Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov has published a video of an official meeting following reports of his alleged kidney failure, which he called ‘fake information’.
Kadyrov published the video on his Telegram channel on Monday.
During the meeting, he called for stronger action against the spread of false information online. Reports of his alleged kidney failure first emerged in Ukrainian media, citing a source in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR).
Kadyrov said that despite his regular public activities and appearances on Russian television and online platforms, provocateurs continued to circulate rumours about his serious illness and impending death.
‘We must strengthen countermeasures against fake information being spread on the internet […] They say that my kidneys have failed and that I am lying in hospital, and that doctors from a private clinic in Moscow have been brought in,’ he said in Chechen.
Kadyrov also said he was surprised that people believe what he described as ‘paid-for information’, despite seeing footage of him on television and on social media, where he is allegedly present in person.
‘Even when they see me on television and on social media, they continue to claim that I am unwell and dying,’ the Chechen leader said.
Kadyrov instructed the acting deputy chair of the Chechen government — the republic’s Minister for National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information, Akhmed Dudaev — to intensify efforts to identify and refute false information in the media space. According to Kadyrov, such measures are necessary for the ‘systematic suppression of information attacks’ against the republic’s leadership.
Kadyrov accompanied his address with criticism of the media, which he accused of abusing audience trust and spreading inaccurate information about his health. He called on relevant agencies to step up efforts to combat disinformation and to strengthen the filtering of unreliable publications on the internet.
According to Ukrainian media, HUR claimed that a process of identifying a possible successor to the head of the republic had already begun in Chechnya. Those reports named Chechen Parliamentary Speaker Magomed Daudov, Deputy Prime Minister Apti Alaudinov, and Kadyrov’s eldest son Akhmat as potential candidates.
On 31 December 2025, the Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that Kadyrov had been hospitalised in Moscow due to a sharp deterioration in his health. They cited a source claiming that Kadyrov had planned to attend the State Council meeting in person and arrived in Moscow on 24 December. However, on that night, he was taken to the Central Clinical Hospital of the presidential property management department by ambulance. The source claims that no contingency plan was in place for Chechnya’s participation in the State Council meeting, and the event went ahead without a delegation from the republic.
Novaya Gazeta Europe had previously reported that Kadyrov was diagnosed with pancreatic necrosis in 2019.
Elizaveta Chukharova
