Surprise announcement met with scepticism, with analysts saying the move is an attempt to be reappointed by Vladimir Putin

Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has vowed to stand down when his term ends in April – an unexpected and unlikely move that analysts have dismissed as an attempt to persuade the Russian leadership to reappoint him.

“I’m saying that my time has passed,” Kadyrov said in an interview shown on NTV television on Saturday, strolling through palace grounds in Chechnya. “We have very many successors on the team; there are very good specialists. This is the peak for Kadyrov.”

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Last week, Kadyrov said on the radio station Russian News Service that he did not want to continue in his post, but added that he would keep serving if Vladimir Putin told him to. Once Kadyrov’s term ends, Putin must appoint an acting head of the Chechen Republic until nationwide elections are held in September.

The announcement came exactly one year after the assassination of the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov near the Kremlin, a crime for which the deputy commander of Kadyrov’s Sever battalion of security troops has been charged. At least 10,000 people marched through Moscow on Saturday to commemorate Nemtsov, chanting the slogans “Russia will be free” and “Putin and Kadyrov are a disgrace to Russia.”

Commenting on the murder, which many suspect he was involved in, Kadyrov told NTV that Nemtsov “wasn’t hindering me at all actually, because he wasn’t on my level”.

According to Gregory Shvedov, editor of the website Caucasian Knot, Kadyrov’s latest statements are intended to make up for media pressure he has put on the Kremlin to appoint him acting head. Kadyrov has recently increased attempts to portray himself as Putin’s attack dog, calling the liberal opposition “enemies of the people” and posting a video of Nemtsov’s ally Mikhail Kasyanov in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle.

“He’s trying to convince [the Kremlin] that he’s not trying to push and not trying to insult by his aggressive approach those people who are going to be making decisions,” Shvedov said.

Although the chances are low that Kadyrov will not continue as head of Chechnya, the Kremlin is likely to have a “variety of other possibilities” as to who could run the republic, he added.