Exiled critic of Putin’s Chechen henchman assassinated: report

A blogger and exiled critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was shot to death last week, according to a leading Chechen opposition group.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a vocal critic of Kadyrov who had been living in asylum in Sweden, stopped posting to social media last week, sparking concerns for his well-being.

“Unfortunately the rumors about his death turned out to be true,” 1ADAT, an anonymous dissident Telegram channel, posted late Sunday.

“Tumso was shot at night by a group of people and at the moment the details of the murder are being investigated.”

Chechen dissident leader Anzor Maskhadov confirmed Abdurakhmanov’s death, according to a report by Radio Free Europe.

Neither source indicated that Abdurakhmanov had been killed in Sweden, where he had been living after fleeing Chechnya in 2015.

Swedish police, in a statement to Radio Free Europe, said they were aware of the reports of Abdurakhmanov’s murder, but “can’t confirm these media reports nor give any further comments.”

Sweden was the site of an earlier attempt on Abdurakhmanov’s life.

Two Russians were convicted of attempted murder after a 2020 attempt to kill the dissident Chechen in his Gävle apartment with a hammer, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

One of Abdurakhmanov’s assailants claimed in Swedish court that he had been offered 50,000 euros for the hit by Chechen authorities.

At least three additional Kadyrov critics had been killed in Europe prior to the 2020 attempt on Abdurakhmanov.

Kadyrov is the leader of the Russian region of Chechnya — and a militant supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. A flamboyantly violent warlord, Kadyrov has been a zealous supporter of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, most recently declaring the war a “big jihad” against supposed Western “Satanism.”