"DIRTY WAR"

CIRCUMSTANCES

Oh, and someone will fly into the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs! It's no joke, the film crew of the program "Dispatchches" from the fourth channel of British television, with the permission of the Russian authorities, comes to Grozny in May of this year to shoot a film about how things are going ...

Oh, and someone will fly into the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs! It's no joke, the film crew of the program "Dispatchches" from the fourth channel of British television, with the permission of the Russian authorities, comes to Grozny in May of this year to shoot a film about how the "restoration of normal life in the republic" is going on, and in the meantime meets with Chechen field commanders and even films their annual gathering where they decide to extend the fighting to the entire territory of Russia.

As if in mockery of the Russian and Chechen security services, the documentary The Dirty War, shown recently on British TV Channel 4, opens with the words of the presenter: “The military conflict in Chechnya has been dragging on for more than a decade. Throughout this war, Moscow tried in every possible way to control its coverage in the press. That is why all contacts with members of the Chechen resistance are considered illegal…”.

The creators of the film "Dirty War" immediately informed the audience that they began collecting material about Chechen fighters three years ago, when they established contact with field commander Gelaev and his people during a visit to Chechnya in the winter of 2003. And although Gelayev himself appears in the film only as an extra, when he leads his militants through the mountains to the next operation, his closest associate, field commander Alman Bakayev, voices the situation.

Among other things, Bakaev told how, at the end of November 2003, he sent "his people" to Moscow, who "were supposed to meet with Putin." “At the last moment, he refused the meeting,” Bakaev claimed. “They referred to the fact that elections were to be held first.” Bakaev also stated: “Because of the Chechen war, they (that is, Russia. - A.N.) lost their positions that the USSR had, starting with influence in the Arab countries and ending with the countries of the former Union, including the same Europe. Of course, they want to find some way out, but this way does not suit us.”

The film crew of the Dispatches program traveled to the Middle East, where they managed to track down some of the leaders of the Chechen militants, who, as the film said, were raising money there. “Guerrilla warfare is always deep underground,” said an unnamed leader of the Chechen fighters. “This deep underground irritates the Russians more than open warfare. I do not know how this war can be stopped, but I know that our goal is to go to the end. No one has ever given their territory to anyone in history without a war. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia was not yet a state, and we were already a state then. Yeltsin then said: take as much as you can. We took it and created our own state faster than the Russians. And then they came to their senses and realized that if Chechnya moves away, then the entire Caucasus will move away. And if the whole Caucasus leaves, then the whole of Russia will fall apart.”

Further in the film, the already mentioned Alman Bakaev was shown in Paris, where he was last year at the invitation of the French government. But the most curious thing was that, according to Bakaev himself, he came to France to, together with the French authorities, "to study the strange relationship between the Russian special services and Arab extremists." In France, according to Bakaev, "a lot of our people and a lot of Russian intelligence officers live."

And then he made one completely unexpected confession, hinting that some employees of the Russian special services work "at the level, let's say, of our representatives." “Bakaev told us,” the host said, “that the French authorities were very interested in Chechen allegations that Russian intelligence used their contacts from the Soviet era to use Arab extremists for their own purposes.” According to Bakaev, Russian intelligence services have managed to infiltrate radical organizations in the Arab world that support the Chechen independence movement. “All this is true,” Bakaev said. - Unfortunately it's true".

The film admitted that the seizure of the Beslan school deprived the Chechen independence movement of support in the world. Immediately after the Beslan tragedy, the authors of the film sent questions to Aslan Maskhadov, who in response to this gave them a cassette with his answers. Maskhadov, in particular, said the following: “Without removing responsibility from those people who took children hostage in the Beslan school, I would like to tell the truth about the main reason for what happened - this is the misanthropic, barbaric policy of Russia in the Caucasus. The second reason is the ongoing war in Chechnya. A war that has no analogues in its cruelty. In the last five years, all Chechen children, all the people of Chechnya have been held hostage. All of them are experiencing state terrorism from Russia.”

“Our film crew returned to Chechnya in May of this year,” the presenter said. - As before, Russian troops completely controlled the situation in Chechnya. We were taken to the ceremony of the first anniversary of the death of President Akhmat Kadyrov. This ceremony was not publicly announced and, for security reasons, took place a day earlier.

The fountains were turned on during the ceremony. And this is in a city where most people don't have water in their homes. All filming was conducted under the vigilant supervision of Russian soldiers. And this despite the fact that Russia insists that the Chechens manage their own affairs and that the republic is trying to return to normal life. However, according to the latest report of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, in 2004, 1,700 people disappeared without a trace in the republic, and unlawful killings became a pattern.

According to the filmmakers, no one from the "pro-Moscow Chechen government" wanted to meet with them and give an interview. That is why, the presenter calmly explained, the film crew of the Dispatches program, as in the past, went in search of the militants themselves. As a result, British journalists met in the mountains with a group of field commanders, including the same Alman Bakaev, who, as it turned out, this time was engaged in the creation of small detachments capable of striking government forces and objects.

Next, the filmmakers met with Doku Umarov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen government in exile. The meeting took place at one of the bases of Chechen fighters. “I have never seen the Chechen people in such humiliation and fear in my life,” Umarov said in an interview with Dispatches.

The film also featured the widow of Aslan Maskhadov - Kusama Maskhadova.

“For the Russians, it was a big victory,” said the host of the film. “Having lured Maskhadov with promises to start negotiations, they killed him. With his death, the last belief among the Chechen resistance in the possibility of negotiations disappeared.

“In order to maintain Russian influence in Chechnya, President Putin is ready to support Ramzan Kadyrov, the man who human rights organizations believe is responsible for many disappearances and unlawful killings. He even awarded Kadyrov the highest award in Russia - the title of Hero of Russia.

But the filmmakers saved the biggest bombshell for the end. After complaining that the West no longer supported the Chechen resistance, Doku Umarov announced that from now on the war would be waged by Chechen fighters using other methods. “We will now divide the regions of Russia between commanders, so that this commander will deal with the western regions, this one with the Siberian regions, this one with the eastern ones. We will now take this work into service.”

“The death of Maskhadov,” said the host of the film, “convinced the leadership of the militants of the expediency of transferring the war to the economic centers of Russia. This decision was communicated to all militants outside the territory of Chechnya.”

And at the very end of the film, the presenter made the following conclusion: “President Putin managed to convince the West that Chechnya is an internal problem of Russia and that the West has no right to interfere. At the same time, he declares that this is part of the global war on terrorism. What began as a struggle for the independence of a small republic may go far beyond its borders. This war is now helping to feed the wider Islamic Jihad movement in the world, which threatens both the West and Russia.”