Political Developments in Chechnya
Russia withdrew its forces from Chechnya in 1996 after a 20-month war that left the separatists in charge. Russian troops then returned in 1999, after rebel incursions ensued into a neighboring region of Russia and bombings -- allegedly by rebels -- killed more than 300 people in Russia. Large-scale combat operations are now rare in Chechnya, but hit-and-run attacks and land mines wound and kill Russian troops, civilians and rebels almost every day.
At the beginning of August 1999, Prime Minister Stepashin was confronted with a continuing crisis in the southern Caucasus republic of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya. Armed groups from Chechnya, led by two important Chechen rebel leaders, Khatab and Basayev, had crossed into Dagestan in an attempt to launch an Islamic insurrection against the pro-Moscow government in Dagestan. Intermittent attacks and kidnappings had occurred throughout 1998.
In October 1998, the Russian government had sent troops to close the border between Dagestan and Chechnya.
Stepashin ordered Russian forces to repel the Chechens and protect the Dagestani government, as attacks against the Russian troops on the Dagestani-Chechnya border and attacks against the pro-Moscow Dagestani government increased in frequency and severity.
By the end of August 1999, Putin had ordered increased air attacks against the separatists in Dagestan as well as against rebel positions in Chechnya. By month's end, bombs were exploded at a military barracks in Dagestan, killing 64, and at a shopping mall in Moscow, injuring dozens.
In early September, the president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, mobilized Chechen forces in anticipation that the fighting in neighboring Dagestan would lead to new fighting between Chechen and Russian forces.
On September 9 and 13, two apartment blocks in Moscow were bombed, leaving more than 260 people dead. Three days later, a residential area in the southern Russian town of Volgodonsk was bombed, resulting in 17 dead. Although clear evidence was never presented, it was widely suspected by the Russian public that Chechen separatists were behind the bombings. Moscow police began checking identification and rounding up suspects, concentrating their efforts on people who looked like they were from the Caucasus region.
On September 23, Russian planes attacked the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, while 30,000 additional Russian troops were sent to seal the border between Chechnya and Dagestan.
Despite Putin's stated aim of not engaging in another large Chechen war, Russian forces invaded Chechnya on Oct. 2, 1999, and Putin announced that Moscow would no longer recognize Chechen President Maskhadov.
From the beginning of the Russian assault on Chechnya to early December, Russian forces attacked their opponents from a distance, using aircraft, artillery and tanks to bombard suspected rebel positions. As a result, the number of civilian casualties was reported to be quite high and tens of thousands of Chechens became refugees, many fleeing the war by entering the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia. Russian casualties, however, were much lower than in the previous Chechen war. The low number of Russian casualties, in tandem with Putin's tight control over the media reporting on Chechnya, were contributing factors in winning public approval for the war.
Opposition to the manner in which Russia was conducting its war in Chechnya grew among European countries, the United States and others. Disagreement with Russia's conduct was expressed at a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, in Istanbul in November 1999. Russia's relations with the West were strained when Yeltsin left the summit early after giving a speech that compared Russia's "anti-terrorist" campaign in Chechnya to NATO "aggression" in Yugoslavia, a reference to the Kosovo conflict. Tensions between the West and Russia increased when Russia announced an ultimatum to the Chechens remaining in Grozny: those who left would be treated as refugees, while those who remained would be assumed separatists. Diplomatic intervention by the West led to an initial softening of the Russian position, but eventually proved ineffective as Russian continued its attack on Grozny.
In early December 1999, the International Monetary Fund announced a suspension of a $4.5 billion loan, citing the lack of progress in Russia's economic reforms. The Russian government, however, voiced its opinion that the loan delay was related to Western opposition to the war in Chechnya.
The Russians re-established control over most Chechen territory, but failed to flush the guerrillas out of the mountains in the south.
Chechen separatist guerrillas killed at least two policemen on June 21, 2001, in attacks coinciding with the first anniversary of the region's pro-Russian administration taking office. The killings were part of an upsurge of violence directed at targets associated with the Moscow-installed administration of former Muslim cleric Akhmad Kadyrov, culminating in a deadly triple car bomb attack. Kadyrov put a brave face on events at a news conference in Moscow marking his first year in office. He said officials were working hard to restore normal life to the region where Russian forces were dispatched in October 1999 to wipe out separatists.
