From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/19/2007 11:47 AM
Chechnya Weekly - Volume VIII, Issue 16
April 19, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE:
* Kadyrov Appoints, Decrees and Awards
* Human Rights Watch Chief Says Europe Fails to Prevent Abuses in Chechnya
* Ulman and his Co-defendants Disappear
* Policeman Killed in Dagestan
* Briefs
* Between Myth and Reality: Life in Kadyrov's Potemkin Village
By Ruslanbek Sultanov

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kadyrov Appoints, Decrees and Awards

On April 12, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed three deputy prime ministers who were earlier nominated by the republic’s parliament. According to ITAR-Tass, Adam Delimkhanov was named first deputy prime minister, Abdulkakhir Izrailov was named deputy prime minister and head of the presidential and governmental apparatus and Lema Magomadov was named deputy prime minister in charge of the social bloc. Delimkhanov is a close Kadyrov associate who previously held the post of deputy prime minister in charge of the republic’s law-enforcement structures. The reshuffle reduced the number of deputy prime ministers in the republican government from eight to three. Kadyrov appointed his cousin Odes Baisultanov as prime minister (Chechnya Weekly, April 12).

On April 18, Kadyrov signed a decree appointing four ministers who were nominated by the republic’s parliament the previous day, the Regnum news agency reported. Eli Isaev, Khasan Taimaskhanov, Abdulla Magomadov and Olguzur Abdulkarimov were appointed to the posts of finance minister, agriculture minister, economic development minister and industry minister, respectively. Kadyrov also signed a decree naming Khasan Lechkhadzhiev as minister of property and land relations, Lema Dadaev as minister of education and science, Shaid Akhmadov as minister of health and Akhmed Gekhaev as minister of construction. On the same day, Khusein Dhzabrailov resigned as the Chechen president’s special representative and was replaced by Bekkhan Taimaskhanov, who was previously the deputy authorized representative of the Chechen Republic under the Russian president, Interfax reported (Chechnya Weekly, April 12).

On April 15, Kadyrov conferred the republic’s highest award, the Golden Order of Kadyrov, to the head of the Chechen Republic’s traffic police, Shamkhan Delimkhanov, Newsru.com reported. The Chechen president said Delimkhanov had directly participated in special operations to eliminate “bandits and terrorists” in Chechnya’s Starpopromyslovsky district and had shown himself to be a “courageous officer” in operations conducted elsewhere in the republic. At the same time, Kadyrov called on the traffic police to impose order on the republic’s roads. “I recommended Delimkhanov to this post so that he would carry out the necessary reforms and achieve in getting things put in order on the republic’s roads and the streets of the cities and villages,” Kadyrov said. “It must not matter for us who violates the rules of the road – an official, an ordinary citizen or a person who considers himself wealthy and therefore a would-be master of the roads. Each person must bear the responsibility as stipulated by the law. Only then will the inhabitants of the Chechen Republic respect you.” Kadyrov handed over to Delimkhanov the keys to 24 automobiles outfitted with communications gear and other special equipment that he gave to the republic’s traffic police department at the beginning of April.

On April 14, during a meeting with members of his cabinet Kadyrov vowed to eradicate corruption in Chechnya, ITAR-Tass reported. “We must forget the word corruption in our republic,” he said. “We will fight this evil not fiercely but bitterly. We must eradicate this evil at all levels of power in Chechnya as soon as possible.” Prime Minister Odes Baisultanov, First Deputy Prime Minister Adam Delimkhanov, Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov and prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov attended the meeting.

Several leading political observers this week commented on the significance of Kadyrov’s formal accession as Chechnya’s president. A leading Chechen political analyst, Zaindi Choltaev, commented on Kadyrov’s cabinet reshuffle as well as his first decree, which approved a nationalities policy document that includes a call for a variety of economic preferences for the republic (Chechnya Weekly, April 12). “Ramzan Kadyrov’s signing of a decree on the Chechen Republic’s nationalities policy is connected with the desire to demonstrate that Chechnya is fully a part of Russia,” Kavkazky Uzel on April 16 quoted Choltaev as saying. Choltaev said that Chechnya’s demands for material compensation for the Stalin-era deportation of the Chechen people is a quid pro quo for refraining from demanding that Moscow sign a treaty on delimiting powers between Chechnya and the federal center (Chechnya Weekly, March 22).

