Chechen Leader Accused of Burying Family Doctor 'Alive' for Poisoning Him

The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov blamed his worsening health on poisoning by his personal doctor who was then brutally murdered, it has been reported.

The claims were reported by Ukrainian media and Ukraine's internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko, who cited the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, although it gives no evidence of that.

Kadyrov is a loyalist to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been accused repeatedly of human rights abuses in his republic in Russia's Caucasus region. His troops have also fought for Moscow in Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

There have been reports that Kadyrov's health had seriously deteriorated due to ongoing kidney problems amid speculation that he was the victim of a poisoning attack. He had reportedly sought medical treatment in Dubai.

In a post on Sunday, VChK-OGPU reported that Kadyrov had become worried by a sudden deterioration in his health and accused his physician, Elkhan Suleymanov, who also served as deputy prime minister, of trying to poison him.

Sources told the channel that there are rumors that he was "buried alive" although there is no hard evidence of his death. The channel said Suleymanov had given some injections to Kadyrov who blamed his worsening health on the treatment and removed him from his post as deputy prime minister in October 2022.

Despite giving regular updates on Instagram, Suleymanov's last post on the social media platform was in October 2022 and since then he had disappeared without trace, according to the channel.

An unusual feature of the story is that a link on his Instagram page to the Chechen Republican Oncological Dispensary, which was his main project, now links to a page claiming to be a cocaine-selling operation in Dubai.

"Since then, no one has seen him again (absolutely everyone says that he is not alive and he died a painful death)," said the VChK –OGPU post ,citing a source who added "if we are talking about something else, then he may be in captivity and they will show him on camera."

The channel noted Suleymanov was unusual among Kadyrov's entourage because he was not Chechen, but from the Lezgin ethnic group and came from the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Images on social media show the pair together at official engagements and in the countryside.

"His abrupt disappearance and mysterious death raise many questions," wrote Gerashchenko on X (formerly Twitter) along with a composite image of Suleymanov next to Kadyrov. Newsweek has emailed the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment.