From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24 (Original Message) Sent: 12/20/2007 6:27 PM
Chechnya Weekly- Volume VIII, Issue 49
December 20, 2007
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Zyazikov Denounces the Jamestown Foundation
* Kakiev: Pro-Moscow Chechens Have Been Sent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia
* Briefs
* The Dagestani Jamaat (Part 2)
By Mairbek Vatchagaev
* Russian Forces Carry Out a Large-Scale Security Sweep in the North Caucasus
By Andrei Smirnov
Note to Readers: This is the last issue of Chechnya Weekly for 2007. Chechnya Weekly will resume publication on January 10, 2008.
Zyazikov Denounces the Jamestown Foundation
In an interview published on December 17 in the weekly magazine Kommersant-Vlast, Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov said that the recent series of murders of ethnic Russians living in the republic was a "blow" aimed at the leadership of both Russia and Ingushetia, and specifically aimed at Ingushetia's special program to bring back Russian-speakers who had left the republic.
Asked where the "blow" had come from, Zyazikov answered: "From abroad. Take, please, this fact. Some American organization by the name of the Jamestown Foundation holds a seminar in Washington on 28 November 2007 on 'The Future of Ingushetia.' The main speaker is a fugitive Maskhadovite, a certain Vatchagaev [the reference is to Mairbek Vatchagaev]. What business, one might ask, does Mr. Vatchagaev and his American guardians have with our republic's affairs? Well, I know! They need a new area [of influence]. Their plans in Chechnya were defeated. Now they are looking for a new area [of influence]. They think they will find it in Ingushetia. Nothing will come of it!" Asked if he was trying to say that someone wants to unleash a new war, this time in Ingushetia, Zyazikov replied: "Absolutely right."
In his interview with Kommersant-Vlast, Zyazikov called the claim by Ingushetiya.ru website proprietor Magomed Yevloev that only 6-8 percent of Ingushetia's eligible voters turned out for the December 2 State Duma election (Chechnya Weekly, December 13) "nonsense," adding that the turnout was "massive." Ingushetia's election commission put the turnout out at above 98 percent (Chechnya Weekly, December 6). Yevloev and others charged that Zyazikov's siloviki were responsible for the abduction and beating of three REN TV journalists in Nazran just hours before an opposition rally in the city on November 24 (Chechnya Weekly, November 29). Zyazikov called these "ravings" by his enemies. Police in Nazran violently broke up the November 24 rally.
Zyazikov repeated his charges of a conspiracy by Washington during a December 18 press conference, Ingushetiya.ru reported, citing an account of the press conference filed by the Rosbalt news agency. "Behind the scenes, the fate of the people is decided by going against the people," he said. "Therefore, when the Jamestown Foundation and White House campaigners recommend holding a demonstration in Nazran, we will look into it; we have our regional party committees. We have our vision, our world view, our ideology."
Commenting on Zyazikov's charges, Ingushetiya.ru stated in an editorial note on December 18: "Zyazikov is consciously lying in tying the Jamestown Foundation to the rally by the residents in Nazran, which are in no way connected to one another. The attempt to tie the U.S. administration with the events in Nazran looks so primitive that it does not even stay within the boundaries of logic. Driven to despair by corruption and lawlessness, the residents of Ingushetia don't know that … 'someone is controlling them.' Zyazikov would really like that to be so, since dumping the errors and calamities of his rule on enemies across the ocean is somehow easier than imposing order and ceasing to plunder his people."
Kakiev: Pro-Moscow Chechens Have Been Sent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia
Nezavisimaya Gazeta on December 19 quoted Said-Magomed Kakiev, the former commander of the Zapad special-purpose battalion who is currently Chechnya's deputy military commissar, as confirming that servicemen from the Zapad Battalion and the Vostok Battalion—the other Chechen-manned special-purpose unit of the Russian Defense Ministry's 42nd Motorized Infantry Division—have been sent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The newspaper noted that reports of Chechen spetsnaz being among the Russian "peacekeeping" troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia began to appear after the International Olympic Committee named Sochi as the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but that the Russian military had consistently denied the reports. Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Kakiev as saying that "part of the 'Zapad' battalion is located in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, part is undergoing training to carry out a peace-keeping mission [and] part is busy with operations in Chechnya." The newspaper also quoted the commander of the Vostok Battalion, Sulim Yamadaev, as saying that soldiers from that unit are operating in South Ossetia.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted the former deputy commander of the group of Russian forces in the Transcaucasus, Lieutenant-General Yury Netkachev, as saying that Chechens were sent to Abkhazia "to neutralize possible military actions by Georgia aimed at disrupting the Olympics in Sochi." According to the newspaper, Kakiev indirectly confirmed this, claiming that forces from the Zapad Battalion are located in an area that might be the target of a strike by Georgian forces. "We are standing by," Kakiev said. "Chechens are not afraid of losses and are ready to die in carrying out the military mission." Kakiev claimed that Chechen servicemen were involved in a fierce clash between Russian "peacekeepers" and Georgian spetsnaz that took place in November.
However, a reserve colonel who participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Angola, Vyacheslav Patenko, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that according to international rules on peacekeeping operations, combat units—not to mention special forces—are not permitted to be involved in peacekeeping operations. He also said that Kakiev's information was greatly exaggerated. Likewise, Colonel Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the commander of the Russian military's land forces, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta: "Units of spetsnaz, including from the Chechen 'Zapad' battalion, are neither in Abkhazia nor South Ossetia." He did not rule out, however, that Chechen soldiers might be serving in Russian "peacekeeping" units.
On the other hand, Netkachev, who in 1998-2001 trained special forces units to guard Aslan Abashidze, who was then leader of the Georgian autonomous republic of Adzharia, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that he thought Kakiev's information about Chechen spetsnaz being in Abkahzia and South Ossetia was reliable even though Russia's foreign and defense ministries would never confirm it. He added that Chechen military units played a decisive role in defeating Georgian units in Abkhazia in 1993. "They have a colossal fighting spirit and experience," Netkachev said of the Chechen units. "And of course the General Staff should use this experience and spirit in regions where Russia has its geopolitical interests."
As Nezavisimaya Gazeta noted, the "Islamic Battalion" in Abkhazia in 1992-1993 was headed by Shamil Basaev, who was even named a deputy defense minister of Abkhazia. According to the newspaper, the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office ordered Basaev's arrest in 1996 for "actions aimed against Georgian statehood on the territory of the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic."
Briefs