Moscow has tried to restore order by recruiting a local police force and installing pro-Russian administrators in towns and villages, but guerrillas have countered the move by singling out and gunning down Chechen "collaborators." A wave of killings of pro-Moscow Chechen officials has only added to a general sense of insecurity which tens of thousands of refugees in neighboring Ingushetia say stops them from returning to the republic.
Russian forces sweeping through villages near Chechnya's capital in late June 2001 killed several rebels active in nearly two years of warfare, including one of the country's most wanted men. In Ingushetia, on Chechnya's western border, a hunger strike to press demands for talks on ending the war drew more and more participants, with 82 refugees from the region refusing food. About 1,000 others staged a demonstration in their support in the border town of Sleptsovsk.
Russian news agencies quoted Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the FSB security police force, as saying that guerrilla chief Arbi Barayev had been among about 10 rebels chiefs and other fighters killed in the drive near Grozny.
Russia said on June 27, 2001, its border forces had cleared a remote mountain gorge of Chechen rebels after a major battle. The fighting followed a weekend battle that ended in the death of a top rebel guerrilla chief, which prompted media speculation that Moscow was switching tactics after many months of stalemate in the separatist region.
There were no independent reports from the scene of the clashes, in the mountains near the border with Georgia, but Russian officials described the fighting as a success.
The Kremlin's Chechnya office said the fighters were mostly foreigners, Arabs or Afghans, fighting for the Chechen guerrillas, some armed with United States-made rifles rather than the Russian ones used by most Chechen rebels. The mountain battle follows the killing of Arbi Barayev, a Chechen rebel commander Moscow had long accused of masterminding a brutal campaign of kidnappings for ransom.
Russian forces announced earlier they had been battling Barayev's forces for days in a special search and destroy mission in his home village. Later they said they had identified Barayev's body among the dead. Killing Barayev was considered a major coup for the Russian troops, who had failed to kill or capture any of the top rebel leaders, despite occupying virtually all of once separatist-held Chechen territory since March 2000. President Vladimir Putin transferred control of the Chechnya operation from the army to the Fyedyeral'naya Sluzhba Byezopasnosti (FSB - Federal Security Service) security police in early 2001, and the FSB said it planned to hunt guerrilla chiefs down in their homes while withdrawing tens of thousands of troops.
The troop withdrawal was later deferred and until as recently as 2001, no top rebel leader had been hunted down. Izvestia newspaper said in late June 2001 the new tactic could be aimed at eliminating radical rebel leaders and opening talks with elected separatist President Aslan Maskhadov, who led the Chechen delegation at talks that ended an earlier 1994-1996 war.
The conflict in Chechnya seemed to be heading in a positive direction with the convening of a peace conference in Moscow on November 18, 2001. One Chechen rebel leader said he was optimistic about a peace deal with Russia after a lightning visit to Moscow, for the first publicly acknowledged talks with the Kremlin since war started two years prior.
The talks were the first fruits of a shift in President Vladimir Putin's policy announced in September 2001 in apparent response to the terror attacks on the United States, although the Kremlin played down suggestions of an about-face.
Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister in Aslan Maskhadov's rebel government, flew in from Turkey and met Viktor Kazantsev, Putin's envoy to southern Russia, at a Moscow airport for two to three hours. Moscow carefully tried to play down any suggestion that the meetings represented a change in its "no-talks" policy. The Kremlin's main Chechnya spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said that there had in fact been meetings between Russian officials and Maskhadov's representatives, including Zakayev, in the past. He gave no specific details.
Russian officials and rebels discussed evacuating civilians from the capital Grozny at the height of its bombardment.
President Putin proposed the talks in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States, which gave Moscow a fresh impetus to sort out a stalemated policy, and gave Putin an opportunity to settle his divisions with the West over Chechnya. Putin strongly backed Washington in its war against terrorism, and Moscow maintained that its war in Chechnya is part of the same fight.
On Sept. 24, 2001, Putin called for talks aimed at finding a means of "disarming illegal formations and groups, and a way to include them in civilian life in Chechnya." Putin also demanded "those who call themselves political actors immediately sever contacts with international terrorists and their organizations," suggesting Russia might rehabilitate Maskhadov if he disavowed warlords with extremist ties.
Nonetheless, on the ground in Chechnya battles were still waged. Twelve Russian servicemen and police troops were killed and 22 wounded in new round of skirmishes in mid-December with rebels and land mine explosions in Chechnya. Rebels attacked Russian positions and checkpoints 18 times over the previous 24 hours, killing five soldiers and wounding 11. Four Russian soldiers were killed and three were wounded when their jeeps set off land mines in the capital Grozny and Vedeno, in southern Chechnya. Rebels assaulted an armored personnel carrier near the town of Zandak in eastern Chechnya, killing one soldier and wounding four.
