Grozny, Russia: Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov is in hospital after suffering serious injuries in a car crash in Moscow, officials said on Friday, days before a regional election.
"Doctors assess his condition as serious, but stable. On Friday morning he had an operation on his kidney, now he is in intensive care," Igor Tarasov, an aide to the premier, told reporters in Chechen capital of Grozny.
Chechnya's envoy to Moscow, Ziyad Sabsabi, ruled out the possibility of an assassination attempt against Abramov, who was appointed last year as Prime Minister of the troubled North Caucasus region, Interfax news agency reported.
Ramzan Kadyrov, officially Abramov's deputy but in reality the de facto ruler of the province, will be acting Prime Minister, said Abdul-Kakhir Izrailov, head of the government apparatus in Chechnya.
Kadyrov is head of irregular troops that form part of Moscow's anti-separatist force in Chechnya, and is charged by human rights groups with the systematic use of torture and murder to crush opposition.
Elections to Chechnya's Parliament, set for November 27, are the culmination of a Russian plan to stabilise the region, where separatist rebels have been fighting federal forces for over a decade.
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