Ramzan Kadyrov's return to Moscow prompts speculation about his illness

Ramzan Kadyrov and his attending physician flew to Moscow, journalist Elena Milashina reported in the evening on May 28. Users of social networks associated a new flight of the Chechen leader to the Russian capital with his illness.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 15-26, Kadyrov did not appear in public; and then, after a long absence, held a sitting of the headquarters on combating coronavirus. The video from the sitting reinforced the version of his illness. An object similar to a medical catheter is visible on Kadyrov's hand, Instagram users have noticed.

According to the "FlightAware" flight tracking website, at 6:39 p.m. Moscow time on May 28, an aircraft with the flight number of VQ-BVQ flew from Grozny to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, and 1.5 hours later, the aircraft returned to Grozny. In 2017, the "Dozhd" (Rain) TV Channel reported that the leader of Chechnya usually flew with the aircraft with the above mentioned flight number.

In the evening on May 28, Elena Milashina, a correspondent of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", posted on her Facebook page a screenshot with the flight tracking of the VQ-BVQ aircraft. "For the second round?" asked Vladimir Varfolomeev. The journalist replied to his post that Ramzan Kadyrov was "really bad."

In the comments, users asked Elena Milashina: "Is he flying to Moscow?" The journalist replied that Ramzan Kadyrov "had already arrived."

"The Minister for Public Health had arrived even earlier [...] The Minister is the attending physician (of Ramzan Kadyrov) since 2014," Elena Milashina wrote in the comments.

Some social network users suggested that the flight to Moscow of the aircraft, usually used by Ramzan Kadyrov, may be related to his illness. "But it would be enough just to inform the population about the disease," Rizvan Ibragimov noted under a post written by Elena Milashina.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 29, 2020 at 12:51 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.