Translated material
With their own
Dmitry Kozak is not preparing to replace the President of Chechnya
Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak yesterday denied reports about the upcoming early change of President of Chechnya, which appeared the day before in some capital media. The plenipotentiary also has no information about the likely appointment of the current head of the republic, Alu Alkhanov, to a high post in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.On Thursday, information appeared about probable candidates for the presidency of the republic, who allegedly could be proposed to the head of state in the near future for consideration by deputies of the Chechen parliament. These candidates, with reference to informed employees of the embassy, named the current Prime Minister of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as the Minister of Labor and Social Development, Magomed Vakhaev. But Dmitry Kozak told reporters yesterday that he was “surprised to learn about these two names.” “The issue of changing the president in Chechnya is not being considered or discussed,” the plenipotentiary emphasized.
Meanwhile, this issue has been actively discussed in the republic itself for several months. The current President Alu Alkhanov still has more than a year and a half left before the legal termination of his powers. But most of the Chechen elite does not hide the fact that Mr. Alkhanov was elected to the presidency in August 2004 only because the son of the deceased Akhmat Kadyrov, Ramzan, was two years short of the constitutional age limit. On October 5, 2006, this threshold was successfully crossed, and supporters of Mr. Kadyrov Jr. are waiting with increasing impatience for the prime minister to become not only the actual, but also the nominal master of Chechnya.
To do this, Alu Alkhanov must resign early. This is rarely discussed directly, and Ramzan himself in his speeches strongly emphasizes his lack of political ambitions. But Umar Dzhabrailov, the senator representing Chechnya's executive branch in the Federation Council, last November publicly invited republican parliamentarians to think about the procedure for the president's resignation.
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov himself, whose few supporters have essentially been pushed away from all key positions in Chechnya and have almost no weight in the regional parliament loyal to Mr. Kadyrov, does not particularly hold on to his seat. The other day he announced in Rostov-on-Don that he was not going to seek a second term - that is, ask the Kremlin for reappointment in 2008, after the expiration of the powers he received as a result of popular elections.
According to Mr. Alkhanov, the republic has enough worthy candidates for leadership positions, and he is ready to discuss their candidacies with the President of Russia. In his characteristic diplomatic manner, Mr. Alkhanov immediately added that the final decision rests with the head of state, and if he is destined to lead Chechnya a second time, then so be it. That is, he still did not completely refuse a second term.
Yesterday in Moscow, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Mr. Alkhanov was presented with a certificate of honor from the federal government for his services to the post-war reconstruction of Chechnya. But this can hardly be interpreted as a sign of the imminent end of the presidential career of the hero of the day. The head of Chechnya himself announced that he “has not yet approached the president with a question of trust,” and rumors about an early resignation are unfounded and are being spread by those who want to destabilize the situation.
Meanwhile, supporters of Ramzan Kadyrov’s presidential nomination do not have much time to implement their idea. Mr. Kadyrov's authority in Chechnya has grown greatly during his premiership, but it is associated mainly with the widely publicized sympathy of Vladimir Putin. The legal term of office of Alu Alkhanov, elected to office at the end of August 2004, is almost six months longer than the powers of the current president of Russia - and if the owner of the Kremlin changes in 2008, Ramzan Kadyrov's further career successes may well be called into question. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide the impatience of the prime minister’s supporters, and the pressure on their part is significantly growing.
Dmitry Kozak himself strictly ruled out personnel changes in Chechnya back in October last year. Yesterday he repeated that the issue was not being discussed at the embassy and he knew nothing about the positions allegedly offered to Mr. Alkhanov in case of early departure from his post. But he added that “he neither approves nor excludes anything.” The embassy, let us remind you, is the key authority in the new system for appointing regional leaders, responsible for selecting candidates, but the Chechen case may once again turn out to be exceptional.
Dmitry Kozak met yesterday with all 13 heads of the constituent entities of his district in Moscow at a meeting of the commission to improve the socio-economic situation in the Southern Federal District. The commission discussed plans to improve the work of territorial departments of federal authorities and the project to create the Southern Federal University. The third issue on the agenda - the settlement of citizens who irrevocably left the territory of Chechnya during the period of hostilities - was removed from the discussion by the plenipotentiary, although he noted its importance and praised the working group for the materials prepared. Mr. Kozak did not disclose the reasons for the transfer.