“I think that these personnel rearrangements further strengthen the Kadyrov team,” Choltaev told Kavkazky Uzel. “There are pluses for him in that, of course. But there are also serious minuses, in the sense that the support of other forces in the republic is constricted. The entourage is becoming more clan-based and consists more and more of closely-connected people.” Choltaev said that Kadyrov is playing a double game by, on the one hand, trying to stress his loyalty to Moscow while, on the other hand, expressing his readiness to become a national leader and protector of the Chechen people. “Well, that’s for local consumption,” he said of Kadyrov’s nationalistic pronouncements.

Asked about the future direction of relations between Moscow and Grozny, Choltaev predicted that 2007 would be a year of relative calm. “In a certain sense, Chechnya is being forgotten,” he said. He added, however, that this is likely to change toward the end of this year when the federal parliamentary and presidential campaigns begin and “the current Chechen authorities will have to look closely at what kind of legacy it will leave the new Putin team.” Choltaev predicted that the “status quo” would also be maintained in the area of human rights in 2007. “It is possible that Ramzan Kadyrov, who has achieved supreme power in Chechnya, will now be more indulgent and tolerant,” Choltaev said. “It is possible that he has a fairly good entourage that will advise him that it is necessary to demonstrate not only the firmness and superiority of his course, but also to ensure that there is an opposition. If there is not one, then smart leaders themselves sometimes invent one.”

For his part, Sergei Markedonov, head of the International Relations department at the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, wrote in an analysis posted by the Apn.ru website on April 16: “Ramzan Kadyrov, today, is not a conventional regional leader. He is today the only public politician among the heads of the Russian regions – and also the only president of a republic – who has his own (albeit pared-down for the time being) foreign policy.”

Human Rights Watch Chief Says Europe Fails to Prevent Abuses in Chechnya

On April 18, Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, charged that European institutions have been inefficient in defending civil liberties in Russia despite the countless monitoring bodies that have been set up solely for this purpose and cited Chechnya as the prime example of this problem. According to the Associated Press, Roth told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France, that while the council can order Russia to amend its laws to prevent human rights abuses, it has no efficient follow-up mechanism to enforce sanctions on Moscow in the case of continuing violations. “The clearest example is the Council of Europe’s striking failure to respond effectively to the continuing, pervasive impunity for grave human rights violations in Russia's Chechnya,” he said. “The problem cannot be chalked up to a lack of information about conditions on the ground. A range of Council of Europe bodies have extensively documented atrocities in Chechnya...Shockingly, Russia has faced no adverse consequences.”

AP noted that the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee said in a report earlier this year that Chechnya continues to be plagued by torture and unlawful detentions, with human rights violations rarely investigated (Chechnya Weekly, March 15). The European Court of Human Rights, which is administered by the council, has blamed the Russian government for the disappearance and presumed killings of several people in Chechnya, and has ruled against Moscow in other cases concerning fighting in the republic during the last 12 years. However, Roth said there has been little concrete action to curb the abuses and blamed the pressure exerted by Russia – a Council of Europe member – and the council's decision-making system, which requires unanimity to act against any of its 46 members. As AP noted, Russia has faced no sanctions for human rights abuses in Chechnya, apart from being ordered to pay several hundred thousand dollars to relatives of some of the victims. The news agency quoted PACE Chairman Rene van der Linden as saying that while the council has no permanent presence in Chechnya due to security concerns, monitoring of the province continues from the outside. “I cannot accept that this has to do with pressure from Russia,” he said.

Ulman and his Co-defendants Disappear

The North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don on April 13 placed Captain Eduard Ulman and two other GRU special forces officers accused of murdering six Chechen civilians in January 2002 on the national wanted list after the three failed to show up for their trial, ITAR-Tass reported. Ulman, Lieutenant Alexander Kalagansky, Warrant Officer Vladimir Voevodin and a fourth suspect, Major Aleksei Perelevsky, are on trial for the murder and abuse of office. As ITAR-Tass reported, the defendants did not deny that they shot the Chechens but said they were following orders during a special operation. The man in charge of that operation, Colonel Vladimir Plotnikov, has categorically denied having given such an order either orally or in writing (Chechnya Weekly, April 6, 2005). On April 4, prosecutors asked that all the defendants in the case be found guilty and that Ulman and Aleksei Perelevsky each receive a 23-year prison sentence and Aleksandr Kalagansky and Vladimir Voevodin be sentenced to 18 years and 19 years in prison, respectively.

