Latest news with #RamzanKadyrov
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian soldier recorded launching grenade at residential building in retaken Kursk Oblast town
A Russian soldier was seen firing a grenade launcher at a residential building in Sudzha, a border town in Russia's Kursk Oblast retaken from Ukrainian forces earlier this year, in a video published by independent Russian news outlet Astra on June 9. In the footage, the soldier is seen loading a grenade launcher while repeatedly shouting "Akhmat! Chechnya!" — a reference to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov's forces — before firing in the direction of a residential area. The Orthodox Holy Trinity Church stands behind the impact site, Astra noted. It is unclear when the video was filmed. Russian authorities later confirmed the man in the video was a junior sergeant from the 158th military commandant's office. 0:00 / 1× Kursk Oblast Governor Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram on June 9 that the shot narrowly missed the church and struck a residential building. He added that the soldier died in a traffic accident while fleeing from law enforcement in early June. "He will answer for his actions in another court: in early June, the junior sergeant died in a traffic accident," the governor wrote. "This is a lesson for everyone, regardless of religion." Russian troops retook Sudzha in March, months after Ukrainian forces captured the town during the August 2024 cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast. The incursion prompted a months-long Russian counteroffensive, backed by North Korean forces, which forced Ukrainian troops to withdraw from much of the previously seized territory. Located just 10 kilometers (around 6 miles) from Ukraine's northeastern border, Sudzha had a pre-war population of around 6,000. Read also: Exiled Russian scholar on why Dugin is no philosopher, and Russia no defender of 'traditional values' We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Putin terrorised this writer's childhood – her memoir is chilling
If a single set of events stands out as a primer to understand everything happening in Ukraine today, it is Russia's wars against Chechnya. In autumn 1999, even before he succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin decided to retake control of the newly sovereign republic, squeezed into the north Caucasus between the Caspian and Black Seas. He ordered murderous air strikes on civilian targets and a ground offensive to do so. The most infamous attack hit the capital Grozny's bustling market on October 21 that year, killing 118 people. In her vivid memoir of growing up during the Chechen wars, Please Live, Lana Estemirova recalls her mother's rage at how the attacks were smoothly reported on Russian TV as 'targeted military strikes' to eliminate rebels. The West's depressing readiness to swallow such narratives have ensured the success of Russia's playbook for more than two decades in Chechnya; following years of hostilities, Putin proclaimed the wars over in 2017, and Chechnya has stayed a Russian republic ever since. Estemirova's story of her childhood deserves to be told, not just because her mother was the prominent human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was kidnapped and assassinated on July 15 2009 by men loyal to Chechnya's pro-Putin leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. During the first Chechen war (1994–96), Natalya had documented the torture in Russian filtration camps of Chechens arrested for 'rebel activities'. It was the first time many of us became aware of the Russian military's capacity for sadism. In 2000, she joined the civil rights organisation Memorial, in Grozny, to help investigate the increasing detentions, savage violence and disappearances that accompanied Russia's second invasion of Chechnya. (The echoes of its invasion of Ukraine keep on coming.) Natalya received frequent death threats; it was probably because of her investigations into brutal murders by police working under Kadyrov's direction that she was dragged into a white Lada in July 2009, driven out of Grozny and executed on a country road. Her killers have never faced justice. Her daughter's book, with its domestic details – such as living in an apartment with no glass in the windows – conveys the poignant, brooding ambience of a country subject to what must have felt like a forever war. There are snapshots of school and birthdays and soft toys, but Lana's childhood was still heavily disrupted: she and Natalya often had to change flats, and, aged 14, she was moved to live with her aunt in Yekaterinburg for safety. Her mother meanwhile led a double life, devoted to her daughter and risking thuggish violence daily. Even amid lulls in the violence, Lana's home life was still subject to shocks and was rarely a refuge. At school in Yekaterinburg, she was bullied for being Chechen. 'Escalate, always escalate,' was her mantra for dealing with her bullies (a motto the US would have been well advised to adopt with Putin, instead of its opposite). Back in Grozny, she and her mother were swindled out of their flat. Moving to another, they found Kadyrov's men living next door. The men were using the shared attic as a toilet, and liquid excrement was dripping through the Estemirovas' ceiling. Visions of those murdered by Russia's extrajudicial repression stalk these pages: the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, gunned down on Putin's birthday in 2006, visits the Estemirovas, as do the prominent human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov ('he was incredibly funny') and opposition politician and critic of Putin, Boris Nemtsov, shot dead near the Kremlin in 2015. Natalya was a vital member of their struggle: a Memorial colleague described her as Politkovskaya's 'Virgil [in Chechnya], taking her through all the circles of hell.' Now living in Lisbon, working with the British-based charity Justice for Journalists, and with a daughter of her own, Lana recognises that her childhood made her a difficult girl. 