Chechen leader Kadyrov calls reports of son's car crash fake news nearly one month later

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has described reports that his son Adam Kadyrov was involved in a road accident as disinformation.

Source: Meduza, Latvia-based Russian media outlet

Details: Kadyrov made the statement almost a month after the reports first appeared.

"You can fool anyone with the help of artificial intelligence. There were 128,000 road accidents across the country, 13,009 people have died, but nobody cares and nobody says anything. Yet a fake story about an accident involving Kadyrov's son, which came from who knows where, became the number one story in global news," he said during a meeting with the republic's prosecutor, Arsan Adaev.

Kadyrov also said he plans to tighten measures in Chechnya to combat cybercrime, including the spread of false information.

Previously: On 16 January, the local media outlet Kavkaz.Realii, citing two informed sources, and the Chechen opposition Telegram channel Niyso reported that Adam Kadyrov, the 18-year-old son of Ramzan Kadyrov, had been involved in a car crash in Grozny and was in a critical condition.

On the night of 16-17 January, Russian media outlets reported that a medical aircraft which could have been carrying Adam Kadyrov had landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. Ramzan Kadyrov's plane reportedly arrived shortly afterwards.

Background:

• Adam Kadyrov, 18, is one of the best-known children of Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
• In October 2023, Kadyrov awarded Adam, then 15, the title of Hero of the Chechen Republic after a video appeared online showing Adam beating 19-year-old Ukrainian Mykyta Zhuravel in a Grozny pre-trial detention centre for allegedly burning a copy of the Quran. Kadyrov said he was proud of his son's actions.
• Since then, Adam Kadyrov has received various awards and held several high-ranking positions in Chechnya. He is the secretary of the Chechen Security Council and oversees the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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