Kadyrov lifts weights in the weight room and puts Chechens on the floor, trying to show that he is not dying

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadîrov has released a video in a weight room in an attempt to counter media reports that he is ill and that his health is rapidly deteriorating, writes The Guardian.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadîrov has been suffering for more than five years from pancreatic necrosis, a condition that can lead to death, the independent news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources at the presidential hospital in Moscow where he was being treated. Kadyrov’s health worries officials around him, who have begun working on a succession plan to maintain stability in Chechnya, reports The Moscow Times.

Hours after the article was published, a 4-minute video was shared on Kadyrov’s Telegram channel in which the Chechen leader discusses his region’s role in the war in Ukraine. The footage shows close-up shots of Kadîrov, who does not move his body and can be heard speaking with difficulty. Officials did not comment on the Novaya Gazeta Europe report, and its details could not be independently verified.

During the evening, he posted a new clip from the gym on social media.

In the roughly one-and-a-half-minute video, the Chechen chief appears dressed in tracksuits, doing warm-up exercises, lifting weights while lying down and doing exercises on pulley machines, then dumbbells. Other Chechens train with him. Kadyrov wrestles with one of them, laying him on the floor.

“A busy day ended with exercise and positivity,” reads the message accompanying the video, without making any reference to the disease reported in the media. “Remember that taking care of your health is an investment for the future.”

According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, doctors initially diagnosed Kadîrov with acute pancreatic necrosis, a serious condition that can lead to death, in January 2019. The following month, Kadîrov announced by decree that he was temporarily relinquishing his powers as speaker of the parliament regionally, without disclosing his illness. He issued another decree on an equally brief transfer of power in January 2020. Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that Kadyrov’s health began to deteriorate rapidly in the spring of 2022, forcing him to miss a series of of television appearances. This raised even more questions about the reason for his absence from the public space.

In September 2023, the publication reported that Kadyrov had been hospitalized at the elite Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow for about a month with acute lung failure after taking an overdose of sleeping pills that were supposed to help ease his pain. Although doctors were able to stabilize his respiratory function at the time, the results of an MRI would have led Kadîrov’s family to conclude that he would not be able to fully recover.

Publisher: GM

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