As ITAR-Tass reported, the current trial, which began last December, is the third for the four Russian servicemen. Two previous trials ended with the acquittal verdict, with the jury ruling that their actions “were adequate to the current circumstances and were caused by the obligatory performance of the military service duty.” Both times, however, the military collegium of the Russian Supreme Court satisfied a protest lodged by the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, overturning the jury verdict and ordering a retrial.

The incident took place on January 11, 2002, in Chechnya’s Shatoi district, when, according to Ulman’s testimony, he was ordered to take a 12-man unit out to try and capture or kill the Saudi-born Chechen rebel field commander Khattab and 15 of his fighters. Ulman testified that while they were waiting in ambush, an UAZ van drove up. The vehicle, he said, was ordered to halt, but instead sped up, ignoring warning shots. Ulman said his group then fired into the vehicle, killing one of its passengers and wounding two, and only realized that the passengers were civilians, not rebel fighters, after the survivors emerged with their hands up. Ulman claimed that he had contacted headquarters six times for instructions, after which Perelevsky ordered him to kill the remaining passengers, but also said he had the impression Perelevsky was being “pressured from above.” Ulman said that after the remaining passengers were shot and killed, commanders ordered his group by radio to “clean up” the scene by blowing up the UAZ to make it look like it was blown up by a mine. Ulman also claimed that he had personally briefed Plotnikov about the operation, who expressed approval (Chechnya Weekly, April 6, 2005).

As Vremya novostei reported on April 16, following the first jury trial that found Ulman and his co-defendants innocent in April 2004, they were released from pre-trial detention after signing a pledge not to leave the Rostov-on-Don area. This time, however, Ulman, Voevodin and Kalagansky failed to show up to two consecutive days of hearings, and their relatives and lawyers said they had no knowledge of their whereabouts. Ulman’s lawyer Roman Krzhechkovsky said that the mobile phones of all three defendants were switched off. The defendants’ lawyers said they would appeal their clients’ inclusion on the national wanted list. Vremya novostei quoted North Caucasus Military District prosecutors as saying that if the three do not show up soon, their trial will be postponed until they are found and the remaining defendant, Major Aleksei Perelevsky, will be tried separately. “Most likely this is precisely what will happen, given that the capabilities of [GRU] scouts to conceal themselves and go into hiding cannot be doubted,” the newspaper wrote. Kommersant, on April 14, quoted state prosecutor Nikolai Titov as charging that the defendants’ lawyers knew about their plans to flee and abetted them.

The Guardian, on April 19, quoted Murat Musaev, a lawyer for the victims’ families, as saying that the court had repeatedly refused his clients’ requests to detain the defendants during their prosecution. “We were afraid this would happen,” he told the British newspaper. “It was clear that they would be found guilty and of course, no one wants to sit in prison for 20 years. So they simply ran away because their movements were not restricted in any way.” Musaev added: “By running away, these men have shown to the whole world that they know they are guilty.”

On April 16, Dmitry Rogozin, the nationalist State Duma deputy who heads the Rodina-Congress of Russian Communities movement, claimed Ulman, Voevodin and Kalagansky were either kidnapped and taken to Chechnya or murdered. “The point is that the accused Ulman group was found and removed to the territory of Chechnya,” Interfax quoted him as saying. “The version that the three defendants in the Ulman case went into hiding is advantageous to everyone – to the victims, as supporting the conviction [of the defendants]; to the court, which has the right to pass a sentence in absentia; [and] to Ulman’s commanders.” Rogozin said it was not to the defendants’ benefit to have fled because – according to Rogozin - their lawyers had uncovered new exculpatory evidence. Rogozin said he had sent a telegram to Federal Security Service (FSB) Chairman Nikolai Patrushev and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika asking them to accept kidnapping or murder as the most likely version of what happened to the three defendants. “I requested an investigation into the disappearance of the defendants, and also an inspection of the living quarters and non-residential premises of the relatives [of the victims] and the victims,” RIA Novosti quoted Rogozin as saying. Noting that Rogozin has publicly defended two Russian Interior Ministry officers, Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev, who are currently being retried on charges of killing three Chechen civilians in January 2003, the news agency quoted nationalist State Duma deputy as saying that in light of the disappearance of Ulman and his co-defendants, Khudyakov and Arakcheyev should be provided with an “armed guard.”

