Kadyrovʼs right-hand man has access to critical German infrastructure, posing a direct risk to supplies to Ukraine. We are reprinting materials from The Insider and Der Spiegel

In 2025, there were more cases of espionage and sabotage by other countries in Germany. Most often, they spy on military facilities, railways, and ports, and the main suspects are Russia and China.

For example, in October, the Higher Regional Court of Munich sentenced three people who spied and prepared sabotage. The leader of this group previously fought in Donbas on the side of the Russians, and all three have both German and Russian citizenship.

In Germany, they tried to harm Ukraine: they monitored the movement of military equipment and the transportation of ammunition, which they planned to send as aid to Ukraine. They also prepared arsons and bombings on railways and military facilities.

Such espionage and sabotage operations take place throughout Germany, but are particularly intense at transport hubs and ports. The most interesting object for Russia is Hamburg, with its largest seaport in the country. The port is connected to the railway, which stretches across Germany for more than 300 kilometers, which allows for rapid transshipment and shipment of goods throughout Europe.

But Moscow doesn’t even have to send spies to monitor the railway. For this, the Kremlin has groups of Chechens who support Kadyrov’s policies at hand. Recruiting random people is not profitable for Russia: they are easy to expose, and they are usually only capable of carrying out a one-time task, and not systematically collecting information.

It is precisely such small-time performers that German intelligence services catch most often. “Kadyrov’s men” are not “lone agents”, but disciplined, hierarchical, and loyal employees of the regime who don’t need to do anything secretly. They are already inside the system and can act as an “unofficial representation” of the Chechen authorities in Europe.

How did Kadyrovʼs supporters consolidate their influence in Germany?

The Chechen groups (presumably) overseen by Kadyrov have two key levers of influence in Germany. The first is that they can influence conflict resolution right on the streets of the city.

In November 2020, a large group of Chechen bandits stormed a store associated with the Remmo clan in the Neukölln district of Germany. The attackers used knives, chairs, water pipes, and gas. Several members of the clan were seriously injured in the fight.

In order to ostensibly resolve the conflict peacefully, both sides organized a meeting: world boxing champion Manuel Charr represented the Arab side, and European MMA champion Timur Dugazaev represented the Chechen side. Dugazaev acted as a “representative of the head of Chechnya,” although formally such a position does not exist in Europe.

The conflict was resolved. That is, the Chechen authorities actually began to act through him on the territory of Germany.

Timur Dugaziev arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2002 and was granted refugee status in 2005. In 2011, he became a German citizen. As it turned out, he had deceived the German authorities by claiming that he was being persecuted in Chechnya. Dugaziev first appeared publicly as a “representative of the head of the Chechen Republic” at the same peaceful meeting of the Chechen mafia and the Arab Remmo clan in 2020.

Sometimes Dugazaev hosted high-ranking guests from Chechnya in Germany, such as Abuzaid Vismuradov, commander of the Chechen SOBR Terek unit, now Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya. Vismuradov, according to human rights activists, is involved in the torture and murder of gays in Chechnya.

On one of the joint photos with him in 2017, Dugazaev wrote: “Brothers always and everywhere together!” All this helped him maintain authority and inspire fear in others. And this was the beginning of the Chechen groups gaining their power in the country.

In 2020, Dugazaev was placed under US sanctions along with Kadyrov for human rights violations. He was not expelled from Europe, but he himself returned to Chechnya. The place of “Kadyrov’s main man in Europe” was taken by his associate Khuseyn Agayev.

Like Dugazaev, Agayev is very close to Kadyrov: at a wedding in 2017, he welcomed Kadyrov as an honored guest. In 2024, the Chechen TV channel Grozny TV called Agayev a “delegate to the People’s Congress” of the republic and a “representative of the Chechen diaspora in Germany”.

Timur Dugazaev with Abuzaid Vismuradov (left).

Hussein Agayev with Ramzan Kadyrov.

Agayev and his son Selim visit Chechnya every year. After 2022, Agayev traveled to Russia several times. German authorities are also conducting several investigations into Agayev, which are related to robbery and the use of stolen property. But this has not diminished his authority in Germany.

The second lever is control over German logistics. And this is a danger for Ukraine.

Hussein Agayev heads RIM-Group, a logistics and security company founded in 2012. The company has been showcasing examples of its work at the Port of Hamburg on its Instagram account.

It is not known whether RIM-Group continues to operate directly at the port, but Agayev’s entourage has connections with other logistics companies throughout Germany.

For example, his partner Ali Itayev, who regularly appears in joint photos, worked for International Logistics and constantly flies to Russia, and in the photos with Agayev’s son there are often employees of DIS “Personaldienstleistung GmbH”, a company that manages warehouse logistics throughout the country.

Through their control over ports, warehouses, and transportation hubs, Agayev and his entourage can see where and when cargo is going, what goods are being transported, and in what quantities. This applies, in particular, to military equipment, ammunition, and humanitarian aid heading to Ukraine.

Another interesting detail is the “Regime-95” club, which Chechens from Agayev’s entourage consider themselves to belong to (95 is the regional code for Chechnya).

Officially, it is an MMA sports club, but its members take group photos against the backdrop of portraits of Al Capone, an American gangster who led a criminal syndicate during Prohibition in the United States, and caption the photos with the hashtag “gang”.