Ramzan Kadyrov denies rumours about his health in video

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a loyal ally of Vladimir Putin, published an undated video of him on Sunday, describing as "lies" the rumors circulating about his state of health, which has deteriorated sharply.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, here in Moscow on September 30, 2022. AP - Mikhail Metzel

By: RFI Follow

Advertising

Read more

The video posted online by Ramzan Kadyrov is undated. It shows him walking in a park in a light rain, certainly in Chechnya, wearing a jacket, his head in a hood. Smiling, he looks at the camera, his face visibly swollen. In a short text accompanying these images, the Chechen president says he "strongly advises all those who cannot distinguish the truth from the lies on the internet to walk around in the fresh air and put their thoughts in order".

By publishing this short video, Ramzan Kadyrov seeks to put an end to rumors taken up by many media in recent hours. In particular, it was a question of poisoning or the aggravation of various pathologies from which he suffers. On Friday, reports in the Ukrainian press, citing sources within the Chechen diaspora and confirmed to the Obozrevatel media by Ukrainian intelligence, indicated that the Chechen president was in a coma, "seriously" ill. Some rumors even announced him dead.

Some saw it as the hand of the Kremlin. A loyal ally of Vladimir Putin, the Chechen president has nevertheless criticised the Russian General Staff on numerous occasions over the conduct of military operations in Ukraine. So did the late boss of the Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died on August 23 in a plane crash. No official communication has been made at this stage by the Kremlin on the state of health of the Chechen president.

(

And with AFP)

NewsletterReceive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Share:

Read on on the same topics:

• Chechnya
• Ramzan Kadyrov