Chechnya Weekly

News and Analysis on the Crisis in Chechnya

The Jamestown Foundation

http://www.jamestown.org


September 7, 2005 – Volume VI, Issue 33



IN THIS ISSUE:
* Putin meets with a delegation from Beslan
* Several hundred Beslan residents want asylum abroad
* Chechen fighting claims more lives
* Violence ratches up in Ingushetia
* Dagestan violence shows no signs of easing
* Briefs
* Kremlin Seeks Support for Chechen Parliamentary Elections
By Andrei Smirnov



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PUTIN MEETS WITH A DELEGATION FROM BESLAN

The anniversary of the Beslan school hostage seizure was marked by, among other things, a meeting on September 2 between President Vladimir Putin and a delegation of eight Beslan residents—four members of the Belsan Mothers' Committee, three men who also lost children in the tragedy, and North Ossetian President Teimuraz Mamsurov, two of whose children were among the hostages and were wounded. In the meeting, the Russian president promised a thorough investigation into how the crisis was handled, but said that Russia could not protect its citizens against terrorism. The Moscow Times noted that while immediately after the meeting members of the delegation expressed satisfaction that they had finally met with the president, on September 4 they said they had thought he would later publicly apologize for the deaths of 331 hostages. That did not happen: the Kremlin website reported that during a Kremlin Security Council meeting on September 3, Putin simply announced that a group of investigators would be sent to Beslan from the Prosecutor General's Office to revitalize the investigation.

As the journalist and commentator Yulia Latynina noted in a column published in the Moscow Times on September 7, the meeting with Putin, which—much against the wishes of the victims' relatives—happened in the middle of the anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, was a "masterstroke of political PR." It provoked a discussion of the "pros and cons" of the meeting itself rather than "the issues that mattered on the first anniversary of the school seizure in Beslan"—that is, the details of the official mishandling of the crisis that have emerged from eyewitness testimony at the trial of Nur-Pashi Kulaev, the only living member of the terrorist team involved in the hostage seizure.

But while most media coverage of Putin's meeting with the Beslan residents carefully avoided such issues, details of the meeting reported by Natalya Galimova of Moskovsky komsomolets on September 5 revealed an astonishing level of either feigned or genuine ignorance on Putin's part about what really happened in Belsan over September 1-3, 2004.

Galimova interviewed one of the members of the Beslan delegation, Anneta Gadieva, who was a hostage along with two daughters, one of whom was killed. According to Gadieva's account, Putin said he had been told there were only 300-350 hostages in Beslan's School No. 1 and "right to the bitter end" had not known the precise number of hostages. Gadieva also quoted Putin as claiming that there is a witness who saw the terrorist who had his foot on the detonator pedal for the explosives that were hung up around the school building finish reading the Qur'an and took his foot off the pedal, thereby detonating the explosives. "But we replied that no such evidence had been heard in the court," Gadieva recounted. "We do not remember anyone at all saying such a thing. ‘That means that I have incorrect information. I shall check this information out,' the president promised." Kulaev claimed in his court testimony that the terrorist manning the detonator pedal was shot by a sniper, which triggered the explosions (see Chechnya Weekly, June 1).

Gadieva also said that when Putin was asked about eyewitness testimony (backed by leaks from official investigations) that security forces fired on the school from tanks while the hostages were still inside (see Chechnya Weekly, June 1 and August 3), he responded that the servicemen involved in the storming of the school had answered a questionnaire and that "all of them deny that such a thing happened." When another member of the Beslan delegation, Azamat Sabanov, told Putin that he himself had witnessed the tank fire, Putin responded: "We will investigate this."

Meanwhile, Novaya gazeta on September 1 published what it said were findings of the North Ossetian parliamentary commission investigating the Beslan tragedy, which is headed by the North Ossetian parliament's vice speaker, Stanislav Kesaev, side-by-side with those of the Russian parliamentary commission looking into the tragedy, which is headed by Aleksandr Torshin. According to the article's author, Elena Milashina, who reported the story from Vladikavkaz and Beslan, the North Ossetian commission has reached conclusions echoing testimony given by former hostages at the Kulaev trial and expert analysis, both of which contradict the official version of events and the conclusions reached by Torshin's commission. For example, according to Milashina, the North Ossetian commission has concluded that "[f]rom the testimony of hostages and witnesses one can conclude that the explosions in the gym were a surprise to the [hostage takers] themselves. There is also no small number of witnesses who say that the explosions in the gymnasium were provoked from the outside."

The North Ossetian commission, Milashina wrote, has also concluded that while the idea of bringing then Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov and his envoy Akhmed Zakaev to Beslan to negotiate with the hostage takers came up too late, "the possible appearance in Beslan of Maskhadov and Zakaev presented the Kremlin with a difficult choice: to allow the rescue of the hostages and thereby legalize the figure of Maskhadov and allow the possible political settlement of the Chechen problem." An "ad libbed storming" of the school made it possible to avoid that outcome. This echoes what Kesaev told Vremya novostei in an interview published in June, in which he suggested it was possible that the Russian authorities provoked a violent denouement to the hostage crisis in order to prevent Maskhadov from arriving on the scene to help resolve it. Kesaev told the newspaper that Maskhadov, through Zakaev, had "promised and guaranteed" then North Ossetian President Aleksandr Dzasokhov that he would come to Beslan by the evening of September 3 [2004]. "You have the impression that as soon as the likelihood of Maskhadov's appearance arose," Kesaev was asked, "the assault began?" He answered affirmatively, saying "I admit that [possibility]" (see Chechnya Weekly, June 30).

Still, following the publication of the Novaya gazeta article, Kesaev released a statement condemning it. "A publication putatively constituting a comparative analysis of the final reports of the North Ossetian and federal commissions arouses not simply bewilderment, but direct indignation," Kesaev said in the statement, newsru.com reported on September 3. "In the pursuit of sensations, the editors offered their readers an elementary provocation, inasmuch as the report of the North Ossetian commission does not yet exist. In addition, even in the available material, the commission does not name the names, events and facts mentioned in the newspaper. Circulating the fantasies of its author, the newspaper violates the law on mass media, not even mentioning the moral side of this whole story, which touches on the fate and feelings of the victims."

Even so, that Kesaev remains highly critical of the official handling of the Beslan tragedy was evident in an interview that gazeta.ru published on September 1. In the interview, he criticized the authorities for, among other things, insisting that the Beslan terrorists had not presented specific demands. "Of course they had specific demands, and these were made known by means of a note which was passed over and which constitutes material evidence," Kesaev told the website. "In it, calls were made for the troops to be withdrawn from Chechnya. I cannot quite understand why they spent a long time trying to convince us that there were no demands. This is not only disconcerting but it also enables us to judge that the people involved in the hostage rescue operation were thinking more about their own departmental interests than about the interests of the state as a whole or the individuals who had been taken hostage."

Kesaev told gazeta.ru that he doubted the accuracy of the official figure of 32 for the number of terrorists involved in the Beslan hostage taking. He also said it will not be possible to determine the source of the first explosion in the school because "the investigation was organized in such a way that there was no detailed inspection of the scene. On September 4 [2004], the school was not even simply cordoned off: There were pilgrims there, and sightseers, and friends and relatives of the dead," he said. "What is more, trash from the school's territory was gathered up by a bulldozer and transported to the dump. Therefore we have had no thorough inspection of the scene, as a result of which it would have been possible to carry out the necessary expert appraisals and try to establish the cause of the explosion."

Ultimately, Kasaev said, responsibility for the large number of hostages killed rests with the security agencies. "It goes without saying that the blame for such a number of people killed lies with those who carried out the operation," he told gazeta.ru. "Excuse me, but if someone ventures to determine the percentage of success or failure for the operation by claiming that if there were 1,000-plus hostages and only 331 were killed, then it can be regarded as successful, then I cannot understand such logic. The regime, including the security structures, is to blame, above all, for the fact that the school was seized, and this blame is naturally exacerbated by the way the operation was carried out. I say this while not denying the individual heroism of individual rescue workers. But it is incomprehensible, to put it mildly, not to assume responsibility for the fact that most of the hostages—more than 160 people—died beneath the roof which collapsed."

