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Ramzan Kadyrov said he’s asked Putin to be allowed to step aside as Chechen leader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Kadyrov has previously hinted at the move, citing his long rule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Possible successors include Muslim Khuchiev and Apti Alaudinov, a general active in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to be allowed to step down from his position as leader of the Chechen Republic.<\/p>\n
“I am asking to be dismissed from my post,” Kadyrov told<\/a> state-controlled Chechnya Today on Monday, per<\/a> The Kyiv Independent’s translation.<\/p>\n “I hope that my request will be supported,” he added.<\/p>\n Kadyrov followed up his remarks on Tuesday with a post<\/a> on Telegram saying that the decision on whether he would step down is Putin’s, not his, and framing himself as a loyalist who responds only to the president’s command.<\/p>\n Kadyrov has nurtured a reputation as a strongman since taking power in 2007, heading up a militia known as the Kadyrovites, who have been deployed to Ukraine and in the defence of the Russian region of Kursk.<\/p>\n He secured a fourth term as Chechnya’s president in 2021, taking 99.73% of the vote in a bid that was all but guaranteed by Putin’s endorsement, Human Rights Watch said<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n Kadyrov took over the presidency from his father, who was assassinated in 2004, and last month named his 17-year-old son Adam<\/a> as state head of internal affairs, overseeing the republic’s police and internal security.<\/p>\n