Russian helicopters attacked the rebels when they retreated into nearby woods after the clash. There were no reports of rebel casualties.
In Argun, nine miles east of Grozny, rebels attacked a police patrol, killing two officers and wounding four, the official said. Four rebels were also killed, he said. Russian aircraft bombed suspected rebel bases in eastern Chechnya and artillery-shelled targets in the east and southeast.
President Putin announced that Russian forces had captured a top aide to Chechen rebel leader Khattab, who helped finance the rebels' activities. The Russian president said Abu Sayah was seized during a special operation early Friday, Nov. 30, 2001. Sayah, "supplied money, organized terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation and maintained contact with his units on the territory of Georgia," Putin said. A top Russian Defense Ministry official also said that Russian forces had intensified the military campaign in Chechnya. "A number of relevant conditions including climatic, political and military ones have emerged," said Yuri Baluyevsky. "This is the most suitable time to inflict irreparable damage." Baluyevsky said that 300-500 mercenaries remained in Chechnya. It was believed that with winter coming, it became harder for rebels to hide out in mountains and forests, and they began trying to mix in with the civilian population or trying to take refuge in neighboring countries.
The Russian military gained a victory when the warlord Khattab was killed in March 2002 by a poisoned letter. A number of other important rebel leaders were killed in the spring months of 2002, and 37 rebel troops surrendered to the Russian military, the largest group to surrender in two years.
Human rights organizations have long condemned human rights violations in the Chechnyan region. On April 2, 2002, in a speech addressed to the 58th Session of the Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, Medecins Sans Frontieres representative Loick Barriquand denounced the military actions against civilians stating, "The violence today against civilians is still extreme and is without any relation to confrontations between the armed forces. On the contrary, these acts have been systematic."
On that same day, Human Rights Watch released a report that documented 87 cases of non-combatant disappearances between September 2000 and January 2002. It was believed that the actual number of non-civilian disappearances was much higher. On April 10, the European Commission called for an immediate cease-fire in Chechnya. Several hundred thousand Chechnyans have been displaced since the uprising, although in recent months there has been an effort to repatriate some 1,500 refugees back to Chechnya.
Days before the 58th Session of the Commission of Human Rights, on March 29, 2002, the Russian military commander Lieutenant General Vladimir Moltenskoi signed a decree, known as Order 80, that would stop human rights abuses by the Russian military during special operations. Order 80 stated that victims of abuse by the military could register their complaints and the perpetrators would be investigated and brought to trial for criminal behavior. The decree further stated that local officials must accompany troops when carrying out "sweeps" and the names of those persons apprehended in the sweeps will be given to local authorities. Human rights observers reported that the new rules were still violated.
In mid-2002, 43 people and more than 150 injured were injured at a Victory Day parade by a remote-controlled bomb in the Caspian port town, Kaspiysk. While no one was apprehended for the act, authorities were certain that the explosion was a terrorist act.
In the fall of 2002, Chechen rebels sieged a theater in Moscow. Following the rescue of the hundreds of hostages, which left 118 people dead, Russian President Putin vowed to crush terrorism. The Chechen militant rebels who took over the theater demanded an end to the war in Chechnya, and threatened to kill the hostages if their demands were not met. The grave situation demanded a rapid and overwhelming response by Russian authorities and, indeed, most of the hostages were eventually freed when Russian forces stormed the theatre.
Meanwhile, however, questions surfaced and anger intensified over the way in which the theater siege was quelled. In particular, the indiscriminate use of an unspecified sleep-inducing agent was used by the Russians to deal with the Chechens. Reports suggested that the gas used in this regard was the cause of the deaths of 116 of the 118 hostages killed, and the gas itself was made up of an opiate of a similar typology as heroin or morphine.
In March 2003, residents of Chechnya voted overwhelmingly -- 96 percent -- in favor of a new constitution. The new constitution would augment the Chechen Republic within the Russian Federation and resolve the problem of Russian territorial integrity, which has been at issue for several years. Although some critics wondered if the vote was legitimate, officials state that the turnout was 79 percent. The new constitution will allow Chechnya a great deal of autonomy while preserving the state of the Russian Federation.
