Chechnya’s strongman leader has insisted he is “a completely healthy person” in a bizarre public appearance to scotch rumours of illness as he promoted his dynasty’s next generation.

Ramzan Kadyrov, who rules the small, war-torn Russian region with an iron fist, complained of enemies spreading lies after he met President Vladimir Putin on Monday for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine last year.

The 46-year-old commands legions of Chechen fighters personally loyal to him who led some of the initial assault on Ukraine, but he emerged last autumn as one of the most prominent critics of Russia’s military leadership.

Kadyrov on Wednesday addressed intrigue around a device resembling a pulse oximeter, which was seen on his finger during the Kremlin meeting. He said it was actually a digital Muslim prayer counter. “Sorry to let down those hoping I am incurably ill,” he said, brandishing the device.

Kadyrov went on to tackle other questions raised in recent weeks, which have included his puffy appearance, awkward speech, and the extra-large font used on a series of notecards he read from during the Kremlin sit-down with Putin.

Speculation over his future had been fuelled by Kadyrov’s eldest son Akhmat, 17, visiting the Kremlin earlier this month for a highly unusual one-on-one meeting with Putin, whose press office did not publicise the meeting.

Pictures of Putin awkwardly posing with Kadyrov’s teenage son drew comparisons to the Chechen strongman’s own emergence in 2004. 

At that time Kadyrov, clad in a light blue tracksuit, stood silently as Putin gave a brief statement eulogising his father Akhmat-Khadji, who led the region with the Kremlin’s backing until he was assassinated at a stadium that year.

At the recent meeting with Kadyrov’s son, the Chechen ruler said in a Telegram post that Putin had mostly told the 17-year-old about his relationship with Akhmat-Khadji, a warlord who switched sides during Chechnya’s struggle for independence and emerged as the Kremlin’s most trusted ally there. He also suggested the meeting may have been a gift ahead of Akhmat’s wedding. 

The Kremlin meetings come at the same time as a series of nepotistic appointments designed to strengthen Kadyrov’s grip over Chechnya and promote the next generation of his dynasty. 

Kadyrov appointed his daughter Khutmat, 20, to run Chechnya’s health services on Tuesday — joining her older sisters Aishat, 24, who is Chechnya’s culture minister, and Khadjiat, 23, who is married to Chechnya’s prime minister and runs the kindergarten system in Grozny, its capital. 

Last month, Kadyrov made his nephew Khamzat, 26, deputy prime minister after three years running Chechnya’s sports ministry, an appointment for which his main qualification, Kadyrov said in 2020, was being Akhmat-Khadji’s grandson.

Kadyrov is part of a group of hardliners commanding irregular forces in Ukraine focused around Yevgeny Prigozhin, commander of the Wagner paramilitary group, who have blamed Russia’s losses on the incompetence of its general staff and urged Putin to raise the stakes in Ukraine.

He was by far the most prominent Russian political figure to express support for Prigozhin last month when the defence ministry appeared to gain the upper hand in its struggle against Wagner. Prigozhin has publicly begged for ammunition since then and complained his forces were being left to the slaughter. 

After meeting Putin, however, Kadyrov praised defence minister Sergei Shoigu for the army’s “wise tactics” in Ukraine, suggesting the sides had reached an entente. Kadyrov said that “the situation among our combat units and in the country as a whole is several times better than it was a year ago”.