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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the southern region of Russia in Chechnya, is suspected of being infected with the new corona virus and is being treated in a Moscow hospital, three new Russian authorities said.
The TASS news agency cited an unnamed medical source and said the condition of 43-year-old Kadyrov was stable, but provided no further details. The Chechen authorities have not confirmed or rejected the reports, and officials, including Kadrov's spokesman Ilman Vakhidov, have not answered phone calls.
Kadyrov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, became head of Chechnya in 2007 after two brutal wars between Russia's military, separatists and Islamists after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Moscow attributes Kadyrov, who calls himself Putin's "foot soldier," a radical Islamist uprising in the mainly Muslim region of the North Caucasus, but human rights activists accuse him of presiding over widespread violations of the law.
Chechnya reported 1,046 new coronavirus cases and 11 deaths on Friday, a small proportion of the more than 300,000 cases and 3,249 deaths reported by the Russian authorities across the country.
TASS quoted Akhmed Dudayev, head of the Chechen state television channel ChTGRK, as saying that Kadyrov was personally responsible for the region's efforts to control the outbreak of the new corona virus.
If the news is confirmed, Kadyrov would be one of several high-ranking Russian officials infected with the virus, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mishustin returned to work this week after his recovery.
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