Chechnya’s Strongman Is Visibly Ailing. The Russian Region Is Bracing for Succession.

For two decades, Ramzan Kadyrov has been the Kremlin’s iron fist in Chechnya. But Mr. Kadyrov, 48, appears to be seriously ill, presenting President Vladimir V. Putin with a new challenge in a part of southern Russia where wars killed tens of thousands in the 1990s and 2000s. When the strongman leaves the scene, who can maintain the brutal control he has imposed over that part of the Caucasus? Mr. Kadyrov’s own succession plan could be resting on his 17-year-old son, who got married and received congratulations from Mr. Putin over the weekend. But that would require circumventing Russian law requiring regional leaders to be at least 30 years old.