Are Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov of Bulgarian descent? No, that's not true: Based on available information about Putin's family tree going back generations, as well as information about Kadyrov's origins, no connection with Bulgaria could be found.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by @vladimir7yj4dtywyd on December 1, 2023.
The text visible above the photo of Putin and Kadyrov (translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff) read:
Did you recognize them, they are both of Bulgarian descent!!!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Dec 5 07:15:13 2023 UTC)
The information available in the Russian "All Russia Family Tree" research genealogy project, where Putin's family tree goes back generations, does not support such a claim. Going back to the middle of the 16th century, the word Bulgaria does not appear. Another source, Geneanet, traces Putin's family back to the 18th century, showing that Putin's direct descendants did not originate from Bulgaria.
According to an article published in the Russian media Novaya Gazeta on October 17, 2023, "the story of the Kadyrov family begins not in Chechnya but in the Kazakh city of Karaganda in Central Asia," Bulgaria is not mentioned. In another article from September 20, 2021, on the website of the Russian TASS News Agency, which published the biography of Kadyrov, Bulgaria is not mentioned either.
Research conducted by Caucasian media project Kavkaz.Realii, using only resources available on the Internet, found nearly 100 members of the Kadyrov clan, and according to the information provided, a third of them were confirmed as Kadyrov's relatives. However, none of the published full names can be identified as Bulgarian names. In the Biography of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, published on the Parliament of the Chechen Republic website, the word Bulgaria or any connections to Bulgaria cannot be found either.
