Chechen military leader, Putin’s ally Ramzan Kadyrov is seriously ill – fear of poisoning

The Chechen field commander, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top allies, is reported to be seriously ill with kidney failure, raising fears that he has been poisoned.

Ramzan Kadyrov brought the United Arab Emirates’ chief nephrologist, or kidney specialist, to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, for treatment, Kazakh journalist Azamat Maitanov said.

Kadyrov, leader of the Chechen Republic since 2007, chose a doctor from outside the region out of fear that he had been poisoned and therefore does not trust Moscow doctors.

“Kadrov is allegedly very ill, he has serious kidney problems,” Maitanov wrote.

“Kadyrov is ill and has already become a drug addict,” he continued, quoting Akhmed Zakayev, the now exiled former prime minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. “He claims that some kind of energy pills previously supported the hyperactivity of the head of Chechnya.”

Kadyrov has been a vocal ally of Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and has championed Putin’s interests in the year since the full-scale invasion began.

In September, he called on Russia to use low-yield nuclear weapons against Ukraine, and the following month, Putin promoted him to Colonel General of the Russian National Guard, the Kyiv Independent reported. In October, he called the incident the “Great Jihad.”

Rumors of Kadyrov’s poisoning began after he said one of his top generals was poisoned by an envelope last month.

Kadyrov wrote on Telegram that Apti Alaudinov, who heads the Akhmat special unit, was poisoned by a letter with a strong smell on February 8, Newsweek reports.

The Chechen military commander called the incident “an assassination attempt.” Since then, Alaudinov has recovered.