According to sources cited by Novaya Gazeta Europe, Adam Kadyrov, the third son of the head of Chechnya, was discharged last week from Botkin Hospital in Moscow. He had spent nearly three weeks there after the crash that took place on January 18 in central Grozny.
Only after his return to Chechnya did Ramzan Kadyrov comment publicly on the accident. On February 9, during a meeting with the republic’s prosecutor Arsan Adaev, he said that thousands of traffic accidents with many fatalities occur across the country, yet the incident involving his son became a leading news story.
“There have been 128,000 accidents across the country, 13,009 people have died, but nobody cares about that, nobody says anything. Yet some planted story about Kadyrov’s son’s accident became number one in world news.”
On February 10, Kadyrov’s official Telegram channel published the first video of Adam after his treatment. In the caption, the Chechen leader described him as having “come back to life” despite recent rumors. In the footage, Adam appears noticeably thinner and does not eat along with the others.
As the newspaper had reported earlier, his injuries were not considered life-threatening, but the family decided to transfer him to one of Moscow’s top clinics. According to the sources, at Botkin Hospital he underwent spleen removal, was placed on a strict six-month diet, and after a head injury doctors diagnosed a crack in his jaw, which temporarily prevented him from eating solid food.
The most serious consequence, the outlet’s source said, was damage to the optic nerve discovered by Moscow doctors. According to that source, there is still no clarity about the long-term outcome of the injury, and there is a risk that Adam Kadyrov could lose sight in one eye.
The three guards who were with him in the lead car of the motorcade were reportedly hurt more badly. Sources say at least Bislan Kaimov and Apti Iraskhanov were taken to Moscow and hospitalized at the Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation with severe head and spinal injuries. Kaimov’s hospitalization was confirmed by his brother, who published photos and video from the hospital; according to the Chechen Telegram channel NIYSO, he may have suffered an extremely serious brain injury and could remain paralyzed.