SEVERAL HUNDRED BESLAN RESIDENTS WANT ASYLUM ABROAD

Some members of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, along with several hundred other residents of the town, signed an appeal asking for asylum abroad. "We, the parents and relatives of victims who died in the September 3rd [2004] terrorist act in School No. 1 in the city of Beslan, have lost all hope of a fair investigation into the causes of that tragedy and the persons to blame for it, and we no longer wish to live in this country where human life means nothing," read the appeal, which was published by gazeta.ru on September 1. "We ask to be granted political asylum in any country where human rights are observed.

"For almost a year we have been waiting patiently to be told the truth about the brutal killing of our relatives and for the guilty persons to be called to account. However, time and the authorities' actions have shown us that we will never be told this truth, which is absurd and dreadful. Many of us were hostages in the school and witnessed the destruction of people. We have attended the court sessions [in the trial] of the terrorist N. Kulaev, where the state prosecutors are trying to dump all the blame onto the terrorists alone. Yes, a terrorist act did take place, for the gunmen shot 21 men in the school. They did not kill women and children. Who, then, shot the remaining 300-plus people, mainly women and children? People were killed as entire families. For what?! …[We know] who, for the sake of their ugly political image, scorned negotiations with the terrorists and, at the same time, the lives of our relatives.

"It is obvious that to Russia's federal regime we are ‘persons of Caucasian nationality.' They treated the hostages the way they treat livestock in a slaughterhouse. The majority of those who died were blown up, shot using tanks and grenade launchers, and burned alive by Shmel flamethrowers. Then the ruins of the building were carted off to the dump along with human body parts and the hostages' personal belongings."

The appeal's more than 500 signatories also condemned the war in Chechnya. "We believe that the primary cause of the outburst of terror in Russia is the unleashing of the cruel war against our own people in Chechnya," they wrote. "Corruption, graft, and bribe-taking have become a cancerous tumor on the body of the Russian state's power structures. This tumor has struck all of society, forming fertile soil for crime and terrorism.

"We, the mothers, fathers, relatives, and friends of hostages brutally tormented by terrorists, we who have been betrayed by our own politicians, officials, siloviki, and our ‘president,' who have been reduced to despair and lost all hope of hearing the truth about those who are chiefly to blame for the destruction of our relatives, we ask you to receive us into your country, where we will be law-abiding citizens respecting your laws."

It should be noted that both Susanna Dudieva, chairwoman of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, and Juliet Basieva, the group's executive director, dissociated themselves and the group from the asylum appeal. "An appeal to the heads of democratic states was presented to the Beslan Mothers' Committee, and the Committee took it under consideration," Basieva told Interfax on September 1. "Yet it was decided not to publish the appeal in the media…We think this is premature. The petition is coming from former hostages, not the Beslan Mothers' Committee. Several members of the Committee signed the appeal, but that is their personal point of view. This is being done to disrupt or thwart a meeting of the former hostages' delegation with the federal president. It is nothing but skillful black PR."

CHECHEN FIGHTING CLAIMS MORE LIVES

A Russian serviceman was killed and four were injured on September 5 when a landmine detonated under their Ural automobile in the Shali district, Radio Liberty's Russian service reported. An explosive wounded the commander of a reconnaissance unit in the Nozhai-Yurt district, RIA Novosti reported on September 5, quoting a Chechen law-enforcement source.

Radio Liberty's Russian service reported on September 4 that one Russia serviceman was killed and four others wounded in the Shali district when the car in which they were traveling hit a landmine. Meanwhile, two policemen were wounded during an operation in Kurchaloi district where three rebel fighters were captured. Two policemen were wounded when unknown assailants opened fire on them in the Kurchaloi district village of Tsentoroi. Meanwhile, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov reported that two explosive devices had been discovered and defused in Grozny—a car-bomb in the courtyard of an apartment building in the Oktyabrsky district and a land-mine hidden in a trash can 500 meters from a middle school in the Leninsky district.

Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 3 that a large-scale battle between Chechen rebels and the Vostok battalion, the unit headed by Sulim Yamadaev that is part of the Main Intelligence Unit (GRU) of the armed forces' general staff, was taking place in southern Chechnya's mountainous Vedeno district. Citing a source in the Chechen military commandant's office, the website reported that two rebels had been killed and three Vostok members wounded in the fighting, which erupted on the outskirts of the village of Ersenoi when Vostok members on a reconnaissance mission came across a rebel unit made up of approximately twelve men. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, meanwhile, reported on September 3 that federal forces shelled woods near the village of Elistanzhi, also in the Vedeno district, following the shelling the previous evening of a wooded area between Elistanzhi and the village of Khattuni. The society's website quoted local residents as saying they believed that intense shelling was in response to stepped up rebel activity in the area. Indeed, Kavkaz Uzel reported on September 1 that a federal unit carrying out combat-engineering reconnaissance on the outskirts of Elistanzhi had been the target of a radio-controlled improvised explosive device, and that immediately after the explosion an escort vehicle had come under fire from unknown gunmen. No one was hurt in that incident. On August 31, unknown attackers fired from a grenade launcher at an outpost of the same unit. No one was hurt.

Meanwhile, fighting was taking place in other parts of Chechnya. A Chechen Interior Ministry source told Kavkazy Uzel that a bomb blew up a police vehicle in Grozny's Leninsky district on August 30, killing one officer and wounding three. Another federal serviceman was seriously wounded by a mine on the outskirts of the village of Uskhaloi in the Itum-Kale disrtrict.

Agence France-Presse on August 30 quoted on anonymous official from the pro-Moscow Chechen administration as saying that a bomb expert and two other servicemen had been killed over a 24-hour period. The source said that rebels had carried out six attacks on federal checkpoints and military bases during that period, killing a soldier and wounding three others. Another soldier was killed and three others injured when their jeep drove over a mine in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district. The Russian explosives expert was killed and another was hurt when a mine they were attempting to defuse blew up near the town of Kalinovskaya south of Grozny, the source said. Meanwhile, two police officers were wounded when their truck came under fire.

An anonymous pro-Moscow Chechen administration official told AFP on August 29 that six Russian soldiers had been killed and six wounded over the previous 24 hours. According to the source, Russian positions came under attack 17 times during that period, accounting for five of the dead and five of the wounded, while the sixth soldier killed died in a landmine explosion near the town of Shatoi and the sixth soldier wounded was injured while conducting a de-mining operation near the village of Komsomolskoye, south of Grozny. Meanwhile, three Chechen police officers were wounded during fighting with rebels in the town of Achkhoi-Martan. One rebel was killed and another captured in the fighting. Two other Chechen police officers were wounded when rebels attacked during a search operation in the Urus-Martan district village of Gekhi, AFP reported. Both Kavkazky Uzel and AFP reported that the Chechen government headquarters in Grozny came under heavy fire from grenade launchers and machine guns on August 29.

VIOLENCE RATCHETS UP IN INGUSHETIA

On September 6, two explosions took place in Ingushetia's Barsuki municipal district next to the Kavkaz federal highway and near the café "Tusholi," Interfax reported. An Ingushetian Interior Ministry source told the news agency that the first explosion took place around 7:30 AM local time, under a cellular telephone tower located on the grounds of a service station not far from the Kavkaz highway. The $200,000 tower, which belonged to the Mobikom Kavkaz company, was put out of commission. About four hours after the first blast, a second explosion took place as specialists from the cellular phone company and Ingushetian Interior Ministry officers were inspecting the scene and carrying out repairs. None of the phone company or police personnel were injured. Both explosive devices were stuffed with nails, bolts, and other metal objects. Kavazky Uzel noted that Barsuki, near where the blasts took place, is the native village of Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov.

