From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 3/20/2007 6:00 AM
Tue Mar 20 11:13:00 UTC+0200 2007
Our final extract from Politkovskaya's last book...
Inside the dragon's lair

In August 2004, Anna Politkovskaya was granted an audience with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the country's recently assassinated president. When the crusading journalist was murdered last year, it was this same warlord who was forced to deny accusations that he was involved in her death. In our final extract from Politkovskaya's last book, she describes her fateful meeting with the man who just this month became president of Chechnya. Read the previous extracts here and here
Anna Politkovskaya
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Guardian
Ramzan Kadyrov is the son of former Chechen president Akhmed Kadyrov, who was put in place by the Kremlin government of Vladimir Putin in mid-2000 and assassinated four years later. At the time of this event, it was Ramzan who was running his father's security detail. Yet he was, perhaps surprisingly, not dismissed for this lapse, but promoted by Putin personally to the exalted post of first deputy prime minister of the Chechen government with special responsibility for security. At the time of our interview, three months after his father's death, he is in charge of the militia, all manner of special operations subdivisions, and the Chechen OMON [special forces units]. Although he has no education, he holds the rank of captain in the militia. This is surprising, because he is not a militiaman, and higher education is required in Russia before you can become a captain. Be that as it may, he now has the right to give orders to career colonels and generals, which he does. They do as they are commanded, because they know that Ramzan is Putin's favourite.

What kind of person is Ramzan? What kind of qualifications do you need to be a favourite of Putin? To have ground Chechnya beneath your heel, and forced the entire republic to pay you tribute like an Asiatic bey [regional potentate] is evidently a plus.

Ramzan is rarely seen outside his village of Tsentoroy, one of the unsightliest of Chechen villages, unfriendly, ugly and swarming with murderous-looking armed men. The village is a collection of narrow, winding, dusty streets hemmed in by enormous fences, behind most of which live members of the Kadyrov family and the families of Kadyrov's most trusted bodyguards and soldiers of the "presidential security service" - now keeping an eye on the latest Moscow-approved successor to his father, Alu Alkhanov. Two or three years ago, those villagers whom Kadyrov did not trust were simply expelled and their houses given to the bruisers of the security service. Kadyrov's men take part in combat operations as if they were soldiers with the Ministry of Defence; they arrest and interrogate people as if they were agents of the Interior Ministry; and they hold people prisoner in their cellars in Tsentoroy, and torture them like gangsters.

Tsentoroy is above the law, by Putin's will. The rules that apply to other people do not apply to Ramzan. He can do as he pleases because he is said to be fighting terrorists using his own methods. In fact, he is fighting nobody. The capital of Chechnya has effectively moved to Ramzan's estate. Pro-Russian Chechen officials come here to bow down before his countenance either when they need to seek some sort of permission or when they are summoned. All of them come, even the young prime minister of Chechnya, Sergey Abramov, who is supposed to report directly to the prime minister of Russia, and not to Ramzan Kadyrov. The reality is, however, that Tsentoroy is where the decisions are taken. It was here that the decision was taken to nominate Alkhanov for the Chechen presidency, and now he is president.

Ramzan rarely travels to the Chechen capital, Grozny, because he fears assassination. The journey takes one and a half hours. That is why Tsentoroy is such a fortress, with a security "filtration" system on its approaches that would do credit to the Kremlin: a series of control posts, one after the other. I get through them all and find myself in what the armed men surrounding me describe as "the guesthouse". I am held there for six or seven hours. Evening falls. In Chechnya this means you should lose no time in finding shelter. Anyone who wants to live hides away in their burrow.

"Where is Ramzan?" I ask. He has agreed to meet me.

"Soon, soon," the guardian of the guesthouse, and now of me, mutters.