In May 2003, local government buildings in the breakaway republic of Chechnya were hit by a suicide bomb blast that left close to 40 people dead and almost 200 people injured. Countless more remained missing in the rubble from the blast. Reports suggested that a truck loaded with explosives drove into the compound of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the northern town of Znamenskoy. The region of northern Chechnya -- historically home to many Terek Cossacks -- was normally one of the more stable parts of Chechnya. At least one person was in the truck when it barraged through a security checkpoint and exploded. The blast left a massive crater, and destroyed several buildings in the immediate vicinity and in surrounding residential areas.
This attack, presumably by Chechen separatists, was one of the deadliest incidents since a suicide bombing in Grozny and the most significant attack since the referendum on the status of Chechnya, which ensued in March. Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted by saying that the attack by separatist rebels would not affect the peace efforts. In this regard, he observed, "The act... was directed at stopping the process of bringing about a political settlement to the situation in Chechnya.. We cannot allow anything like this to happen, nor will we."
Then, a suicide bombing in Mozdok took place in June 2003 on a bus carrying military personnel. Approximately 20 people were killed in the explosion. A month later, a suicide bombing ensued at a rock concert in Moscow, which left 15 people dead.
In August, a suicide bombing in Russia resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people -- making it one of the deadliest attacks in recent years. The attack took place at a military hospital in the town of Mozdok in North Ossetia, just six miles (ten kilometers) from Chechnya. Reports stated that a suicide bomber crashed through the entrance gates of the military hospital in a truck laden with explosives. Once the explosives were detonated, a four-story hospital building was destroyed and a ten foot (three meter) deep crater was left in the rubble. Between 75 and 150 people were believed to have been in the building at the time of the explosion.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, however, there had been suggestions that it might be linked to the activities of Chechen separatist rebels. The town of Mozdok, where the suicide bombing took place, had been the headquarters for Russian troops involved in operations in Chechnya for close to a decade. Russian soldiers who had been hurt in Chechnya were treated at the very hospital in Mozdok, where a building was destroyed by the explosion. As such, the hospital in Mozdok may have been specifically targeted. The news agency Interfax reported, however, that the Chechen separatist leadership denied responsibility for the attack.
Also in August 2003, three people died and at least 17 people were killed following a series of bomb blasts in the southern Russia city of Krasnodar. The blasts took place at bus stops in residential areas in Krasnodar, located in close proximity to the Caucasus region. Interfax reported that the attacks appeared to have been carried out by rebels from Chechnya.
President Vladimir Putin scheduled a leadership election in Chechnya for October 2003, however, Chechen separatists promised to resist all efforts by Russian authorities to control the affairs of the breakaway republic.
The election, when held in the latter part of 2003, showed pro-Russian candidate, Akhmad Kadyrov, to be the winner. Kadyrov won a landslide victory, however, the result of the poll was dismissed by both separatists and human rights groups as questionable.
On May 9, 2004, President Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in an attack in the Chechnyan capital city of Grozny. Reports stated that between six and 30 people (including the President) had been killed when a bomb exploded at Grozny's Dynamo stadium. Chechnya was placed under a security alert while Russian news reported that five people had been detained under suspicion of involvement in the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kadyrov was a hero and promised retribution against the Chechen rebels believed to have been behind the attack. He also appointed Chechnya's Prime Minister Sergei Abramov as Acting President.
In June 2004, an attack by Chechen rebels in the southern region of Ingushetia left more than 57 people dead. Included in the death toll were the acting Interior Minister Abukar Kostoyev and his Deputy Minister who were killed when the rebels seized the Interior Ministry building. Several members of the federal security service, border guard and prosecution service were also killed. Three days of mourning were announced to show respect for those who died.
Russian forces were reported to have been in pursuit of the rebels who apparently abandoned their vehicles in the border town of Galashki as they fled into Chechnya. Putin promised that the rebels would be "destroyed." During a trip to the region, Putin also noted that security in the area would have to be intensified. Indeed, thousands of troops were deployed into the area to search for militant fighters along with helicopter gunships. This approach was imperative, given the high level of coordination used by Chechen rebels in launching their attacks. In fact, a week earlier, Chechen rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, ominously declared that attacks were imminent.
On Aug. 24, 2004, two Russian aircraft crashed almost simultaneously after both took off from the Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, killing a total of 89 passengers and crew. One jet was bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where President Putin was on holiday, while the other was headed toward the city of Volgograd.