Kavkazky Uzel, on April 18, quoted an anonymous Chechen law-enforcement official as saying in response to Rogozin’s comments: “Dmitry Rogozin is on the whole a person without inhibitions. As far as I know from his comments on television, he can easily put forward all kinds of nonsense without thinking about his words or the possible consequences. The main thing for him is to be the center of attention, and the rest is unimportant. He is an unserious person and not a politician. His statement is complete gibberish and absolute nonsense. It is possible that Rogozin was not sober at that moment [he made the statement].” Timur Aliev, editor of the independent newspaper Chechenskoe obshechestvo [Chechen Society] said of Rogozin’s statement: “I think I know where Rogozin got the idea to accuse Chechens of kidnapping Ulman, Voevodin and Kalagansky. The fact is that this version was slipped into the Internet’s ‘Zhivoi Zhurnal’ (Live Newspaper) by someone from the outside. Moreover, Rogozin’s son actively uses ‘Zhivoi Zhurnal.’ So the ‘informed source’ from whom Dmitry Rogozin received this ‘valuable information’ was most likely his son.”

According to Kavkazky Uzel, people in Chechnya are convinced that Ulman, Voevodin and Kalagansky are guilty of murdering the innocent Chechen civilians and simply fled to avoid conviction and imprisonment. “I will not rule out that Ulman and his subordinates were taken outside of Russia, to one of the former republics of the USSR,” the website quoted a Chechen Interior Ministry officer as saying. “Let’s say, to Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Although they could just as easily be holed up somewhere in Russia. And I am not at all sure that they will really be searched for, found and punished.” The unnamed Chechen Interior Ministry officer added: “This process became political long ago. To acquit Ulman’s group means arousing the discontent of the inhabitants of the Chechen Republic. To convict them means arousing the discontent of the military. And in this situation, the sham disappearance of the Ulman group plays into the hands of precisely those forces that do not want the spetsnaz officers to get the punishment they deserve.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of North Ossetia on April 12 convicted Stanislav Yeloev of killing two Chechens in 1994 when he was serving as a guard on the North Ossetian-Chechen administrative border. As Kommersant reported on April 13, Yeloev apparently murdered the Chechens in revenge for the deaths of his brother and cousin at the hands of Ingush paramilitary fighters in December 1992. Yeloev was detained for the crime and admitted his guilt but was allowed out on bail after he claimed he was in an emotionally unbalanced state when he committed the crime. He later fought as a contract soldier in Chechnya and was severely wounded, after which he returned home to Stavropol Krai, where he lived openly until police arrested him last October for the 1994 murders. The court took Yeloev’s military service and medical condition into account and sentenced him to ten years in prison for the murders.

Policeman Killed in Dagestan

One policeman was killed and two were wounded in an operation to destroy a group of gunmen in Dagestan’s Karabudakhkent district on April 18, ITAR-Tass reported. The news agency quoted the chief physician of the hospital in the settlement of Karabudakhkent as saying that the body of the slain policeman was in the hospital and the two injured men were taken to Makhachkala for treatment. Police said earlier in the day that five to ten gunmen, some of them on the wanted list for terrorist crimes, were hiding in the woodland near the village of Gubden. The Associated Press on April 18 quoted Dagestan’s Interior Ministry as saying that a shootout erupted when police were seeking to capture or kill a group of what were believed to be more than five suspected militants hiding out in a wooded mountain area near Gubden, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Makhachkala. On April 5, gunmen shot and killed a police officer in charge of investigating economic crimes in Makhachkala (Chechnya Weekly, April 12).

