Translated material
Counting the Saved
Ramzan Kadyrov saved Russian soldiers from militants
While Russia is just preparing for the inauguration, Chechnya is celebrating its anniversary: last weekend marked the one-year anniversary of Ramzan Kadyrov's presidency . On Saturday afternoon, athletic Chechen youth staged a festive race along the highway between Argun and Grozny, which just a few years ago was scary to drive by car, not to mention on foot. The evening sky over Gudermes was illuminated 365 times by fireworks. And on Monday it became known that the hero’s mother, Aimani Kadyrova, received the Order of Friendship for her services to Russia.On April 5, 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov took the oath of office on the constitution of the republic, which then had to be edited retroactively: at the time of the inauguration, it still contained information about popular presidential elections, but in fact, Mr. Kadyrov was approved by parliament on the proposal of Vladimir Putin.
Let us remember that Ramzan Kadyrov became president after the early resignation of Alu Alkhanov , the last elected head of Chechnya, who still had a year and a half left before the official expiration of his powers. Alu Alkhanov seemed to have dropped out of modern Chechen history: the current president remembered only his father Akhmat-haji, who was president before Mr. Alkhanov, but died as a result of a terrorist attack when his son was not yet 30 years old, and therefore he could not immediately enter into “rights of inheritance.”
“He saw his task in saving the people from physical destruction, in uniting them, uniting around the idea of national unity, unity with the peoples of Russia, in ending war forever and eradicating the causes that give rise to war,” Ramzan Kadyrov said about his father. — Many politicians and military men were against Akhmat Kadyrov’s desire to achieve an amnesty for the militants, but I firmly believed that he was right. He wanted to return deceived young people to their families. He achieved this. Thousands of lives of Russian military personnel were saved, who could have become victims of armed conflicts with members of illegal armed groups. During special operations, troops would destroy thousands of young men, but this would not bring true peace closer.”
Let us remind you that only about 500 people went through the amnesty procedure, as it is understood by federal law, the court and the prosecutor’s office, who were forgiven the most light crimes. As one of the Russian human rights activists aptly put it, only those who during the war collected herbariums in the mountains or cooked porridge in the camp could go through the official procedure. The number of militants who surrendered “under the personal guarantees” of the father and son Kadyrovs and mostly went to serve in the republican law enforcement agencies, back in 2004, exceeded the 7,000 mark.
On the anniversary of the inauguration, the President of Chechnya spoke more about his father than about himself, and also about his comrades-in-arms, fellow citizens and the country's leadership. “We are united, Akhmat-haji dreamed of this. I can be proud of all of you, because none of you stands aside. Everyone does what they can, and if we work like this, I guarantee you that in a few years the republic will become one of the most prosperous and attractive.” Anyone who was missing something in the president’s oral speech can now fill in the gaps by purchasing a collection of selected speeches and articles by Ramzan Kadyrov at the nearest bookstore.
“As president, Ramzan Kadyrov simply continued what he did when he was prime minister. But after this year, it is clear that he has succeeded and matured as a politician,” Ruslan Kutaev, a Chechen political scientist and head of the international committee on problems of the North Caucasus, told Vremya Novostey. “This is no longer the young man who found himself in a big city unfamiliar to him and walks around it with his eyes wide open. He has not become a sophisticated master of intrigue, but he is well versed in the situation. It is important that he understands his importance and the Kremlin’s dependence on him. While in other Russian regions they simply accept whatever Moscow tells them, in Chechnya the Kremlin has to take into account the opinion of Ramzan Kadyrov. And it is also very important that he is now saying things that are in demand by people, what they want to hear. His popularity in Chechnya has become absolutely real.”
The anniversary of Ramzan Kadyrov's presidency was honored with the presence of Advisor to the President of Russia Aslambek Aslakhanov, former Speaker of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov and representatives of Chechen business, among whom, however, there were no figures of the first magnitude. According to some signs, both among the Chechen elite and among representatives of the federal center there are people who are dissatisfied with the real popularity of Mr. Kadyrov and the Kremlin’s dependence on him and believe that a change in the head of state in Russia could open up new opportunities for changing course in Chechnya. Mr. Kadyrov himself, as far as one can understand, looks confidently into his post-inauguration future.
And yesterday, when the fireworks in Gudermes had already ended, the Sofrinsky operational brigade of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs celebrated its solemn date. On Monday, the brigade celebrated the Day of Remembrance for all those killed in all hot spots. On April 7, 1991, in Nagorno-Karabakh - the first hot spot in the Caucasus - it began counting its combat losses. The last point is still Chechnya, where one of the brigade’s units is located to this day.