Radio Liberty - Programs - Round Table

Presenter Lev Roitman

Lev Roitman:

I have never been to Chechnya. I read about her in newspapers - in Russian, in Western; I see footage filmed in Chechnya by cameramen of all kinds of television companies; I hear about Chechnya on the radio. In other words, I am part of that gigantic majority who receive only negative information about post-war Chechnya: murders, bloody feuds, showdowns, a helpless government, defenseless hostages, and so on. Who is to blame that the picture of Chechnya is exactly like this? Unscrupulous reporters, provocateurs from outside, provocateurs in Chechnya itself or...? Or is there simply no other picture of Chechnya, that is, there is no other Chechnya? These are the questions I address to the participants in today’s conversation, experts on Chechnya: our correspondent Khasin Raduev is from Grozny, our correspondent Andrei Babitsky is also from Moscow, and psychologist Leonid Kitaev-Smyk is also from Moscow.

What's happening in Chechnya? How to understand, how to perceive all the negative things that you see, hear, read about this country?

Khasin Raduev:<