On 14 October, the President of the autonomous Russian Federal Republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov appeared at an official meeting ending the media speculations (Caucasus Watch reported) over a poisoning of the Chechen leader, reported the Caucasian Knot.

Despite appearing in public, the media kept speculating that a potential poisoning of the Chechen leader bringing in connection a new name, namely the former Mayor of the city of Argun, Ibragim Temirbayev, who was dismissed from his post in August. The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published an investigative article, about Temirbayev’s potential involvement against Kadyrov.

The article wrote that Kadyrov came in a conflict with Temirbayev already in 2006 when a fierce power struggle was going on between the then incumbent President Alu Alkhanov and Kadyrov himself. The report states that a meeting took place in Nalchik attended by Temirbayev, the commander of the Chechen riot police, Arthur Akhmadov and his deputy Buvadi Dakhiev, security officer of Akhmad Kadyrov, Shamil Magomayev, the amnestied militant Idris Gaibov and others, where the officials pledged support for Alkhanov, which came as the losing side in the conflict.

Three days after his resignation and on the eve of his appointment as an adviser to the head of Chechnya, Temirbayev was detained. The reason for the detention of Ibragim Temirbayev was the wiretapping of his telephone conversations after his resignation. In conversations with various leaders, including officials of all power structures of the republic, Temirbaev fiercely criticized the local authorities.  After Temirbayev was detained, searches were carried out in his real estate properties, a large number of weapons were found. Which is curious. Despite the fact that the searches, were not authorized by the court, the weapons were seized and described in accordance with all the rules of the Code of Criminal Procedure. A relative of Ramzan Kadyrov,Khas-Magomed Kadyrov was appointed as Temirbayev’s successor at the post of the mayor of Chechnya’s second largest city.

During his detention Temirbayev’s was visited Chechen authorities including the Minister of Emergencies of the Chechen Republic Ruslan Yakhiev, former Minister of Forestry Dikmagomed Mulaev, the former vice-premier for social bloc Khalid Vaykhanov and Kadyrov’s brother in law and the head of the traffic police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic, Shamkhan Denilkhanov, and suspected the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Apti Alaudinov. The article concludes that a mass cleansing of political elites is taking place in Chechnya.