Updated 00:41 | Published 00:38
The teenage boy and his brothers fire at the enemy with automatic weapons and grenade launchers.
But are they really at the front?
The 15-year-old is said to be fighting for Putin and is said to have taken a Ukrainian prisoner.
Adam Kadyrov is portrayed as a brave young man who took prisoners of war, was at the front and received an award for “actions against terrorism”.
The surname gossips about the reason for the propaganda machinery surrounding the 15-year-old. He is the son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Failing health
The state television channel in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, regularly airs features featuring the leader and his sons Adam, 15, Eli, 16, and Akhmat, 17.
They accompany him on representative trips and meetings.
Recently, rumors about the father’s failing health have grown stronger.
Speculation has increased about what will happen to Chechnya if Ramzan Kadyrov is knocked out by a serious illness or dies.
Three of Adam Kadyrov’s older sisters hold positions in the government.
Is a warning
But it is the 15-year-old and his slightly older brothers who get the most attention.
All publicity surrounding Adam and his brothers in the regime-controlled media should be seen as a warning to those waiting in the wings if Kadyrov falls, says Chechen political analyst Ruslan Kutayev to Radio Free Europe.
– It is a signal from Kadyrov’s inner circle not to play games because no one will give you any power. It remains with Kadyrov’s children, he says.
Other experts don’t think it will work.
If Kadyrov, who was put in power by Putin in 2007, dies, a power struggle could begin in Chechnya that will be difficult for the Russian president to control.
Filmed in a trench
Ramzan Kadyrov has stood behind his ally Putin regarding the war in Ukraine. He himself states that 26,000 Chechen fighters have participated in the fighting.
The family does everything to show that the sons are as enthusiastic about the invasion as the father, writes Radio Free Europe.
In October 2022, when Adam was 14, the regime released videos of the teenager and his brothers lying in a trench in Donetsk. They fired with automatic weapons and grenade launchers.
Rifle fire is heard in the background.
A review of the video clips from the sons’ trip showed that they were in fact several kilometers from the front, writes Radio Free Europe.
“Took prisoners of war”
Kadyrov claimed in later posts on Telegram that his three sons had returned from the front with a captured Ukrainian soldier each.
In videos of the alleged POWs, the three brothers appeared in matching sunglasses and carrying automatic weapons.
The 15-year-old has since been seen driving without a license in Dubai and took part in a raid with Chechen special forces in which two “members of a militia planning attacks on the police” were killed.
There, Adam Kadyrov was photographed with an American-made automatic weapon.