Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says his teenage son did the right thing by beating up a defenseless man in police custody—and he should’ve gone further and killed him. The Putin crony made the remarks at a press conference on Wednesday, claiming he himself was surprised that his 16-year-old son Adam wasn’t prosecuted for the beating. Kadyrov famously shared a video of then-15-year-old Adam attacking a man accused of burning the Quran in September, bragging that he had “behaved himself like a real man.” “I initially thought he would be punished,” Kadyrov said, claiming he’d feared a lengthy prison sentence for his son. But, he went on, “what [would they] punish him for? For the beating? It would’ve been good if he’d killed him.” The beating sparked a scandal in Russia, with some calling for an investigation into human rights abuses in Chechnya. But the teenage Adam was not charged and was instead generously rewarded with several state honors and cushy government posts.