Succession is never an easy thing in Russia. In Chechnya, it’s even more fraught.
In the Soviet era, Politburo transitions were bulldog-under-the-carpet. Nikita Khrushchev, who took over after two years of infighting following Stalin’s death, was ousted in a coup by Leonid Brezhnev. He eventually died in office -- as did Yury Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, in quick succession. Mikhail Gorbachev finally stopped the carousel.
In post-Soviet Russia, Boris Yeltsin gave Vladimir Putin a wink and a nod -- then handed over the presidential reins on New Year’s Eve in 1999.
In Chechnya, meanwhile, after two Kremlin wars battling separatists and Islamic insurgents since the early 1990s, the region finally was subdued with the help of the Kadyrov clan. Akhmat Kadyrov, a former rebel fighter, switched sides and was tapped as president, steadying the region for about a year until he was assassinated in 2004.
His son Ramzan took over three years later, after he reached the constitutionally mandated age of 30. Since then, he has ruled with an iron fist, stomping out rival clans, building his own semi-private army, and consolidating power and wealth into a personalized fiefdom.
Putin, who put Kadyrov in place and relies on him to keep Chechnya from becoming a major problem for Moscow again, has turned a blind eye to what rights groups say are widespread abuses, a climate of violence and impunity, and the flouting of federal law.
Now Kadyrov’s health is in question, and speculation about succession is rife. The Kremlin wants to keep Chechnya quiet, especially as Russia focuses on its war against Ukraine. Kadyrov wants his family to maintain its grip on power and wealth, and rivals are looking for an opening.
An additional twist: By law, Chechnya’s leader must be at least 30 years old, while Kadyrov’s eldest daughter is 27 and his eldest son is just 20. That opens the possibility that someone could serve as a placeholder, not unlike what happened with Kadyrov himself.
Here’s a short list of people in the running.
AKHMAT KADYROV
Akhmat Kadyrov at a march in Grozny ahead of the Russian presidential election in March 2024
The eldest son among Kadyrov’s 12 biological children, Akhmat, who is named after his grandfather, has served in prominent roles overseeing sports and athletic activities. That overlaps with his father’s public embrace of physical fitness and sport competitions like boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and soccer matches. In 2022, when he was just 16, he was named Chechnya’s official representative to the official Kremlin youth and sports organization known as Movement of the First. The following year, he held a widely publicized Kremlin meeting with Putin, something many observers speculated could mean an endorsement. In 2024, Akhmat was appointed minister of sport and physical education. He also took charge of Chechnya’s main professional soccer club, FC Akhmat Grozny. Now 20, he was named deputy prime minister of the region in January.
AISHAT KADYROVA
Aishat Kadyrova at the opening of the first store of her fashion house, Firdaws, at a Moscow shopping center in 2019
Aishat, 27, has held lower-profile, but important behind-the-scenes positions in the regional government. Named first deputy culture minister in 2020, she rose three years later to become first deputy prime minister in charge of social welfare in the region. That gave her oversight over budgets for welfare spending. She was also an owner of a fashion house called Firdaws, which designed women’s and men’s clothing for sale in Chechnya and elsewhere. In 2022, Aishat, along with Firdaws, and several other relatives, were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department. Last February, she surprised observers by resigning from the government, saying that “government work is better suited to a strong man."
ADAM KADYROV
Adam Kadyrov at a review of Chechen troops and military equipment at Ramzan Kadyrov's official residence, January 2024.
Adam, the third eldest of Kadyrov’s sons, has been gradually elevated by his father to prominent positions in the region. Now 18, he shot to notoriety as a 15-year-old when he assaulted Nikita Zhuravel, a Russian who had been accused of burning a Koran and then sent to Chechnya to be tried. His father published the video of the brutal beating, while praising him, and Adam was showered with accolades and given the title “Hero of the Chechen Republic.” Later, he was named head of the presidential security service. In the summer of 2025, he reportedly married a granddaughter of his father’s close ally, Adam Delimkhanov, sparking speculation about a political marriage to cement ties between the families. In early January, Adam’s security convoy was involved in a high-speed crash in Chechnya that left him seriously injured, and he was later flown to Moscow for treatment.