On March 31, the separatist Kavkaz-Center website published a transcript provided by the “press service” of the Sharia Jamaat of what it said was an interview given to journalists from the North Caucasus service of Radio Liberty, who had asked for the interview. According to the transcript, the jamaat, which is an armed underground Islamist group based in Dagestan that has claimed responsibility for the murder of dozens of policemen in the republic, was asked about its origins. The person or persons responding for the Sharia Jamaat, who are not identified in the transcript, said the group is “an armed military subdivision of the Caucasus Front” and that “Gen.” Rabbani Khalilov is the “amir of the Dagestan brigade.” The group said the jamaat was set up in 1999 with the goal of “restoring an Islamic government on the territory of the Caucasus” and that it has given a “bayt” – oath of loyalty – to “the Amir of the Muslims of the Caucasus” – Chechen rebel leader Dokka Umarov. The Sharia Jamaat reiterated that it will target “members of the gangs referred to as 'law-enforcement bodies,' the FSB, MVD, prosecutor’s office and others,” as well as the “kaffirs-munafiqs” – unbelievers-hypocrites – from the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus and the “kaffirs” of the Russian Orthodox Church (Chechnya Weekly, January 12, 2006; November 10, 2005). It added that “in accordance with Islam, those who oppose the calling of Muslims can be killed, as can those who impede the laws given by Allah, those who help the enemy, by word or deed, financially or with arms.” The group said its main sources of funding are from donations from Muslims and from the “spoils of war.”

On April 11, the Dagestani government’s anti-terrorist commission held a meeting to discuss the role of the republic’s media in countering terrorist ideology, Kavkazky Uzel reported. Addressing the meeting, Dagestani President Mukhu Aliev called on the media to prepare more publications of an “anti-terrorist and anti-Wahhabi nature.” The chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan, Akhmed Tagaev, told the meeting that the republican media did not give enough attention to traditional Islam and complained that a film shot with the board’s support, entitled “Obyknovenny vakkabizm” (Ordinary Wahhabism), had been showed only on a cable channel in the republic but not on the republic’s state channels. Dagestan’s minister for national policy, information and external relations, Eduard Urazaev, told the meeting that his ministry is planning to issue a book entitled “Vakkabizm v voprosakh i otvetakh” (Wahhabism in questions and answers) that will explain the “negative aspects” of Wahhabism as well as a documentary film that will expose the activities of terrorists and extremists. According to Kavkazky Uzel, Urazaev said his ministry plans to propose that all publishers of religious or political materials, even those with small circulations, be required to register with the government.

Briefs

- Policemen Wounded in Grozny Attack

Six policemen from the Republic of Karelia were injured in an attack in Grozny on the evening of April 18, Interfax reported on April 19. “Unknown persons opened fire at a police checkpoint late yesterday night near the former radio factory located in Grozny’s Zavodsky district,” a Chechen Interior Ministry source told the news agency. “Six members of the combined police detachment of the Republic of Karelia MVD received gunshot wounds.” RIA Novosti reported that the policemen received leg wounds that were not life threatening.

- Medvedev Visits Grozny

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev toured Chechnya on April 16 to hail “progress in reconstruction,” Reuters reported. According to the news agency, Medvedev, one of the favorites to succeed President Vladimir Putin and the highest-level visitor to the republic in 16 months, looked around a new medical clinic and university in Grozny with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov at his side and accompanied by “soldiers carrying Kalashnikov rifles.” “The situation in Chechnya has changed for the better,” Medvedev told reporters after meeting students. “Of course, much remains to be done, but if we do nothing then nothing will move forward.” Medvedev is in charge of national projects aimed at improving conditions in such areas as housing and health care. Kadyrov, for his part, said: “Although we have started rebuilding we still have many shortages. And we need help from the federal side to improve the social sphere.” Reuters reported that Medvedev “flew in and out of Grozny’s newly rebuilt airport on the same day.”

Between Myth and Reality: Life in Kadyrov's Potemkin Village
By Ruslanbek Sultanov
Massive construction and rebuilding projects are underway across the entirety of Grozny. The first order of business has been the reconstruction of the large apartment buildings, even though many of the multi-story structures are still standing empty. President Ramzan Kadyrov, the new pro-Russian head of the republic, had declared while still a prime minister that 2007 would be the year of Grozny’s rebuilding. With work underway in all parts of the city, it has been heavily emphasized that the funding is coming from “non-budgetary” sources.

The biggest landmark in the Chechen capital today is the central street of the city named in honor of Akhmad Kadyrov (previously named “Victory Street”), the head of the republic killed in May 2004. Both sides of the road leading from the center of the city to Minutka Square are lined with high-rise buildings, their walls covered with fresh stucco and new modern windows, and their clearly visible freshly installed metal roofs. But there is almost nothing behind these glistening facades. There have been almost no repairs to the entranceways or the interiors, and most of the apartments stand empty. Some of the locals call the buildings “Chechen Potemkin villages” and say that these are simply stage decorations intended to create the feeling of a peaceful life “and the rebirth of Grozny from the ruins.”

“Today, thousands of families in Chechnya don’t have a place to live, but many apartments in Grozny are empty,” says Artur, a 54-year old construction worker from Grozny. “I’m not even talking about the fact that only a few very rich people can afford to live in the center, and let’s be honest – we don’t have that many rich people. The fact is that some owners of the restored apartments don’t want to return.” The main reason for this reluctance, according to the worker, is that many people fear they will eventually die under the ruins of the “reconstructed” homes.

“These buildings stood roofless for many years, under rain and under snow. The moisture is still there; it has seeped into the concrete and may have caused cracking during the winters. Such cracks might be invisible from the outside, but there’s no way to know what’s happing inside the walls. The slightest earthquake will cause many of the high-rises to crumble into dust. A friend of mine told me that in the center of the city, the commission responsible for accepting the work from the construction companies simply refused to take charge of eight buildings. Superficial repairs in such buildings – replacing windows and doors, re-plastering the walls – do not guarantee anything. I wouldn’t risk my life by living in one of these buildings.”

According to official statistics, however, 110 such residential buildings with 530,800 square meters of space are scheduled to be restored. Sixty of these are scheduled to be completed in 2007, and 44 of the 60 are in the city of Grozny. At the moment, rebuilding is underway in all four districts of the Chechen capital, with the “new methods” being an inescapable part of the process. Unofficial sources indicate that the president of the republic has entrusted each of the heads of Chechnya’s regions with rebuilding at least two multi-story apartment buildings. The financing, it should be noted, has to come from the officials themselves.

An employee of one of the republic’s ministries shared the following: “I’m not going to name names, but my close relative, who occupies a high-ranking post within the republic’s government, explained to me just how Grozny is being rebuilt. Kadyrov has levied a sort of tithe on each of his officials, with the obligation to use personal (stolen, of course) money to finance the reconstruction of one or two buildings in Grozny. This is being billed as ‘the help provided by the regions to the rebuilding effort’ and is used extensively in the capital.”


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From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24    Sent: 4/19/2007 11:47 AM
He added: “It’s impossible to confirm or deny this information, since it’s unlikely that a high official will want to risk his profitable position. Everyone remembers the fate of the former director of Chechnenstroi [the Chechen state-owned construction organization] Shamsadi Dudaev. (Dudaev oversaw the rebuilding in Grozny and was sacked several months ago. Much of his property was confiscated, including 15 apartments in the capital, a mansion in his home village of Bachi-Yurt – later converted into a kindergarten – and a large sum of money estimated at one or two million dollars.) So everyone is quiet and does what they’re told.”

The construction projects have another ugly side. Many of the workers involved in the rebuilding claim that they are not being paid their full wages and that all of the supervisors, starting with the foremen, are engaged in theft.

“They promised to pay us at least 400 rubles a day, but in reality we get no more than 250. Those that complain are told to find another job. And where, tell me, can you find another job in today’s Chechnya?” asks Idris Masaev, a man currently working on one of the projects in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. “So everyone has to accept this lawlessness. Can it be true that the men in charge of the republic don’t know what happens in construction, don’t how people are shamelessly robbed, how workers are forced to sign for money they never received in order to keep the small income they still get?”

