Local reports are suggesting that the deputy to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Elkhan Suleymanov, has disappeared and may have been murdered by Kadyrov according to Newsweek.
Suleymanov was the private doctor to Kadyrov as well as his deputy prime minister until October 2022, when he was dismissed.
Kadyrov has been experiencing worsening health and kidney issues and blamed his condition on a series of injections he received from the doctor, accusing Suleymanov of trying to poison him. Kadyrov has since sought medical treatment in Dubai.
The ex-deputy prime minister frequently posted updates to Instagram but has been silent since he was fired in October 2022. Nothing has been heard from, him since.
VChK-OGPU, a local telegram channel, quoted sources that Suleymanov was buried alive, although no evidence has supported this claim.
"Since then, no one has seen him again (absolutely everyone says that he is not alive and he died a painful death), if we are talking about something else, then he may be in captivity and they will show him on camera." the channel quoted a Russian source as saying.
A Russian ally in Ukraine
Kadyrov is a long-time ally of Putin, with an equally murky human rights record, and has sent troops to fight in the invasion of Ukraine.
A link on Suleymanov’s Instagram page, purported to be a link to an Oncological dispensary, appears to link to a cocaine-selling business run out of Dubai.
No reply was provided by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs to Newsweek’s request for comment.