- Ramzan Kadyrov said he's asked Putin to be allowed to step aside as Chechen leader.
- Kadyrov has previously hinted at the move, citing his long rule.
- Possible successors include Muslim Khuchiev and Apti Alaudinov, a general active in Ukraine.
Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to be allowed to step down from his position as leader of the Chechen Republic.
"I am asking to be dismissed from my post," Kadyrov told state-controlled Chechnya Today on Monday, per The Kyiv Independent's translation.
"I hope that my request will be supported," he added.
Kadyrov followed up his remarks on Tuesday with a post on Telegram saying that the decision on whether he would step down is Putin's, not his, and framing himself as a loyalist who responds only to the president's command.
Kadyrov has nurtured a reputation as a strongman since taking power in 2007, heading up a militia known as the Kadyrovites, who have been deployed to Ukraine and in the defence of the Russian region of Kursk.
He secured a fourth term as Chechnya's president in 2021, taking 99.73% of the vote in a bid that was all but guaranteed by Putin's endorsement, Human Rights Watch said at the time.
Kadyrov took over the presidency from his father, who was assassinated in 2004, and last month named his 17-year-old son Adam as state head of internal affairs, overseeing the republic's police and internal security.
Kadyrov has floated the idea of stepping down in the past. In 2022, he posted on Telegram saying he had been in office too long and deserved a vacation. He made similar remarks as his second term approached its end in 2016, Russian media reported.
The latest move comes amid reports of ongoing ill-health that Kadyrov has denied several times, and that stand in contrast to his image as a strongman and fighter.
According to independent investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europa, Kadyrov was diagnosed with pancreatic necrosis in 2019, which was then complicated by a bout of COVID-19.
Should Putin give Kadyrov the nod to step down, possible successors include Muslim Khuchiev, the republic's former prime minister, and high-ranking general Apti Alaudinov, who has been on active duty in Ukraine.
Kadyrov maintains an iron grip on power in Chechnya in an arrangement widely understood to have been secured by promising Putin to keep it within the Russian Federation and to suppress a separatist movement.
The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
