The fate of the residents

The underground parliament of the Chechen separatists suddenly needed a quorum

While Vladimir Putin proposes to assemble a new composition of the newly elected Russian Duma early, and the conscientious bicameral Chechen parliament is about to be reduced to one chamber of 41 deputies, representatives of the North Caucasus “irreconcilable opposition” have calculated how many people’s representatives remain in the parliament of Ichkeria, elected under the separatists in 1997 year and disappeared into the abyss of the second war. It turned out that out of 57 (according to other sources - 52) deputies, only five remained.

The need to count the quorum arose after the final quarrel between the two branches of the resistance - the “Western” separatists and the Islamic fundamentalists. Let us recall that in October, the so-called president of Ichkeria, which has long gone underground, Doku Umarov, announced that now the Mujahideen are fighting not for the independence of the republic, but for the establishment of Sharia order throughout the Caucasus, and in alliance with armed like-minded people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Umarov himself headed the Caucasus Emirate, exactly the same underground as the abolished Ichkeria, but based not on the separatist constitution of 1992, but exclusively on Sharia law.

These hints at ideological and military brotherhood with al-Qaeda outraged the European representative of the Chechen separatists, Akhmed Zakayev. He announced the other day that 21 of the 41 deputies of the 1997 convocation of parliament allegedly delegated to him the powers of prime minister in exile by “telephone vote.” The new prime minister threatened to sue the underground president-turned-emir. And the emir hinted that he knew something about the involvement of Chechens living in exile in the death of resistance leader Aslan Maskhadov (killed in March 2005), and also threatened the emissary with court for disobedience. To complete the defeat of the European wing, Umarov’s supporters published on the Internet a certificate indicating which of the deputies could actually call London about the appointment of a prime minister.

11 parliamentarians died of natural causes or were killed, including the speaker of the assembly Ruslan Alikhadzhiev, who was listed as missing for a long time, and Rizvan Lorsanov, who in the first months of the second Chechen war tried to engage in peacekeeping activities and save people. 14 deputies were “removed from membership” for collaborating with the Russian authorities or themselves wrote statements about resignation. Among those expelled is former Deputy Speaker of Parliament Isa Temirov, who in September 2003, on the eve of the election of the pro-Russian President of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, at a press conference in Moscow announced the impeachment of the then living Aslan Maskhadov. Formally, because he agreed at the big shura of field commanders in 2002 to include a number of Sharia amendments in the constitution of Ichkeria. Mr. Temirov also claimed that a quorum had been assembled to dismiss the underground president, but most of the deputies, who had emigrated to Europe by that time, did not agree with this. In total, 12 deputies now live in Europe. Another 20 are in Chechnya or other Russian regions and do not appear to be active politically.

According to the calculations of Umarov’s supporters, Akhmed Zakaev relies on the decision of not 21, but five emigrant deputies - “speaker” Lemma Saralyapov, “vice speaker” Selim Beshaev, “chairman of the defense and security committee” Abubakar Magomadov, “chairman of the rights committee of man and religion” Balaudi Beloev and “chairman of the media committee” Doku Amagov. However, one must assume that even if Akhmed Zakayev presents the voting protocol, Umarov’s supporters will not recognize his authority - simply because the idea of ​​​​the Sharia system they have chosen excludes any appeal to the norms and terms of European democracy.

Meanwhile, the parliament of Chechnya, currently considered legal, after the regional referendum held by Ramzan Kadyrov along with the Duma elections, is going to follow the principle of “less is better”: from the next convocation there will be one and a half times fewer deputies than now, but they will be able to sit five years instead of four. And in order to rule the constitution with the formula for the inalienable presence of Chechnya within Russia, adopted in 2003 instead of the separatist one, they will not have to convene a constitutional meeting - a simple vote will be enough. And quorum is guaranteed.

Ivan SUKHOV