Ingushetiya.ru reported on September 2 that an attempt had been made on the life of the chief of the Ingushetian president's security service, Ruslanbek Dzyazikov, in Nazran. According to the website, a gunman fired at Dzyazikov, a relative of President Zyazikov, but missed, hitting instead the deputy chief of the republic's department for the protection of government facilities, Magomed Kartoev, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds. The press service of Ingushetia's Interior Ministry reported that a suspect in the attack, Magomed Esmurziev, had been arrested. The ministry described Esmurziev as "an active participant in illegal armed formations who was on the wanted list for participation in a rebel attack on Ingushetia."

Just a bit more than a week earlier, Ingushetian Prime Minister Ibragim Malsagov was wounded in an apparent assassination attempt. In that incident, which took place on August 25, two roadside bombs detonated near an outdoor market in Nazran just as Malsagov's motorcade passed. The Associated Press quoted Nikolai Ivashkevich, a spokesman for the southern regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, as saying that Malsagov was wounded in the hand and leg and that Malsagov's driver was killed and two other people were injured. Acting Ingushetian Interior Minister Beslan Khamkhoev said that the two explosives had been placed about 10 to 15 meters apart and detonated by remote control within ten seconds of each other.

On August 15, Nazran police chief Dzhabrail Kostoev and his driver were seriously wounded when a roadside bomb detonated as his motorcade drove by Nazran's central city mosque (see Chechnya Weekly, August 18).

Meanwhile, Ingushetian opposition leader Musa Ozdoev predicted in an interview with ingushetiya.ru published on August 27 that the situation in the republic would worsen. Ozdoev, who is a deputy in the Ingushetian People's Assembly, said the situation would deteriorate mainly because of the "feeble rule" of Murat Zyazikov and his brother Rashid, who heads the Ingushetian governmental apparatus, and "the bribery and corruption that have infected all institutions of power and administration" in the republic.

"Against a background of loud words about thousands of jobs and construction projects being created, which in fact is pure deceit, unemployment is up in Ingushetia, young people see no hope for the future and there are no lawful means of earning money to feed one's family," Ozdoev said. "I agree we must fight terrorism, but serious and irreversible mistakes have been made in this area. Hundreds of young people have been captured, shot or disappeared without trace, and their only guilt was that they did not drink vodka, did not go partying and observed the norms of Islam. I am not saying that there were no guilty people among the hundreds who have been murdered or abducted, but guilt in any crime must be established as a result of an investigation and a trial. Relatives, friends and comrades of those who have been unjustly murdered and abducted are taking their revenge and some have joined the ranks of the fighters. So what we have in Ingushetia is a second Dagestan, and recent events are confirmation of this."

Elaborating on the issue of corruption in Ingushetia, Ozdoev charged that "the cost of a ministerial post has reached nearly $1 million" while the republican prosecutor's office "has not brought a single case of corruption even though a report by the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation clearly showed that the republican budget was being embezzled." Ozdoev said that Murat Zyazikov and his entourage should be "sacked immediately" and their activities investigated, while "those officials who have been embezzling the budget must be brought to account." He also called for the nullification of the results of the elections for the republic's People's Assembly, the holding of new elections and the formation of "a representative body that truly meets the aspirations of the people."

DAGESTAN VIOLENCE SHOWS NO SIGNS OF EASING

Three Dagestani policemen were shot to death on September 6 in Dagestan's Kyakentsky district, the strana.ru and Kavkazky Uzel websites reported. The murders took place when unidentified attackers fired at a police car traveling on the Kavkaz federal highway near the village of Pervomaiskoe and the settlement of Inchkhe. The three policemen who were killed in the attack were identified as Amirkhan Balmatov, a senior traffic police lieutenant; Alikhadi Zagirov, a sergeant in the patrol-sentry service; and Rustam Mamedov, a lieutenant who worked as a district militia officer. A source in the Kyakentsky district prosecutor's office told strana.ru that the shooters had carried out the attack "professionally." "They chose their position competently and aimed their fire," he said. "There was a minimum of two attackers. Shell casings of two calibers—7.62 and 5.45 millimeters—were found at the scene." A total of 24 shell casings were found, and strana.ru's source said that Balmatov, who was driving the car, was "literally riddled with bullets."

