Chechen warlord and Putin confidant Ramzan Kadyrov has been poisoned and has a doctor flown over from the United Arab Emirates because he distrusts the Russians. Kazakh journalist Azanat Maytanov reports this in a frequently shared Telegram message.
According to Maytanov, it concerns Yassin Ibrahim El-Shahat, the head of the renal department at Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi. El-Shata is said to have been taken to the Chechen capital Grozny.
Kidney problems from poison
Maytanov claims that Kadyrov has serious kidney problems and is in bad shape. His claim is confirmed by Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian oligarch and opponent of Putin. Kadyrov’s health problems would have prevented him from attending President Putin’s annual February 21 speech in Moscow.
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In recent weeks, speculations about Kadyrov’s health have been tumbling. Recent images show how the 46-year-old Putin ally has looked unhealthily bloated in recent months and can hardly keep his eyes open. Maytanov also writes that according to Akhmed Zakayev (the former prime minister of Chechnya who now lives in exile, ed.) Kaydrov is drug addicted.
Poisoning opponents is not an unknown method in Putin’s Russia. In 2006, the fled Russian spy Litvinenko was eliminated in London with a cup of radioactive tea, in 2018 it was the turn of the Russian defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. And just in March last year, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich went temporarily blind after an apparent poisoning during peace talks with Ukrainian negotiators.
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And now Kadyrov himself. While three weeks ago he posted a Telegram message in which he reported that one of his top generals was poisoned through a letter. It concerned Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Kadyrov’s special forces Akhmat special forces. Alaudinov fell ill after accepting a letter, his condition appears to be stable.
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Power struggle
That Kadyrov was poisoned feeds the rumors that there is a power struggle going on within the Kremlin. Kadyrov, like Wagner boss Prigozhin, has regularly spoken disparagingly about the Russian army, its commander Gerasimov and the defense minister Shoygu. Kadyrov is a staunch supporter of Putin, but also the third highest ranking Russian military officer. He regularly advocates the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
