Putin’s warlord posts ‘I’m alive’ video in first sighting for 20 days | World News

One of Putin’s closest allies has posted a strange video declaring he’s alive from inside the Kremlin’s leading hospital.

Ramzan Kadyrov, 46, is the ruler of the Chechnya area and has supplied thousands of troops for Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Rumours swirled in recent days claiming the warlord is in a critical condition in a coma – and may even have been poisoned.

But in a carefully orchestrated video from the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital, Kadyrov was seen for the first time in 20 days.

He briefly appears sat at the bedside of his uncle, Magomed Kadyrov, while doctors have a discussion about his condition.

Alongside the video, Kadyrov wrote: ‘I cheered up my dear uncle, wished him a speedy recovery.

‘I will also comment on the rumours surrounding my health condition.

‘Praise be to Allah Almighty, I am alive and well and I don’t understand why even in the case of my illness there should be a fuss.

‘Although there is an advantage in this.

‘Now the audience knows which media and which persons are blatantly lying to their readers.’

Kadyrov’s uncle is the president of the Chechen Weightlifting Federation.

In the footage the warlord is seen with a puffy hand and face – suggesting he is still struggling with his health despite not being in a hospital bed.

Agentsvo media said: ‘It is curious that the head of Chechnya is the only one of Magomed Kadyrov’s visitors who sits through almost the entire video.

‘Only at the very end of the video does Ramzan Kadyrov rise from his chair.’

One of the suggestions which has been made is that Kadyrov has recently had a kidney transplant.

But he had become increasingly paranoid that his doctor – who was previously his health minister and deputy leader in Chechnya – was poisoning him, which was causing his problems.

As a result medic Elkhan Suleymanov, 49, disappeared a year ago and has not been seen since.

Kadyrov’s business plane has been seen flying regularly between Moscow and Chechnya, but with no evidence he was on board. It is thought he was a patient in the hospital, like his uncle.

The last time Kadyrov was seen publicly was on September 1.

A video of him released since then walking near trees was thought to have actually been filmed earlier this year.

The Kremlin has stayed tight-lipped regarding Kadyrov’s health.

Just a month ago Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin is thought to have died in a plane crash near Moscow – though there are claims he faked his death and is actually hiding in the Caribbean.

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