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51. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 26

Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
The level of terrorist violence in Dagestan, which was already high, increased precipitously over the last week with a series of large-scale bombings and assassinations. The authorities, however, scored an apparent success on July 6, when security forces reportedly killed the leader of the republic's armed Islamist insurgency.
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

52. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 25

Author:
Andrei Smirnov
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov announced on June 26 that he would personally take over responsibility for the situation in the Shelkovskoi district village Borozdinovskaya, from which several hundred villagers fled after a June 4 zachistka, or cleansing operation, in which several homes were burned and eleven male inhabitants "disappeared." The head of the village's administration, Natalya Zelinskaya, told Interfax that 241 families, totaling 1,184 people, lived in the village before June 4, and that 166 families fled to the nearby Kizlyar district of Dagestan following the raid. She did not indicate the exact number of people who fled to Dagestan, but some observers have put the number at around 1,000, most of them ethnic Avars. As the Associated Press reported on June 21, the fleeing Borozdinovskaya residents left the village with their belongings loaded onto dump trucks and other vehicles and set up a makeshift tent camp in a field several hundred meters across Chechnya's administrative border with Dagestan.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia and Chechnya

53. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 24

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Chechen rebel president Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev raised his profile somewhat over the past week, naming his vice-president and making several public statements. On June 17, the rebel leadership's State Defense Committee (GKO) of Ichkeria confirmed field commander Doku Umarov as vice-president. Sadulaev had named Umarov to the post by presidential decree the previous day. Umarov replaces Vakha Arsanov, who was elected to the post of vice-president in Chechnya's January 1997 presidential election but was removed from the post in 2001 by then rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov for failing to participate in military actions against federal forces. Arsanov was reportedly killed in a security operation in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district on May 15 (see Chechnya Weekly, May 18). Kommersant on June 18 quoted the acting chairman of the separatist Ichkerian parliament, Selim Beshaev, as saying that all of the members of the GKO, which includes all of the members of the government along with some parliamentary deputies and field commanders, approved Umarov's nomination as vice-president. "Umarov is one of the most influential field commanders and, in addition, has good experience in government work, therefore there were no objections against his candidacy," Beshaev said. He said there were other candidates and that the decision on who to nominate as vice-president had taken three months to reach. Beshaev also said that Shamil Basaev was not among the possible candidates because he "immediately announced that he was not aspiring to state office."
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia and Chechnya

54. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 23

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Chechnya's State Council held a session on June 15 devoted to the issue of combating kidnappings and searching for missing citizens during which it was stated that 63 criminal cases arising from 70 abductions have been opened in the republic since the beginning of the year and that the number of kidnappings sharply increased in May. "Abductions remain a factor that can seriously destabilize the situation in the Chechen Republic," Interfax quoted Abu Aliev, deputy chairman of the State Council, as saying. He added that "impunity" is the prime cause of the continued abductions. According to Aliev, as of May 1, 2005, a total of 1,845 criminal investigations into the abduction or disappearance of 2,845 people had been launched since the start of the second Chechen military campaign in 1999, but only 366 people had been freed. He also said that 2,086 cases of people being forcibly abducted by members of unidentified security forces have been registered since the start of the "counter-terrorist operation."
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia and Chechnya

55. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 22

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Pro-Kremlin Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said during a June 6 press conference in Moscow that abductions in Chechnya were declining, with only 23 people kidnapped since the beginning of the year, compared with 168 people abducted during the same period last year. Alkhanov said that while 58 people were initially reported missing during the first five months of 2005, investigations revealed that some of those were in fact in custody as part of criminal investigations. He also said that federal forces were involved in only 5 to 10 percent of all the kidnappings in Chechnya. "Unfortunately kidnapping happens in this region," Reuters quoted Alkhanov as telling reporters. "Nevertheless, these crimes have decreased 10-fold, if not 100-fold."
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Chechnya, and Moscow

56. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 20

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Thousands of people gathered in the Chechen capital Friday of Grozny on May 20 to protest the acquittal of GRU Captain Eduard Ulman and three subordinates on charges of murdering six Chechen civilians in January 2002. According to Agence France-Presse, some 3,000 people, including young people and members of Chechnya's pro-Russian administration, took part in the demonstration. Some protesters carried signs saying "Ulman – murderer," and "Ulman – fascist."
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia and Chechnya

57. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 18

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
President Vladimir Putin discussed Chechnya in two interviews with European media in the lead-up to the May 9 celebrations in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of Victory Day. One of the interviews, on May 5, was with Germany's ARD and ZDF television channels, while the other, on May 7, with France 3 television. Transcripts of the interviews were posted on the Kremlin's website.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Chechnya, and Germany

58. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 17

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Kavkazky Uzel reported on May 2 that a large-scale battle took place between a group of rebel fighters and a federal military unit in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurt district, which is located in the southeastern part of the republic. A source in the federal command told the website there were casualties on both sides: “During a short engagement, two members of the illegal armed formations were killed,” the source said. “From our side, a contract serviceman was killed, and several other soldiers received wounds of various levels of severity. All of the wounded were hospitalized.” Military sources said the dead rebels were members of the group headed by rebel field commander Akhmed Avdorkhanov, who once headed the late Aslan Maskhadov's personal bodyguard detail.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia and Chechnya

59. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 14

Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
President Vladimir Putin's special adviser on the North Caucasus region, Aslambek Aslakhanov, told a news conference in Moscow on April 4 that neither the Chechen authorities nor the law-enforcement bodies nor human rights activists know how many people have been kidnapped in Chechnya. “It is a mystery because all those who are involved in kidnappings behave in the same way,” Itar-Tass quoted him as saying. “They wear the same uniforms, they act in the same way, [and] some of them have armored vehicles.” According to the news agency, Aslakhanov did not rule out that members of federal structures operating in the republic and of local power-wielding forces might be involved in kidnappings, and added that ransom might be one of the motives for the abductions. Still, he ins isted that the number of kidnappings has been dropping.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Chechnya, Moscow, and North Caucasus

60. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 13

Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov on March 28 praised a roundtable on Chechnya held in Strasbourg on March 21 under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Alkhanov called the meeting “constructive and productive” and said that the European community now understands that the political situation in Chechnya has entered a new stage, Itar-Tass reported. “We did not stand on totally different positions, as it used to be before; indeed, we had a dialogue,” said Alkhanov, who was attending a meeting of the council of the heads of the Southern Federal District's constituent republics in Kislovodsk. The people of Chechnya, Alkhanov said, have unambiguously declared their wish to build a peaceful future as part of the Russian Federation, adding that the “doors are open for those who want to take part in this peaceful, constructive process.” He also said that former members of the pro-separatist parliament of the mid-1990s will participate in the Chechen parliamentary elections scheduled for this autumn. “The fact that so many of the former members of [the late separatist leader Aslan] Maskhadov's government are working in the Chechen government shows that we are adherents of peaceful policies, which have been decided by the people,” Alkhanov said. “If we agree that the people's wish is the determining factor, one has to take this into account. We are ready to accept anybody who adheres to this policy.”
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Government
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Chechnya