'My pouting expressions, extreme defensiveness and sarcasm would have driven anyone up the wall.' But she has kept her fierce promise to her mother, who died when she was 15, that 'one day, when I'm ready, I will write a book about us. She will be remembered and her killers will fade like ghosts.' That promise rings particularly true in the heart-wrenching final quarter of Please Live, which culminates with the story of her mother's assassination and Lana's grief. These passages are painful to read. But if one lesson we have learnt from Russia's barbarism in Ukraine is the importance of empathy, another is that our empathy has limits: far from the front line, we're unlikely to find ourselves feeling the howling anguish, despair and disbelief of someone who has lost loved ones to war. We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book to show us what that feels like, and to understand. When Putin first set out on his highway of violence in 1999, calls for Western intervention in Chechnya fell on deaf ears. The British reaction was captured, in a weirdly perfect way, by the first Bridget Jones film in 2001. 'So what do you think of the situation in Chechnya?' Bridget asks her boss, Daniel Cleaver. He replies simply: 'I couldn't give a f--k, Jones.' If Britain's response had been more engaged than Cleaver's, not just Chechnya's future but Georgia's after 2008 and Ukraine's after 2014 and 2022 – and even the US's and Europe's – might look considerably different today.
Miami Herald
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Putin's Henchman Addresses Rumors He's Dying
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has addressed swirling rumors about his declining health with a cryptic message on mortality. Kadyrov, dubbed President Vladimir Putin's henchman, posted a video to his Telegram channel, weeks after he asked the Russian leader "to be relieved of my post" amid rumors of deteriorating health that will soon force him to step down. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment by email. The message comes amid mounting speculation over the health of the Chechen leader, who governs the predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. It marks the first time Kadyrov has publicly addressed the rumors, which intensified after Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta reported in April 2024 that he was diagnosed in 2019 with necrotizing pancreatitis—a severe condition that can lead to organ failure and death. In a video published Tuesday, Kadyrov said in a voiceover that he "increasingly hears gossip about my illness," but didn't confirm or deny whether his health was deteriorating. "They say that I am dying, I have little time left," the Chechen leader said. "Firstly, illness and death are the path of every person. No one living has passed this road. Secondly, it is not illness or threat that shortens life. Its length is determined only by the one who gave breath." Kadyrov, who is 48, added: "If I am destined to live 50, 60 or 70 years, I will live them as prescribed, and no one will take away a single day." In a caption, he also said, "Every day is a priceless gift, measured out by the Almighty" and said, "We must live it consciously, without spreading empty rumors and sowing discord." Earlier this month, Novaya Gazeta reported that Kadyrov asked Putin to dismiss him, and that he was preparing his teenage son Adam Kadyrov to replace him as Chechen leader. He was appointed to the post by the Russian president in 2007 following the assassination of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, three years earlier. Kadyrov later walked back his resignation comments in a post on his Telegram channel. "Many did not understand the meaning of my words about resignation. I do not decide whether I will remain in the position of the Head of the Chechen Republic or not," Kadyrov wrote. "Yes, I can ask or suggest. But no matter how much I say, no matter how much I ask, such a decision is made by only one person—our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. "I am an infantryman! I am a team person. If there is an order, I carry it out." Speculation about the Chechen leader's health intensified in September 2023 when Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said Kadyrov had been unwell for a long time with systemic health problems. There were also rumors on social media that Kadyrov was dead or in a coma. Ramzan Kadyrov's relatives told Novaya Gazeta in 2024: "There won't be the same leader as before, the [new complications] will seriously affect [him]. Even if he recovers now, he will be neither alive nor dead." Kadyrov's Chechen units will continue to support Putin's military in the Ukraine war. Related Articles Putin Ally Shares Map Of 'Buffer Zone' Covering All Of UkraineRussia Sees $1 Billion Wiped off Stock Market After Trump's Putin CommentsUkrainian MiG-29 Fighter Jets Bomb Russian Special Services BaseChina Denies Ukraine's Russia Weapons Claim 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
27-05-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
