Chechnya suggests its warlord leader Ramzan Kadyrov is just having some alone time, as Russian media reports he is in the hospital with coronavirus

• Last week Russian state media reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, had been flown to Moscow for emergency treatment for a serious coronavirus infection.
• But over the weekend Kadyrov and Chechnya's information minister published a series of questionable Instagram posts purporting to show Kadyrov is merely spending some time alone.
• Those posts showed pictures of Kadyrov in a gym and smelling flowers, and said: "Solitude is the only cure." They did not deny claims that he is sick.
• But neither of those photos were taken recently. Kadyrov publicly shaved his head in April, while the Instagram photos showed him with an unshaved head.
• Kadyrov has cracked down hard during the coronavirus pandemic, and has warned that anyone infected with COVID-19 who does not self-isolate could face death.

Questionable Instagram posts from Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, claims he is fine and merely spending some alone time, despite semi-official claims in Russian state media that he was flown to Moscow last week for emergency treatment for a serious COVID-19 infection.

Kadyrov — whom Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed to rule the restive southern province in 2007 — has had a high-profile presence on social media and official Russian reports throughout the pandemic.

Russia and its regions in the Caucasus are battling an increasingly dire coronavirus outbreak, which has left Russia with the third-highest number of cases behind the US and Brazil.

In a series of Instagram posts over the weekend, both Kadyrov and the Chechen information minister posted photos of the strongman leader — who has been repeatedly suspected of ordering murders across Europe and Russia — in a gym and smelling flowers alongside cryptic messages.

Those messages alluded to Kadyrov's health without outright denying the claims that he is ill.

"Is it true that I ... ? Don't hold your breath!" Information Minister Djambulat Umarov posted on Sunday.

And on Monday, Kadyrov's own Instagram account posted a photo of him smelling flowers with another message saying that "solitude is the only cure."

Both photos were easily debunked as not recently taken in light of a bizarre appearance Kadyrov made on the local Grozny TV channel late last month, where he announced that he would not reopen barbers and hair salons in the immediate future, and called on Chechens to shave their heads instead to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.

However, both weekend social media posts showed Kadyrov with an unshaved head, indicating that they were not taken recently.

Kadyrov has maintained an active presence on social media throughout the coronavirus pandemic — despite being banned from Facebook and Twitter due to US sanctions — and has spoken to local news channels and Russian-controlled media to speak about the outbreak.

He has warned that anyone infected with the coronavirus who does not self-isolate could face death — or, as he said in one case, should be "buried in alive."

That statement led to a reporter for the Russian independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta to report that some infected people in Chechnya were refusing to seek treatment for suspected COVID-19 cases for fear of being killed or otherwise targeted by security forces.

The reporter, Elena Milashina, was later forced into hiding after Kadyrov singled her out to threaten in late April. Novaya Gazeta later said it would only be publishing her future stories on Facebook due to concerns for her safety.

Kadyrov has been credibly accused in multiple murders of critics, including journalists such as Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed outside her apartment in 2006.

Kadyrov had not yet been named ruler of Chechnya then. At that time, he was leading a pro-Kremlin militia tasked with pacifying the restive province, which has been wracked by two wars and numerous terror attacks and government raids since the early 1990s.