At the request of "ordinary citizens"

The President of Chechnya wants Vladimir Putin to become Franklin Roosevelt

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov yesterday very thoroughly explained to Moscow journalists the meaning of the official legislative initiative of Chechen parliamentarians regarding an amendment to the federal Constitution, which would make a third term for Vladimir Putin possible. As you know, on the last Saturday of July, the Chechen parliament deliberately interrupted its holidays in order to adopt a corresponding resolution. Mr. Alkhanov said that this idea does not have any political overtones, but only expresses the desire of “ordinary citizens and famous figures of the Chechen Republic.” The President of Russia, according to the President of Chechnya, “with his concrete steps and clear policy towards the Chechen people and the Chechen Republic, has proven his desire to make it peaceful and prosperous.”

“I agree with you, he doesn’t want it, but he doesn’t need it, this country and people need it,” said Mr. Alkhanov. - The new head of state will need at least two years to get up to speed. Do we have two extra years in this crucial period for Russia? We've already lost enough. And he (Vladimir Putin - Ed. ) has his own clear policy, a clear vision both within the country and in foreign policy... People have a very specific, legitimate question: what will happen if he is not president?”

The President of Chechnya justified his point of view with a historical example. “I know there are those who disagree. Yes, the Constitution, yes, democracy. But tell me why in America, a stronghold of democracy, during the Great Depression, even though their constitution also stated two terms, Mr. Roosevelt was elected four times as President of the United States of America. Probably, there were some specific and economic problems, tasks that had to be solved by this particular person.” Mr. Alkhanov believes that Vladimir Putin’s achievements are quite comparable to the achievements of Franklin Roosevelt: “Thanks to the current president, the country has emerged from an almost catastrophic state.”

The excursion into history, however, turned out to be inaccurate. The 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, actually served four consecutive terms, from 1932 until his death in 1945. But the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting the number of presidential terms to two, was ratified by Congress only in March 1951, so Roosevelt's four-term presidency was legally permissible. Since the adoption of the 22nd Amendment, there has, of course, been no precedent for violating it.

Mr. Alkhanov's own term, like Vladimir Putin's, expires in 2008. “My term has been set,” said the head of Chechnya and added that he will fulfill his duties as long as the Chechen people and the Russian leadership trust him. It is no secret that many observers predict the early end of Mr. Alkhanov’s powers after Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov reaches political adulthood. The latter will turn 30 this October, and he could theoretically become president. Mr. Alkhanov commented on this version philosophically: “The time will come, and if he is destined, he will also become president.” In the meantime, according to Alu Alkhanov, the people trust the team created by the father of the current prime minister, Akhmat Kadyrov, and the team’s task is to maintain this trust.

“Life is life, I don’t even know what will happen to me tomorrow,” the President of Chechnya summed up vaguely, referring either to possible personnel changes or to the obvious danger to which any politician holding this position exposes himself: as of today day, only one of the four officially recognized Chechen presidents remained alive.

Alu Alkhanov actually confirmed his own words that in the first two years the president basically gets into the swing of things, having tried to analyze in great detail the state of affairs in the republic by the middle of his term. “I never said that everything is perfect in the Chechen Republic. Unfortunately, there are facts of human rights violations, facts of kidnapping, and facts of abuse of power by the heads of law enforcement agencies, and corruption - all this, unfortunately, exists. But there are concrete examples that life in the republic is getting better. Life in the republic is getting better every day.”

According to Mr. Alkhanov, the federal ministers who visited Chechnya on July 25 were also convinced of this. “After touring cities and towns, inspecting streets and roads in Grozny, taking into account that there are changes for the better, it was decided to allocate another 1 billion 800 million rubles. Apparently, Mr. Alkhanov added up the amounts mentioned by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref and the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin at a recent meeting with the head of state: Mr. Gref promised Chechnya about 700 million rubles. for dismantling the ruins, and Mr. Kudrin - about a billion for the restoration of schools and hospitals and assistance to agriculture.

In total, the federal budget allocates more than 5 billion rubles to Chechnya in 2006. Vladimir Putin recently said that it is not a shame to increase subsidies when positive changes become noticeable - the federal center was simply waiting for at least relative stability to come to Chechnya. Mr. Alkhanov believes that the security situation has also changed significantly for the better. “There are up to 500 members of illegal armed groups operating in all the republics of the North Caucasus.” According to the head of Chechnya, militants are constantly migrating, and it is impossible to say how many there are at any given time in a given republic. “But the fact that there are fewer of them in the Chechen Republic than there were before is a fact.” Let us remember that Mr. Alkhanov himself has repeatedly named the number of militants who surrendered in recent years and went mainly to work in the republican security forces - about 7 thousand people. Most of them, however, were legalized without any official procedures.

With regard to those who are still fighting against the legitimate government, Mr. Alkhanov proposes to extend the deadline for the surrender of weapons until January 1, 2007. In mid-July, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee invited those wishing to surrender by August 1, then this period, at the initiative of the Chechen authorities, was extended until September 30. The President of Chechnya believes that the work should be extended until the end of the year so that “the maximum number of people can return to peaceful life.” “The deadline until January 1 is sufficient time for members of illegal armed groups to seriously analyze the situation and make the right, constructive decision,” said Mr. Alkhanov. The President of Chechnya rightly believes that the fight against the terrorist underground requires not only the withdrawal people “from the forest”, but not to let others take their place. “Pretending that there is no such outflow, even if minimal, means again taking an ostrich position,” says Mr. Alkhanov, in his opinion. According to him, they use any factors to attract young people: “I can talk about socio-economic reasons, instability, unemployment... Somewhere there was a bombing, somewhere a father, mother, brother died, somewhere a shell was in the wrong place fell..." The task of the authorities, according to the President of Chechnya, is to prevent the influx of young people into the ranks of the militants.

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Since January of this year, according to the Memorial center, 125 residents of the republic have been kidnapped in Chechnya. Of this number, 63 people were released, eight were found killed, and nine are under investigation. Another 45 people went missing after the abduction. In addition, according to human rights activists, since the beginning of the year, 47 people have been killed in Chechnya under various circumstances, including 18 civilians, 11 employees of Chechen security forces and eight militants. The identities of ten more people have not been established. INTERFAX

Ivan SUKHOV