Putin's Henchman Addresses Rumors He's Dying
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has addressed swirling rumors about his declining health with a cryptic message on mortality. Kadyrov, dubbed President Vladimir Putin's henchman, posted a video to his Telegram channel, weeks after he asked the Russian leader "to be relieved of my post" amid rumors of deteriorating health that will soon force him to step down. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment by email. Why It Matters The message comes amid mounting speculation over the health of the Chechen leader, who governs the predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. It marks the first time Kadyrov has publicly addressed the rumors, which intensified after Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta reported in April 2024 that he was diagnosed in 2019 with necrotizing pancreatitis—a severe condition that can lead to organ failure and death. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, talks to the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 21, 2024. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, talks to the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 21, 2024. ARTEM GEODAKYAN/POOL/AFP/Getty Images What To Know In a video published Tuesday, Kadyrov said in a voiceover that he "increasingly hears gossip about my illness," but didn't confirm or deny whether his health was deteriorating. "They say that I am dying, I have little time left," the Chechen leader said. "Firstly, illness and death are the path of every person. No one living has passed this road. Secondly, it is not illness or threat that shortens life. Its length is determined only by the one who gave breath." Kadyrov, who is 48, added: "If I am destined to live 50, 60 or 70 years, I will live them as prescribed, and no one will take away a single day." In a caption, he also said, "Every day is a priceless gift, measured out by the Almighty" and said, "We must live it consciously, without spreading empty rumors and sowing discord." Earlier this month, Novaya Gazeta reported that Kadyrov asked Putin to dismiss him, and that he was preparing his teenage son Adam Kadyrov to replace him as Chechen leader. He was appointed to the post by the Russian president in 2007 following the assassination of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, three years earlier. Kadyrov later walked back his resignation comments in a post on his Telegram channel. "Many did not understand the meaning of my words about resignation. I do not decide whether I will remain in the position of the Head of the Chechen Republic or not," Kadyrov wrote. "Yes, I can ask or suggest. But no matter how much I say, no matter how much I ask, such a decision is made by only one person—our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. "I am an infantryman! I am a team person. If there is an order, I carry it out." Speculation about the Chechen leader's health intensified in September 2023 when Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said Kadyrov had been unwell for a long time with systemic health problems. There were also rumors on social media that Kadyrov was dead or in a coma. What People Are Saying Ramzan Kadyrov's relatives told Novaya Gazeta in 2024: "There won't be the same leader as before, the [new complications] will seriously affect [him]. Even if he recovers now, he will be neither alive nor dead." What Happens Next Kadyrov's Chechen units will continue to support Putin's military in the Ukraine war.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Chechen leader on rumours about his health: Illness and death are everyone's path
Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of Chechnya, has published a video in which he responded to rumours about his illness, saying that "illness and death are everyone's path", but did not deny that his health was deteriorating. [The Chechen Republic, also known as Chechnya, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation; the Ukrainian parliament has recognised it as the temporarily Russian-occupied territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria – ed.] Source: Kadyrov's Telegram video Details: In the published video, Kadyrov is walking and looking ahead with a slightly tired look. He does not say anything. A voiceover reads the text on his behalf. Quote from the video: "More and more often, I hear gossip about my illness. They say I'm dying and I don't have much time left. Firstly, illness and death are the path of every person. No one who is alive has escaped this road. Secondly, neither illness nor threat shortens life. Its length is determined only by the one who gave you breath." The voice goes on to say: "If I am destined to live 50, 60 or 70 years, I will live them as fated, and no one will take a single day away." The video calls those who spread information about Kadyrov's illness "gossips without courage" who "hide abroad like mice". Kadyrov was born on 5 October 1976 and is currently 48 years old. Background: In early May, Novaya Gazeta. Europe reported in early May that the health of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was deteriorating markedly and that this had activated a scenario of a change of power in Chechnya. In April 2024, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Europe reported that the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was seriously ill - he had pancreatic necrosis. It was noted that this leaves no hope for his recovery. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
