The authorities in Grozny have remained silent days after Adam Kadyrov, the 18-year-old son of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, was reportedly hospitalised after a car accident. Rumours and contradictory information continue to circulate regarding the nature of his injuries and the number of victims.
No official comments on the incident have been issued by the republican authorities, the Investigative Committee, or the Chechen Health Ministry.
According to several opposition and independent Telegram channels and media outlets, the accident occurred at around 03:30 local time on 16 January on Staropromyslovskoe Highway in Grozny, near the Safiya banquet hall.
The Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which is considered to be linked to the Federal Security Service (FSB), claims that Adam Kadyrov and members of his inner circle had been celebrating the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephew, Khamzat Kadyrov, who had just turned 29. They then decided to travel to an undisclosed location.
According to one version cited by the channel, the convoy, led by a vehicle driven by Adam Kadyrov, was travelling at a speed of around 160 kilometres per hour when it collided with a car that was entering the road on a green light.
According to other reports, the vehicle carrying Kadyrov was allegedly being driven by Apty Iraskhanov, the head of his security detail and a nephew of Chechen Interior Minister Aslan Iraskhanov. Sources claim that Iraskhanov sustained a cervical vertebra fracture.
Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that the driver of the other vehicle was killed in the collision.
RFE/RL, citing its sources, reported that the accident took place after a vehicle swerved out of control at a high speed, hitting a median.
According to VChK-OGPU, responsibility for the accident was allegedly placed on a traffic police officer who had ‘failed to block the road’ for the passage of the convoy.
Different reports have suggested that several or ‘around 18–20’ people were injured and hospitalised in the crash. Opposition sources and several independent outlets have reported that three or four people were seriously injured, including Adam Kadyrov and his bodyguards.
RFE/RL cited sources saying that Adam Kadyrov was initially taken to a hospital in Grozny and later transported to Moscow aboard a medical aircraft operated by the Emergency Situations Ministry — a claim supported by Flightradar24 data that showed a medical flight from Grozny to Moscow on the same night.
Reports about Adam Kadyrov’s condition vary. Some sources say he was unconscious and placed in intensive care, while others claim he regained consciousness and that his life was not in danger.
For example, the Russian independent outlet Mozhem obyasnit (We Can Explain) cited a representative of opposition movement NIYSO, who first reported that Adam Kadyrov’s condition after the accident was extremely serious and that ‘he was difficult to recognise’.
According to one doctor quoted by a Novaya Gazeta Europe source, ‘Kadyrov’s son and his bodyguards suffered more due to the airbags in their expensive foreign cars, while the ordinary people in the car they crashed into at full speed were less fortunate’.
‘Each version has its own supporters, who claim to have insider information from people close to Kadyrov’, noted Chechen opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov.
Nevertheless, the regional authorities reportedly decided on the urgent evacuation of Adam Kadyrov and his bodyguards to Moscow, using a specialised medical aircraft operated by the republican branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry. The aircraft is described as a ‘flying medical hospital’ and is normally used to transport critically ill patients requiring highly specialised care.
According to sources from Novaya Gazeta Europe who spoke directly to doctors at the Republican Clinical Hospital, neither Adam Kadyrov nor his bodyguards required such measures or treatment.
Approximately half an hour after the aircraft landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, Flightradar24 data shows that a plane belonging to the head of Chechnya also landed there.
According to some reports, the injured individuals may then have been transported by helicopter to Botkin Hospital. Ultranationalist blogger and founder of the Male State movement, Vladislav Pozdnyakov, published a video showing a helicopter landing on the hospital roof.
The VChK-OGPU project claims, citing a source, that Adam Kadyrov was placed in the ninth surgical building of the hospital, which houses the emergency surgery department. According to this account, Kadyrov is being treated in a special ward to which patients are admitted only on the orders of the Moscow mayor’s office or the Health Ministry.
RFE/RL reported that Chechen security officers checked the phones of staff at the republican hospital in Grozny where the injured were initially taken and warned personnel about the consequences of communicating with journalists and opposition channels. Hospital management was reportedly summoned to meetings and advised to limit the use of personal devices.
State-controlled Chechen media either remained silent after the accident or published material that made no mention of it. At the same time, a video was published on Ramzan Kadyrov’s Telegram channel showing a meeting attended by Adam Kadyrov. However, an analysis of the metadata indicates that the video was recorded and edited a day before the accident.
The footage was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro on 15 January, a day before the alleged crash. The draft file was titled ‘RAW\MEETING DUSTUM 15.01.2026’. ‘Dustum’ is Adam Kadyrov’s nickname.
At the meeting of security officials, which Adam Kadyrov was said to have chaired himself, he was presented with another medal, ‘For the Protection of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’, located in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Neither he, nor his father, nor other Chechen officials had previously stated that Adam Kadyrov was involved in combat operations or in any form of support for Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
As of the morning of 17 January, Chechen state media had not mentioned the Grozny accident at all. This includes ChGTRK (Chechen State Broadcast Company) Grozny, GTRK (State Broadcast company) Vainakh, and Grozny-Inform.
Information Minister Akhmed Dudaev — who usually promptly denies rumours about Ramzan Kadyrov’s health — has neither confirmed nor denied reports of the accident. His last post was published on the evening of 16 January, before the accident reportedly took place.
The only official outlet to mention the incident was Chechnya Today, which issued a denial regarding the hospitalisation of UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev. He had previously been named among possible victims of the crash, but this information was not confirmed.
Chimaev himself broke his silence only a day later. He posted a black-and-white photo with Adam Kadyrov on Instagram stories, calling him a ‘konakh’ (‘a worthy man’).
‘As long as we believe, nothing bad will happen to us’, read the caption.
Chimaev also posted a video filmed from a first-person perspective, stating that he was in Abu Dhabi. He did not comment on the Grozny accident.
‘I’m alive, not dead, as some people might have wished. I’m in Abu Dhabi, the weather is good’, he said.
According to sources, the Chechen Investigative Committee did not register the accident involving Adam Kadyrov in the official incident log either on Friday evening or the following day.
‘Most likely, as is usually the case in situations like this, no criminal case will be allowed to proceed — meaning there will again be no investigation or punishment’, a source told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Meanwhile, part of Staropromyslosvskoe Highway where the accident is believed to have taken place remains closed. Early footage from the scene shows the area blocked with concrete barriers, causing traffic disruption in central Grozny.
At the same time, state media claimed that the closure of the motorway is linked to the start of the second phase of construction of the transport interchange.
Accidents involving high-ranking officials in Chechnya occur regularly.
Information about one such crash involving Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephew, Yasin Zakriev, head of the Chechen Audit Chamber, circulated widely last summer. In that case, a married couple were killed and their two children seriously injured due to Zakriev’s actions. Despite public attention, he faced no accountability, and no criminal case was opened.
The recent crash is also not the first accident involving Kadyrov’s children.
According to unverified reports, in 2021 Ramzan Kadyrov’s eldest son, then-16-year-old Akhmat Kadyrov, ran over an elderly man while driving a Mercedes-Benz G-Class in the family’s home village of Tsentaroy (renamed Akhmat-Yurt). The Chechen authorities reportedly carried out a reconciliation ceremony and took steps to prevent the information from becoming public.
In September 2022, according to unverified reports, 15-year-old Adam Kadyrov was involved in another accident in which two people were killed due to his driving. To conceal this, he was allegedly moved into a bodyguard’s car. When Adam Kadyrov attempted to flee the scene at high speed in that vehicle, he reportedly struck and killed another person at a pedestrian crossing.
Elizaveta Chukharova
