Enlarge image
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov
Photo: IMAGO/Yelena Afonina / IMAGO/ITAR-TASS
Putin supporter and Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov is said to have ordered the assassination of a Chechen opposition figure on European soil.
This is the unanimous report of British Russia observer Alex Kokcharov and an independent Chechen news channel on the Telegram network.
The dead man is 36-year-old Chechen blogger Tumso Abdorokhmanov.
He is said to have been shot dead in Sweden on Saturday night.
As "Abu Saddam Shishani," Abdorokhmanov ran a YouTube channel with almost half a million subscribers, on which he repeatedly openly criticized Kadyrov's regime.
The videos have titles like "The Truth About Kadyrov."
In 2015, Abdorokhmanov fled to Sweden and was granted political asylum there.
He survived an assassination attempt there in February 2020.
The attackers, two Russian citizens from Chechnya, were sentenced to long prison terms in 2021.
According to the Chechen news site 1adat, he is said to have been shot dead by a "group of people".
His brother Mohamed, who also fled, is now “hidden by European secret services”.
The Kremlin observer Kokcharov also considers the murder to be proven.
"This suggests that employees of Russian security agencies can still enter the EU to carry out assassinations," Kokcharov wrote on Twitter.
A connection between the murder and Ramzan Kadyrov cannot currently be proven.
cheerleaders in the Ukraine war
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kadyrov has been one of the most committed cheerleaders on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He is the official President of the Autonomous Republic of Chechnya and is often referred to as "Putin's bloodhound".
In 2004, Kadyrov helped the Kremlin chief win the Chechen war.
He has been the head of the republic since 2007.
His regime and its fighters are considered extremely brutal, and the Kremlin tolerates it. Kadyrov is said to be responsible, among other things, for the murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova from the Memorial organization.
She had denounced kidnappings and serious crimes in the Caucasus republic.
Kadyrov also made international headlines with a brutal campaign to suppress homosexuals.
Mr