnya’s pro-Moscow leader.

With help from Kadyrov’s militias, Russian forces have killed most of the insurgency’s leaders and driven the rebels into mountain hideouts from where they launch occasional guerrilla-style attacks.

But some analysts say the relationship could fall apart after Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his second and final term, steps down in 2008.

“Putin has given Kadyrov the presidency himself and it will be okay until the next presidential election,” Alexei Malashenko from the Carnegie Centre in Moscow said. “But when the next president comes to power Kadyrov could be in trouble.”

Influential members of the Russian security service, the FSB, and the military are wary of the power and influence Kadyrov has accumulated. They say he could turn against his masters in Moscow.

Moscow has poured huge funds into rebuilding Grozny and Chechnya, but Kadyrov has taken much of the credit. Huge posters with his picture and streets named after him and his father have helped create a personality cult.

In the capital, the signs of the fighting that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians lurk in the shadows.

Suburban apartment blocks shattered by artillery shells stand as a silent reminder of the years of violence and armed men patrol almost every street corner.

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