There is always someone with me. Vakha Visaev introduces himself as the director of Yugoilprodukt, the new oil refinery at Gudermes, the second-largest city in Chechnya. He offers to show me round the guesthouse. It is not badly set out. There is a fountain in the courtyard; ugly, but a fountain nevertheless. Bamboo furniture graces an open terrace with pillars. Opposite the main entrance is a grey-green marble fireplace. To the right are a sauna, a Jacuzzi and a swimming pool. The highlight, however, is the two cavernous bedrooms endowed with stadium-sized beds. One is in blue, the other pink. Everywhere there is massive, dark, oppressive furniture, all with the price tags in full view. There is a price tag on the mirror in the bathroom, on the toilet pedestal, on the towel holder. This is evidently the fashion in Tsentoroy.

The excursion takes in a viewing of Ramzan's modest and very dark study adjoining one of the bedrooms. Its chief decoration is a Dagestani wall rug depicting, in the style of socialist realism, the deceased Akhmed Kadyrov wearing an Astrakhan papakha [hat] on his head, against a black background. He is portrayed with a seraphic expression on his face, his chin jutting forwards.

After dark, Ramzan appears, surrounded by armed men. They are everywhere: in the courtyard, on the balcony, in the rooms. Some of them subsequently involve themselves in our conversation, commenting loudly and aggressively. Ramzan sprawls in an armchair crossing his legs, his foot, in a sock, almost level with my face. He doesn't appear to notice. He is taking it easy. "We want to restore order not only in Chechnya, but throughout the north Caucasus," Ramzan begins. "We will fight anywhere in Russia. I have a directive to operate throughout the north Caucasus. Against the bandits."

Who does he call bandits? "Maskhadov, Basaev and the like [a reference to Aslan Maskhado, a Chechen commander who fought the Russians in the first Chechen war of 1994-96, then became president before resuming hostilities after 1999; and Shamil Basaev, a militant anti-Moscow commander who claimed responsibility for, among other things, the Beslan school siege of 2004 in which 344 people died]."

So the mission of his troops is to find Maskhadov and Basaev? "Yes. That is the main thing, to destroy them." [By 2006, both Maskhadov and Basaev were dead.]

Everything that has been done so far in Kadyrov's name has been about destroying and liquidating. Doesn't he think perhaps there's been enough fighting? "Of course there has. Seven hundred people have already surrendered to us and are living a normal life. We have asked the others to stop their senseless resistance, but they carry on fighting. That is why we have to exterminate them."

But perhaps it is time to stop exterminating people and sit down to negotiate? "Who with?" With all the Chechens who are fighting, I say. "With Maskhadov? Maskhadov is nobody here. Nobody obeys his orders. The main figure is Basaev. He is a mighty warrior. He knows how to fight. He is a good strategist. And a good Chechen. But Maskhadov is a pathetic old man who is incapable of doing anything." He guffaws, neighing like a horse. All present follow suit. "He's only got a couple of boys following him. I can prove that. I write everything down. At present Maskhadov has women. I know those women. They told me, 'If we refused, we would be killed. We had no work and he gave us money.' "

Is he saying Maskhadov has a women's battalion? "No. We have broken Maskhadov. He has other people now."

I hear disrespect for Maskhadov in what he is saying, but also clear respect for Basaev. "I respect Basaev as a warrior. He is not a coward. I pray to Allah that Basaev and I may meet in open combat. One man dreams of being a president, another of being a pilot, another a tractor driver - but my dream is to fight Basaev in the open. My troops against his troops, with no outsiders. With him in command, and with me in command."

What if Basaev won? "No way. I will. In battle I always win."

What does Ramzan consider to be the strongest aspect of his personality? "What do you mean? I don't understand the question." What are his strengths? And his weaknesses? "I consider that I have no weaknesses. I am strong. Alu Alkhanov was made president because I consider he is strong and I trust him 100%. Do you think the Kremlin decides that? The people choose. It's the first time anyone has told me the Kremlin has a say in anything." No more than an hour later, Ramzan was saying that absolutely everything was decided by the Kremlin, that the people were just cattle, and that he had been offered the presidency of Chechnya in the Kremlin immediately after his father's assassination, but had turned it down because he wanted to fight.

