| Chechnya believes the war is over Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov demanded that the authorities of the second largest city of Gudermes remove all traces reminiscent of the war by May 1. In the remaining less than three weeks, road surfaces, sidewalks, parks and public gardens must be restored in the city, and checkpoints at the entrances to the city must be brought into line “with the general appearance of the city.” In addition to the all-Russian Day of Spring and Labor, Gudermes will also celebrate its 65th anniversary on this day - it became a city in 1941, three years before the deportation of Chechens to Kazakhstan and Central Asia and a few weeks before the start of the Great Patriotic War.
The Chechen authorities are increasingly insistently proposing that the current war be considered over, and this is expressed not only in subbotniks on the streets of Chechen cities. A few days ago, the speaker of the lower house of parliament of Chechnya, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, said that peace in the republic is able to be ensured by local security forces. Regiments and divisions of federal forces, according to Mr. Abdurakhmanov, can be “withdrawn painlessly.” It would be advisable to leave only the border guards guarding the Russian-Georgian state border in the Itum-Kalinsky region.
In the last one and a half to two years, a kind of conditional peace has indeed been established in Chechnya against the backdrop of almost constant reports of explosions and shelling. This world is no longer guarded mainly by the Russian military, but by bearded soldiers of “Kadyrov’s special forces.” Over the past few years, the Russian command has regularly reported that the size of the federal group, which by the end of the active phase of hostilities numbered about 80 thousand people, is being systematically reduced. As a result, only the 42nd division of the Ministry of Defense and the 46th brigade of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation should remain in Chechnya on a permanent basis, not counting the same Itum-Kalinsky border detachment. The Ministry of Defense units were gradually withdrawn from the plain, with the exception of the location of the 42nd Division in Khankala. Last year, the so-called mountain group of the Ministry of Defense, whose headquarters were located in Vedeno, was also disbanded.
Official sources have recently avoided naming even the approximate number of federal forces in Chechnya, but it is obvious that over the year it has decreased quite significantly: if a year ago politicians and experts used a figure of about 70 thousand people, then in February 2006, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said already about 36-38 thousand. This means that almost all of the “excess” units of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that is, everything except the permanently deployed units, have already been withdrawn from the republic.
At the same time, the number of local security forces officially belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya reaches 17-20 thousand people. These are mainly ethnic Chechens, many of whom have extensive combat experience, not only on the Russian side. Contrary to the assertion of some Chechen publicists, Chechens also serve in the Russian army - as part of the “East” and “West” battalions, which are part of the 42nd division.
The number of the enemy, that is, the militants who are still fighting against local and federal authorities, is estimated by command representatives at 750 people. And Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov even talks about “units” of militants who have “dispersed throughout the villages” and become active only when money arrives from abroad. In his opinion, most of the militants live outside of Chechnya: “I won’t name the republics so as not to offend the neighbors, but you can guess for yourself.”
Mr. Abdurakhmanov, for the first time since the complete withdrawal of the federals from the republic after the Khasavyurt Peace Treaty of 1996, put forward a demand for a complete withdrawal of troops - until now it was only about reducing surplus units. Along with the insistent demand to transfer to Grozny the rights to develop and sell oil and gas in the republic and to provide Chechnya with a whole set of various financial preferences in connection with the need for post-war reconstruction, this means that the region is claiming a certain status that is difficult to compatible with the federal Constitution and President Putin’s intention to achieve "strengthening Russia in the Caucasus." This “strengthening” is not least associated with the deployment of federal armed forces in the Caucasian regions. On the other hand, the idea of a Chechen parliamentarian looks like a completely logical consequence of Moscow’s policy, which provides the leadership of Chechnya with increasing political independence and tries to make sure that the war is between Chechens, and not between Chechens and the federals.
But Mr. Abdurakhmanov's proposal did not arouse enthusiasm among the federal command. The head of the regional operational headquarters for the counter-terrorism operation, Arkady Edelev, and the commander of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Rogozhkin, demonstrate clear disagreement with the position of Mr. Abdurakhmanov. According to Mr. Rogozhkin, “the tasks in the North Caucasus have not changed,” and the threat of manifestations of “terrorism and banditry in Chechnya remains.” Therefore, the “format and structure” of the federal presence in the region will remain the same for now. Ivan SUKHOV |
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