Kavkazky Uzel reported that investigators are looking into several possible motives for the murders, and quoted Kayakentsky district police chief Kurban Agaev as saying one theory is that "Wahhabi" gunmen were responsible. The website noted that about a month ago, the head of the GAI traffic police department in the Dagestani city of Izberbash was murdered in virtually the same spot (see Chechnya Weekly, July 27).

A bomb blast in Makhachkala on September 2 killed two servicemen and two civilians, Kommersant reported on September 3. Nezavisimaya gazeta reported September 5 that the blast was caused by an explosive device hidden in a bag of trash on a roadside that was detonated as sappers from the 102nd brigade of Internal Troops inspected an unauthorized garbage dump. Kavkazky Uzel reported that the civilians killed were driving by in a car at the time of the explosion. Eleven people were wounded in the blast.

Kommersant reported that immediately after the blast, a VAZ-21099 automobile drove away from the scene at high speed. A police detachment tried to stop the car as it drove through an intersection, but the vehicle did not slow down and its passengers opened fire with automatic weapons. The car was found a half hour later abandoned in a canal approximately five kilometers away from the bombing scene, the newspaper reported. Ilyamin Magomedov, head of the police department in Makhachkala's Kirov district, gave a somewhat different version, telling the Associated Press that a group of people were spotted filming the explosion and jumped in a car to flee the city, but were stopped by police on the road to Khasavyurt, near the Chechen border. There, according to Magomedov, three men jumped out and opened fire, wounding one policeman. One of the suspects was reportedly also wounded in the exchange but the group managed to escape, Magomedov told the AP. The wire service also quoted a Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdulmanap Musaev, as saying that a large bomb and about 100 automatic rifle cartridges were found in the attackers' car.

Milrad Fatullaev wrote from Makhachkala for the September 5 edition of Nezavisimaya gazeta that the ongoing violence in Dagestan is connected to support from the federal center for "authoritarian leaders" in the North Caucasus "who have constructed in their specific fiefdoms an ethno-clan system of administration, have been exposed for stealing budget funds and maintaining ties with open criminals. Rare checks by the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus come down to exposing insignificant cases of misappropriating funds earmarked for liquidating the consequences of floods or compensating for lost housing," Fatullaev wrote. "Yet, not a single criminal case [is launched] against people in office."

BRIEFS

--PUTIN DEFENDS HIS CHECHNYA POLICY
President Putin rejected criticism over Chechnya during a meeting in the Kremlin with foreign political scientists and analysts on September 5. "We are coming under fire for our policy in Chechnya," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. "Of course, we influence [the situation in Chechnya] and will continue doing so." Putin added that the United States is influencing elections in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan, while Chechnya is part of Russia. "It is our country, so how can we distance ourselves from it?" Putin said. "We influence [Chechnya], but in such a way that does not prevent the Chechen people from expressing their will." Asked when Russia would be able to catch or kill Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev, Putin said: "I would like it to happen as soon as possible. Some people deserve to be punished." Asked about ABC television's broadcast of an interview with Basaev in July, Putin said: "Under the guise of demagogic rhetoric about freedom of the press, some media give the floor to blatant terrorists…. Some criminals and terrorists should be outlawed."


--BASAEV PUTS A NEW SPIN ON BESLAN
Shamil Basaev said in a statement published by the separatist Kavkazcenter website that a failed Russian special services sting had allowed his militants a free passage into North Ossetia to conduct the Beslan school hostage seizure, Reuters reported on August 30. The rebel warlord said a special services agent had been sent undercover to the rebels to persuade them to plan an attack in Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetian capital, but the agent confessed to the rebels, who were then allowed to enter the region with ease, with security services believing they would be able to capture them as they headed for Vladikavkaz, Basaev said. But the rebels went instead to Beslan. "From August 31, they opened a way in for us ... and we went along it to Beslan, ‘mixing up' the time and target of the attack," Basaev claimed. On August 30, the Associated Press acquired a videotape apparently showing Basaev preparing for the Beslan school raid. The footage, which was also broadcast on NTV television, showed several other fighters, including Abu Dzeit, a Kuwaiti national, suspected al-Qaeda liaison who was killed by security forces in February, and the alleged leader of the Beslan raid, known as the Colonel. On August 26, Kavkazcenter published a document announcing that Basaev had been appointed as the new first deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist government.

--QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Dear mothers and relatives of all the innocents killed during the tragic events in Beslan, the majority of whom, unfortunately, were children: No one knows more than I do, mothers, the extent of your inconsolable grief…. I know in detail about your constant wanderings during the year from Beslan to Moscow in search of the truth about your terrible tragedy…. It has also fallen to my lot to endure the most difficult of ordeals. The most recent Russo-Chechen war has taken from me people dearest and closest to my heart: my mother (her fragile, ailing heart simply could not take all the horrors of this war), my husband, my beloved nephew—the list could go on. But against the background of someone else's sorrow—the terrible tragedy of the Ossetian mothers – no less tragic appears the sorrow of the Chechen mother who during an artillery barrage of a peaceful village, lost four children all at once in a direct hit on an apartment house, while a fifth, a nursing infant, miraculously survived. Later, in order to commit at least something to the earth, the mother had to scrape off the remains of her children from the walls." ---From a letter written by Kusama Maskhadova, widow of Aslan Maskhadov, to the Beslan mothers, published by the Chechenpress news agency on September 6.


KREMLIN SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CHECHEN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

By Andrei Smirnov

On August 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree designating November 24 as the date for parliamentary elections in Chechnya. Like previous campaigns—including the referendum on the pro-Russian Constitution and presidential elections—this poll is very important to the Kremlin. Despite daily clashes between Russian troops and Chechen fighters, President Putin is eager to demonstrate that the war is over, the political process is underway, and the situation is returning to normal.

Putin believes "the upcoming parliamentary elections in Chechnya will be another serious step towards the political reconciliation in the republic." "The future parliament should represent all political forces oriented in their activities towards the revival of the republic," he said in remarks reported by Golos Rossii on August 22. State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov echoed similar themes, arguing that "the elections will make democracy stronger in the republic." The implication was clear: any faction recognizing Chechnya as part of the Russian Federation would be free to take part in the campaign.

Yet despite statements by Russian officials to the contrary, pro-Russian candidates opposed to the current Chechen leadership have little chance of success. This summer, for example, Beslan Gantamirov declared that he would take part in the elections as a regional leader of the opposition Rodina, or Motherland, party. Yet even his mild criticism of Russian policy in the region invited political retaliation, with armed men loyal to Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov arbitrarily raiding Gantamoriv's family home. So long as Kadyrov is permitted to use similar tactics against other pro-Russian factions, there little chance of a free and unfettered election.

Analysis by the Kavkazky Uzel website indicates that the pro-Putin United Russia party will win a majority in the Chechen parliament. In April the site reported the party's growing strength, following the installation of Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, Ramzan Kadyrov, and thirty other high-ranking pro-Moscow Chechen officials as members of the party's Political Council. Other analysts reach similar conclusions. In a September 2 interview with Nezavisimya gazeta, Aleksei Malashenko of the Moscow Carnegie Center said he doubted that the elections in Chechnya would be free.

Even if the Kremlin's role in orchestrating elections is just gaining recognition in Moscow, it is clearly understood in Chechnya. For now, however, the primary challenge for Kremlin officials is not to restrain their political adversaries, but to convince ordinary Chechens to go to the polls. This is no easy task, especially considering Alkhanov and Kadyrov's widespread unpopularity. According to an August 25 report by lenta.ru, Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov—the official personal responsible for ensuring a successful election—admitted that 90 percent of the Chechen population dislikes the pro-Moscow regional administration.

