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The ruler of Chechnya, a staunch Putin ally, has not been seen in public for some time and his illness is already well known. But his disappearance could return the region to the hands of separatists, damaging the Kremlin...
What happened to Ramzan Kadyrov?
In Russia, his disappearance from the public eye is now well-known; he is believed to be in intensive care in a hospital in the capital.
Russian bloggers and opposition media abroad are reporting that he is dying or has even died.
The news has also been picked up by Ukrainian media. The Kremlin is keeping quiet for now, but that's not surprising. Moreover, the poor health of the 49-year-old Chechen leader, a staunch ally of Putin, both because of his control over Chechnya and because of the war in Ukraine, has long been known.
In 2019, Novaya Gazeta Europe revealed that he was suffering from pancreatic necrosis, which required treatment and hospitalization. In early 2025, he was admitted to a private clinic in Grozny. His worrying medical condition prompted him to publicly declare in May that "illness and death are the fate of every individual."
In July, he fell ill while swimming in Turkey, requiring emergency treatment. On Christmas Eve, he was hospitalized again, just before an important State Council meeting. His absence was immediately noticed.
Novaya Gazeta Europe again described him as a patient with severe speech impediments, breathing difficulties and a dependence on sedatives, despite recent videos showing him alert and active, doing gymnastics to demonstrate his ability to continue governing Chechnya.
According to Michael Naki, a well-known blogger previously imprisoned by the Russians and now living in the Baltic countries, Kadyrov's departure could pose a serious problem for Putin.
"His absence from the last session of the Council of State raises worrying uncertainties for the regime and demonstrates its internal fragility," he writes.
According to him, Putin's highly personal and centralizing style of leadership proves vulnerable whenever a loyalist passes away. "The sovereign depends on irreplaceable vassals," Naki writes.
Since the bloody Chechen civil war in the late 1990s, Moscow has consistently worked with collaborators to suppress separatists. At the beginning of his reign in 2000, Putin repeatedly used Kadyrov as an instrument of repression and his Trojan Horse in Grozny. But now his possible disappearance risks calling into question Moscow's control over Chechnya, Naki notes.
Police forces, accustomed to suppressing any sign of rebellion with blood, may be blocked.
The Russian president's imperial dream began precisely with the massacres of hundreds of thousands of Chechen separatists, and now the entire structure is showing serious cracks. /Adapted from Corriere /
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