"If you left us in peace, we Chechens would have reunited long ago." Who does he mean by "you"? "Journalists, people like you. Russian politicians. You don't let us sort things out. You divide us. You come between Chechens. You personally are the enemy. You are worse than Basaev."

Who else are his enemies? "I don't have enemies. Only bandits to fight."

Does he intend to become president of Chechnya himself? "No."

What does he most enjoy doing? "Fighting. I am a warrior." Has he ever killed anyone himself? "No. I've always been in command."

But he is too young always to have been in command. Somebody must have given him orders. "Only my father. Nobody else ever gave me orders, or ever will."

Has he given orders to kill? "Yes."

Is that not terrible? "It is not I, but Allah. The Prophet said the Wahhabis [in the Chechen context, radical Islamic groups] must be destroyed."

Did he really say that? And when there are no more Wahhabis left, who will Kadyrov fight? "I will take up bee farming. Already I have bees, and bullocks, and fighting dogs."

Doesn't he feel sorry when dogs kill each other? "Not at all. I like it. I respect my dog Tarzan as much as a human being. He's a Caucasian sheepdog. Those are the most fair-minded dogs there are."

What other hobbies does he have? "I very much like women."

Doesn't his wife mind? "I don't tell her."

What education has he had? "Higher education, law. I'm just finishing it. I am taking my exams."

What exams? "What do you mean, 'What exams?' The exams, that's all."

What's the institute called where he is studying? "It's a branch of the Moscow Institute of Business. In Gudermes. It's a law college."

What is he specialising in? "Law." But what kind of law? Criminal? Civil? "I can't remember. Someone wrote the topic down for me on a piece of paper, but I've forgotten. There's a lot going on at the moment."

Kadyrov's real hobby is setting people at each other's throats, and nobody at the table can rival him in this. The conversation becomes more animated. "You are putting the case for bandits"; "You are an enemy of the Chechen people"; "You should have to answer for this" - all these comments are addressed to me. Ramzan is shouting, jumping up and down in his chair, and Nikolai Ivanovich, the translator at his side, is goading him on. We are seated round a large, oval table and the scene increasingly resembles a thieves' convention. Ramzan behaves more and more oddly, as if he is the oldest person in the house, though he is the youngest. He laughs at inappropriate moments. He scratches himself. He orders his bodyguards to scratch his back. He arches himself, wriggling, and keeps making irritating, inane remarks. Then he goes to watch himself on television. He is very pleased about this, and comments on the way Putin walks: "He's got real class!" He declares that Putin walks like a mountain-dweller.

Outside the windows it is night. The temperature indoors is rising and it is time for me to get out. Kadyrov gives orders for me to be taken back to Grozny. Musa, a former fighter from Zakan-Yurt, sits at the wheel and there are two bodyguards. I get into the vehicle and think that somewhere along the route, in the dark, with checkpoints everywhere, I am obviously going to be killed. But the ex-fighter from Zakan-Yurt is just waiting for Ramzan to leave. He wants to bare his soul, and when he starts telling me the story of his life, how he had been a fighter, why he joined Ramzan, I know he is not going to kill me. He wants the world to hear his story. Even so, I sit there crying from fear and loathing - tears of despair that history should have raised up, of all people, Ramzan Kadyrov. He really does have power, and rules according to his own ideas and abilities. "Don't cry," the fighter from Zakan-Yurt finally said to me. "You are strong."

It is an old story, repeated many times in our history: the Kremlin fosters a baby dragon, which it then has to keep feeding to stop him from setting everything on fire. There has been a total failure of the Russian intelligence services in Chechnya, something they try to represent as a victory and a "restoration of civilian life". But what about the people of Chechnya? They have to live with the baby dragon.

© Anna Politkovskaya 2007

· A Russian Diary by Anna Politkovskaya is published by Harvill Secker next month at £17.99. To order a copy for £16.99 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
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