Are we witnessing the decline of this era and the transfer of power to a successor son? This is the question many were asking in March 2023. An anonymous article in the German tabloid Bild fuelled the discussion by suggesting that Kadyrov allegedly had kidney problems and that a nephrologist from Abu Dhabi had been flown to the Chechen capital of Grozny because Kadyrov supposedly does not trust Russian doctors. Based on this, conspiracy bloggers insinuated that Kadyrov might have been poisoned by Russian secret services. Professional media picked up the story, and did so in such unison that on 13 March, Ramzan Kadyrov had to fly to Moscow for a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
After this visit, Kadyrov finally commented for the first time on the rumours about his health: “To those who are entertaining themselves with the hope that I am incurably ill: I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
Incidentally, the poisoning theory is far more reasonable than the speculations about a visit from some Abu Dhabi doctor and the Bild’s nonsensical conclusion about Kadyrov’s possible distrust of Russian medicine.
Special operations involving chemical warfare agents, about which we have learned a great deal since the assassination attempt on Alexey Navalny, have been practised in Chechnya since at least the late 1990s.