A campaign to curb that animus is now underway. The first step was taken by Ramzan Kadyrov, issuing a decree banning slot machines in Chechnya. The official reason was that gambling is incompatible with Islamic morality. In truth, the object was to demonstrate that the pro-Russian leaders respect Islamic values and Islam as a religion. Another step was to idolize Akhmad Kadyrov, the first Chechen president to be elected under the pro-Russian constitution. Officials unveiled a monument to him in the center of Grozny earlier this year.

These cosmetic efforts are unlikely to win support from ordinary Chechens, especially while the Republic's greatest problem—disappearances—remains unsolved. Russian authorities are aware of the dilemma, and have openly pledged to stop the wave of kidnappings. On August 30 Interfax quoted remarks by Arkady Edelev, chief of staff for Anti-Terrorist Operations in the North Caucasus, indicating that the number of kidnapping crimes had significantly decreased in Chechnya. Efforts are also underway to root out officials involved in kidnapping rings. Recent sting operations in the village of Znamenskoe led to the arrest of several policemen. An August 31 report by kavkaz.strana.ru indicated that several officials from the local prosecutor's office suspected of cooperating with police kidnappers were fired.

Also notable are recent remarks by regional authorities concerning the suffering of the Chechen people during the decade-long war with Russia. On August 15, Taus Dzhabrailov recalled thousands of victims of the conflict (see Chechnya Weekly, August 18). On September 1, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of Eduard Ulman, the Russian officer whose unit killed and burned six Chechen civilians in 2002. On August 31, Kavkazky Uzel quoted Ella Panfilova, an advisor to the Russian president on human rights, saying that "while talking about children of Beslan one should not forget about the sufferings of Chechen children." These statements about the sufferings were made in parallel with adjuration that the parliamentary elections will solve Chechnya's problems. "The deficiency of the parliament is the main reason for the misfortunes of the Chechen people," said Dzhabrailov in a statement reported by the Regnum news agency on August 24.

It is unlikely that the Chechens will be deceived by such concessions. The Kremlin recognizes this. On August 29, Nikolai Rogozhkin, commander of the Russian Interior Ministry troops, announced that the federal forces would guarantee security during Chechnya's parliamentary elections in Chechnya. Yet while Rogozhkin boasted that his troops had prevented large-scale operations by the rebels this summer, sources in the Chechen branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) told kavkaz.strana.ru that the gunmen were preparing for a massive offensive in the Caucasus this fall. "However sad it may be," the website reported, "the underground network of Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev not only managed to survive this summer, but is becoming more and more active." So long as the resistance remains viable, armed force seems a necessary precondition for securing the ballot.

Another serious problem too is providing security for dozens of parliamentary deputies—a task far more difficult than protecting one president. It is still unclear where the future parliament will hold its sessions. There is no space for it in the heavily guarded government headquarters in Grozny, and even this facility may not be safe enough. Militants attacked the government center in broad daylight at least four times during the last three months. In the latest attack on August 30, fighters used grenade launchers and machine guns.

At this juncture, one cannot discount the possibility that hostilities will increase as the elections draw near. Unfortunately, the military realities seem unlikely to divert Moscow from its current course. A victim of it own rhetoric, the Kremlin clings to the illusion that the Chechens are tired of war and will support its handpicked local cadre—many of whom ordinary Chechens hate and regard as traitors. For the Russian government, wishful thinking seems a less taxing prospect than political dialogue with the separatist forces that continue to command the public's imagination and support.

Andrei Smirnov is an independent journalist covering the North Caucasus, he is based in Russia.



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Chechnya Weekly is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. Beginning January 2003 with Volume IV, Chechnya Weekly was researched and written by Lawrence A. Uzzell, a senior Jamestown Foundation fellow who opened Jamestown's Moscow office in 1992 and is President of International Religious Freedom Watch (formerly Keston USA). Volumes 1-3 [2000-2002] were researched and written by John B. Dunlop, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The Jamestown Foundation and The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya cooperate to raise awareness about the crisis in Chechnya.

If you have any questions regarding the content of Chechnya Weekly, please email us at pubs@jamestown.org. You may contact the Foundation by phone at 202-483-8888, by fax at 202-483-8337, or by postal mail at The Jamestown Foundation, 4516 43rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20016.