Two men have recorded a video message in which they named a former Russian State Duma MP from Daghestan, Magomed Gajiev, as the author of rumours about the alleged assassination attempt on the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

On Wednesday, Gajiev, who is recognised in Russia as a ‘foreign agent’, was named as the ‘customer’ who allegedly ordered people to spread rumours about an assassination attempt on Kadyrov. 

According to the Russian state-run media outlet RIA, the former official promised two of his fellow compatriots $2.5 million each for spreading the rumour.

At a meeting with Chechnya’s commanders and security forces leaders on 9 October, Kadyrov, speaking in Chechen, reportedly claimed to have information about a contract on his life. 

He stated that if three Russian lawmakers — Daghestani Federation Council Senator Suleiman Kerimov, as well as State Duma MPs Bekkhan Barakhoev and Rizvan Kurbanov — did not prove that they were not involved, he would ‘officially declare a blood feud against’ them.

Like Karimov, Kurbanov is also a Daghestani, while Barakhoev is from Ingushetia.

[Read more: Kadyrov threatens blood feud against three Russian lawmakers]

Kadyrov linked the alleged assassination plot to an incident at the Moscow office of Russia’s online retail company, Wildberries, which occurred on 18 September.

In the 45-second video released on Wednesday, the two men, identified by RIA as Abdula Mamadibirov and Murad Goshdadov, both, according to media, from Daghestan, did not give the former MP’s full name, referring to him as ‘Maga’. Local media also stated the men were addressing Gajiev. The names and status of the men in the video were not indicated.

According to the video published, Mamadibirov and Goshdadov claimed that they had fulfilled their part of the agreement with Gajiev by disseminating information about the preparation of an assassination attempt on Kadyrov, but they never received the promised reward.

‘We risked our lives because of you. Now you turned off your phone’, they said.

In addition, they noted that the former MP called on them to denigrate Suleiman Kerimov.

Over the summer, the publication Project, an independent Russian media specialising in in-depth journalism, reported that Gajiev had been added to the Russian list of foreign agents at the request of Kerimov. According to the report, Kerimov also achieved the initiation of a criminal case against the former MP. The reason for this was reportedly a commercial conflict.

The two men also demanded that Gajiev confess to Kadyrov that no assassination attempt was actually being prepared.

‘Go and tell Ramzan about these phantoms of yours’, one of the men said, adding that the former MP ‘will have to answer for that’.

RIA reported, citing an anonymous source, that ‘Gajiev and his curators from foreign intelligence services, by spreading rumours about the assassination attempt, wanted to ignite an interethnic conflict between Chechnya, Daghestan, and Ingushetia’.

Gajiev was a member of the Russian State Duma from 2003 to 2021. The Ministry of Justice of Russia added him to the register of foreign agents in May 2024.