Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, 43, was hospitalized in Moscow on Thursday on suspicion of being sick with the new coronavirus, Russian agencies reported, the latest case from a senior Russian official infected with the disease.
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A "stable" state, but "under observation of doctors"
"Ramzan Kadyrov has been flown to Moscow, the coronavirus is suspected. He is under observation by doctors," a medical source at the TASS state agency said, describing his condition as "stable". "For Kadyrov, we suspect the coronavirus, it is under observation," also said a Moscow medical source to the Interfax agency, while the public agency Ria Novosti reported the hospitalization of the Chechen official of 43 years.
Authorities in Chechnya did not comment on the information, saying in the Russian media that their leader was leading efforts to fight the epidemic. Other senior Russian officials have fallen ill in recent weeks.
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Leader criticized for handling Covid-19 crisis
Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustin has just returned to office after almost three weeks of hospitalization. Dmitri Peskov, the spokesperson for Vladimir Putin, was hospitalized and several ministers were also infected. Unpredictable, renowned for his rantings and suspected by his critics of having ordered assassinations of detractors, Ramzan Kadyrov has multiplied threatening declarations to impose confinement in Chechnya and silence the critics.
In April he threatened a journalist from the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta for an article which reported that Chechens with coronavirus disease were reluctant to seek help from under-equipped hospitals, fearing punitive measures and reprisals by the police. security. The Chechen leader also publicly proclaimed that those who did not isolate themselves should be "killed", comparing the Chechens who contaminate others to "terrorists".
Latest controversial statement dated earlier this week, he demanded the dismissal of Chechen caregivers, "provocateurs" according to him, who had complained about the lack of means of protection against the new coronavirus. Ramzan Kadyrov ruled Chechnya with the strength of the protection of Vladimir Putin. Long red beard and boxer build, he manages this territory as his personal stronghold, endowed with his own army of loyalists.
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Placed at the head of this republic by Poutine in 2007
He was placed at the head of this small Russian predominantly Muslim Caucasian republic by Vladimir Putin in 2007, three years after the death in a bomb attack of his father Akhmad Kadyrov, the first pro-Kremlin president of Chechnya. Chechnya officially has 1,026 detected cases of new coronavirus since the start of the epidemic in Russia, including 11 deaths. In total, Russia has 317,554 identified infected and 3,099 dead.
Critics, however, question the reality of the low death rate compared to Western Europe or the United States, accusing Russia of underestimating the death toll. The authorities have rejected these accusations, specifying that they only list deaths whose primary cause is coronavirus, when other countries include in this report almost all the deaths of patients tested positive.