ADAM DELIMKHANOV
Adam Delimkhanov at a dress parade in Grozny marking Russian President Vladimir Putin's 70th birthday, October 2022
A relative and a member of the same clan, Delimkhanov, 56, is seen as Kadyrov’s closest ally. He has been a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament since 2007, but his relations with some in Russia’s ruling circles are tense. Like Kadyrov, he is accused of widespread human rights abuses. He is sometimes known as “the man with the golden gun” after a gold-plated handgun reportedly fell from his pocket during a fistfight with another national lawmaker in 2013. Authorities in Dubai named Delimkhanov as a suspect in the assassination of key Kadyrov rival Sulim Yamadayev in 2009, after which police said a gold-plated gun was found at the scene. The charges were later dropped after Kadyrov visited the UAE. The same year, Kadyrov told an interviewer that Delimkhanov was his “closest friend, closer than a brother,” and also his favored successor -- though Kadyrov’s sons were toddlers at the time.
MAGOMED DAUDOV
Magomed Daudov at a meeting in Grozny between Ramzan Kadyrov and the president of Guinea-Bissau, May 2024
As regional prime minister since being named to the post in May 2024, Daudov, 45, would become acting head of the region upon Kadyrov’s death, according to the republic’s constitution. A former rebel fighter who also switched sides in the early 2000s, Daudov reportedly gained Kadyrov’s trust by literally bringing him the head of a field commander who had claimed responsibility for the assassination of Kadyrov’s father. Daudov is sometimes known as “Lord,” a nickname he says Kadyrov gave him because of the black suit he was wearing when they first met. A long-time police officer, he is described as an enforcer for Kadyrov and rights groups accuse him of involvement in abduction and torture of people and of playing a leading role in a violent campaign targeting LGBT people. Before his appointment as prime minister, he had been chairman of the regional parliament since 2015.
APTI ALAUDINOV
Apti Alaudinov speaks to students at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, February 2024
Alaudinov, 52, is seen as closely tied to representatives of Russian security agencies, which could make for tension with regional figures and forces if he were to succeed Kadyrov. A police major general, he became deputy head of the regional Interior Ministry in 2011. His future was badly clouded in 2019, when he was detained in connection with a rumored plot against Kadyrov. He lost his Interior Ministry post in 2021 and reportedly stayed in Moscow for some time. His fortunes shifted again after Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In what some describe as an effort to redeem himself with Kadyrov, he joined Russian forces fighting in Ukraine and became commander of the Akhmat battalions, which are named after Kadyrov’s assassinated father. Formally subordinate to the Defense Ministry, the units have been mocked as “Tik-Tok troops” who spend more time posting videos to social media than fighting at the front.
RUSLAN EDELGERIYEV, ABUZAID VISMURADOV, IBRAGIM ZAKRIYEV
Analysts and observers have also named these lesser-known figures as potential successors.
Ruslan Edelgeriyev at a UN climate change conference in Madrid in 2019
An Interior Ministry colonel who has served in Russian security forces inside and outside Chechnya, Ruslan Edelgeriyev, 51, was the region’s prime minister in 2012-18. He is an aide to Putin and the Russian president’s special envoy for climate and water resources issues.
Abuzaid Vismuradov in Chechnya in March 2022
A childhood friend of Kadyrov’s and a former head of his security service, Abuzaid Vismuradov, 50, has been a deputy prime minister since 2020. He formerly headed the Terek security force, which is accused of abuses. His son Ramzan is married to Kadyrov’s daughter Tabarik.
Ibragim (Yakub) Zakriyev
Ibragim Zakriyev, 35, also known as Yakub, is a former mayor of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, and until March 2021 was the chief of staff to both Kadyrov -- his uncle -- and the regional cabinet. In 2023, he was appointed to head the Russian subsidiary of French yogurt maker Danone after it was seized by the Russian state.