Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been suffering for more than five years from pancreatic necrosis, a condition that can lead to death, he reported on Monday the independent Novaya Gazeta Europe news site, citing anonymous sources from the presidential hospital in Moscow where he was allegedly treated. Kadyrov’s health is worrying the officials around him, who have started working on a succession plan to maintain stability in Chechnya, reports The Moscow Times.
In the context in which Kadyrov’s health began to deteriorate, the Kremlin reportedly began working on a succession plan to maintain stability in the North Caucasus republic, note the cited source.
In the autumn of last year, unverified information appeared on social networks according to which the Chechen leader had kidney problems. This prompted Kadîrov to debunk the rumors in carefully orchestrated videos.
According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, doctors initially diagnosed Kadîrov with acute pancreatic necrosis, a serious condition that can lead to death, in January 2019.
The following month, Kadîrov announced by decree that he was briefly relinquishing the powers of the president of the regional parliament, without disclosing his illness. He issued another decree on an equally brief transfer of power in January 2020.
Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that Kadırov’s health began to deteriorate rapidly in the spring of 2022, forcing him to miss a number of television appearances. This raised even more question marks regarding the reason for his absence from the public space.
In September 2023, the publication reported that Kadyrov had been hospitalized at Moscow’s elite Central Clinical Hospital for about a month with acute lung failure after taking an overdose of sleeping pills that would have helped him to ease his pain.
Although doctors managed to stabilize his respiratory function at the time, the results of an MRI would have led Kadîrov’s family to conclude that he will not be able to fully recover.
„The old leader will no longer be there, the disease will affect him severely. Even if he recovers now, he will be neither alive nor dead,’ Novaya Europe said, quoting a source close to Kadîrov, Adam Delimkhanov.
Succession plan
During that time, the Kremlin began working on a succession plan in the event of Kadîrov’s death, according to Novaya Europe.
A few hours after the publication of the article, a 4-minute video was shared on Kadırov’s Telegram channel in which the Chechen leader discusses the role of his region in the war in Ukraine. In the images, you can see close-up shots of Kadîrov, who does not move his body and can be heard speaking with difficulty.
Officials did not comment on the Novaya Gazeta Europe report, and its details could not be independently verified.
Kadyrov ruled with an iron fist Chechnya, a Russian region in the North Caucasus that was ravaged by two bloody wars between Moscow and separatist forces in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s, since Putin officially appointed him in 2007.
Critics have accused Kadırov of serious human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial executions.
Publisher: Loredana Bank
