William Burns, the highest-ranked Foreign Service Officer in the United States, attended a 2006 wedding in Dagestan, next door to Chechnya, of the son of a well-connected oil mogul. In an account that British historian Timothy Garton Ash describes as "almost worthy of Evelyn Waugh," Burns describes the antics of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.
"After the fireworks, the musicians struck up the lezginka in the courtyard and a group of two girls and three boys – one no more than six years old – performed gymnastic versions of the dance. First Gadzhi [ the father of the groom] joined them and then Ramzan, who danced clumsily with his gold-plated automatic stuck down in the back of his jeans (a houseguest later pointed out that the gold housing eliminated any practical use of the gun, but smirked that Ramzan probably couldn't fire it anyway)."
Burns said that, as a wedding gift, Ramzan presented the couple with a "a five kilo lump of gold."
[Editor's note: The original post gave incorrect information about Dagestan's location]