Another serious issue is that of the so-called “refused housing.” “Refused housing” refers to those apartments and houses that were surrendered to the government by the owners who were leaving the republic. Originally, this housing was redistributed by the heads of Grozny’s districts, but later came under the full control of the mayor’s office. With the payment of a nominal fee, some paperwork and a certification from neighbors indicating the absence of one’s own housing, any resident could receive one of the “refused” properties from the municipal fund. Additional payments of several thousand dollars always had to be made in order to ensure the success of the transaction, with the registration of a two-bedroom apartment costing $3,000 two to three years ago. In an attempt to make more easy money, officials responsible for redistributing “refused housing” started to sell these apartments and houses left and right. Often, the same property would be sold to several different individuals, leading to numerous scandals and court cases.

“I was told that in the Lenin district, either eight or ten people are laying claim to the same apartment. The amazing thing is that all of them have papers,” recounts a clerk from a notary’s office in Grozny. “Some got their papers in the district administration and others from the mayor’s office. And there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of such incidents.”

Recently, Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the creation of a special commission headed by Muslim Khuchiev, the mayor of Grozny. The members of the commission, which includes clergy, officials from the district administrations of Grozny and from the security services, are supposed to verify the claims to “refused housing.” Those found to be illegally occupying property will be asked to vacate it as soon as possible. Such a commission, however, does not guarantee that any sort of order will be established. The fact that the mayor’s office in Grozny started to make all decisions regarding “refused housing” simply meant that the flow of bribes was now being redirected from the offices of the district administrators to the mayor's office. It seems that papers guaranteeing ownership will now be sold by the commission members.

The rapid pace of rebuilding in Grozny and the attempt to decisively curtail some of the corruption are viewed positively by the average person. That said, there is still a lot of skepticism. “Of course it’s nice that they’re rebuilding the city,” says 55-year old Grozny resident Takhir Bibulatov. “But everything is being done in such a hurry, the quality of the work is terrible, the workers aren’t paid, and let’s not even talk how they get money for all of it. Almost all of the government employees have their salaries docked. Can that be right? Are ordinary people guilty for the fact that the Russian military wiped Grozny off the map? Let those who destroyed the city rebuild it. Let Moscow, and specifically the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense, do it.”

The restored center of Grozny is the pride of the current leadership of the republic. Almost all of the delegations visiting Chechnya – whether foreign ones or those from Moscow – are driven along the central streets of the capital and shown the reconstructed buildings and told of the many achievements that are being made in building a peaceful life in the republic. But in reality, things are not as smooth as the local pro-Russian authorities and the government in Moscow would like for everyone to believe.

Bands of guerrillas still operate in the forest-covered mountains of the republic’s south. They damage property and attack members of the armed forces and the security services. Among the young people in the republic, many are still ready to join the men in the guerrillas. A few weeks ago, there were firefights between the security services and small groups of insurgents. Two of the guerrillas were killed – one in the mountainous Shatoi region, the other one in the foothills of the Urus-Martan region. Both men were born in Grozny.

“The idea of an independent Ichkeria isn’t gone, regardless of what the official propaganda says,” explains Aslan, a 27-year old student from one of the colleges of Grozny University. “A whole generation of Chechens grew up knowing Dzhokhar Dudaev, Aslan Maskhadov, Shamil Basaev, Ruslan Gelaev and many others leaders that gave their lives for the same cause. The idea of independence can’t be erased from the minds of the Chechens, no matter how hard the Kremlin tries.”

“Tsarist Russia, the Bolsheviks and now this supposedly democratic Russian Federation have all brought only grief, blood and tears to the Chechen nation. Can we really forget the bombings, the artillery barrages and the rocket attacks that were directed at Grozny and the other towns and villages of our republic? Can we forget the hundreds of thousands who were killed, crippled, abducted and driven from their homes? Can we forget the “police actions” and the brutality of the ‘kadyrovtsy’ (as the locals call members of the local security services), who slice off the heads of their enemies and who take whole families hostage?”

“Today, Moscow manages to control the situation by using the force of arms and the help of a handful of traitors. But sooner or later, the Kremlin and its puppets will be forced to answer for what they did. Today, the people are frightened and cheated and are silent. But I believe it was President Lincoln who said that you can fool some of the people all the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time. The questions of war and of peace have not been resolved here, and time will put everything in order.”

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