The subsequent investigation found traces of explosives in both planes. In addition, each plane had a Chechen woman aboard and neither have had relatives claim the body. This may have been very significant as several suicide bombings in recent years have been carried out by Chechen women who have lost husbands or other male family members in the war in the southern republic over the past decade. A terrorist group calling itself the Islambuli Brigades claimed responsibility for the crashes. Their statement on the Internet blamed the Russians for slaughtering Muslims in Chechnya. The statement also claimed there were five mujahedin aboard each plane and said their group was connected to al-Qaida
Following the attacks, the Chechen presidential election was held; Russian officials had warned that separatist rebels could resort to terrorism to undermine the voting. Moscow promoted a Kremlin favorite, Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov. In a post-election interview, Alkhanov ruled out any chance of talks with Chechen separatist leaders. Chechen separatists have consistently denounced all Russian-sponsored elections as a farce as they continue to battle the Russian military.
Days after the downing of the two aircraft and the election of Alkhanov, terrorists took control of a school in Beslan (North Ossetia), leaving hundreds of school children, parents and teachers trapped inside. The terrorists were reported to be militant separatists demanding independence for Chechnya. Given the number of people inside, most of whom were women and children, Russian authorities were reticent to attempt a dramatic rescue. A temporary cease-fire was negotiated in order to retrieve bodies of people who died in the initial spate of violence. However, as officials were attempting to complete this task, an explosion was heard. The explosion was followed by extended exchange of fire. When some hostages tried to escape during the chaos, the terrorists shot at them.
The standoff resulted in the tragic deaths of more than 300 people with over 600 people injured. Russian special forces battled the last of the terrorists as the rescue operations continue. Hostages who managed to escape said that male and female extremists dressed in military attire wired the buildings with explosives when they took control of the school. Presumably, the explosions precipitated the bloody shootout between Chechnyan militants and Russian forces. Identification of several Arabs also suggested an international connection of sorts.
Following the tragic events in Beslan, Putin defiantly made clear to the world and the Russian citizenry that he would do what was necessary to protect people from terrorism. Putin then implemented a number of measures aimed at consolidating his power in the interest of national security. Opponents of Putin, as well as several members of the international community, decried Putin's measures noting that they represented a slip into a more authoritarian political stance. The contraction of democratic rights in Russia has continued to be a concern on the domestic landscape in recent years.
In March 2005, Russian authorities said they had killed Chechen rebel leader, Aslan Mashhadov. The announcement was seen as a boost for Russian President Vladimir Putin as it portrayed him as an effective leader in dealing with the threat of Chechen terrorists.
Several months later in July 2005, at least 10 Russian soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded in the Dagestani capital city of Makhachkala.
On October 13, 2005, Chechnyan militants led mass raids on governmental security institutions and police buildings in the provincial capital of Nalchik in the Russian province of in Kabardino-Balkaria. The selection of official targets in Nalchik suggested that those responsible had launched an assault aimed at security and law enforcement installations. The actual attacks appeared to be well-coordinated and left the city under a cloud of black smoke, with gun battles ongoing. Official reports stated that the assault left scores of people dead or injured, including 61 militants and 12 police. The chaos continued with some militants holding several people hostage at a police station.
President Vladimir Putin issued an order for the city to be sealed and for military forces to shoot any armed rebels. Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin assured the public that the city was under government control and that no one would be able to traverse the area around Nalchik without being inspected.
The area has been wrought by increasing violence in recent years, primarily as a result of Chechnyan rebel efforts. The area is also plagued by poverty, which only serves to exacerbate the climate of instability. Nalchik, where the latest attack occurred, is located 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Beslan, where Chechnyan rebels, led by Shamil Basayev, carried out a massacre at a school in 2004.
A Chechnyan extremist group called the Caucasus Front claimed responsibility for the attacks. The claim was made on a website linked with Chechnyan rebel activities called Kavkaz Center. On the site, it was claimed that a "jamaat" -- an Islamic word denoting extremist Islamic warriors -- had laid siege on Nalchik.
In November 2005, Chechnya hosted its first parliament elections since Russian troops took control of the region in 1999. Whereas the Russian government in Moscow has viewed the 2005 elections as a positive sign on the road toward peace, separatists in Chechnya have regarded is as a sham, aimed at avoiding the creation of a genuine resolution. Indeed, Chechen rebel envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, characterized the vote as "pseudo-elections." Human rights groups echoed that sentiment and warned that ongoing violence made a free and fair election impossible, despite the presence of outside observers from Russia, the Arab League and Organization of the Islamic Conference. During the time of the previous parliamentary elections in Chechnya, the rebels held power over a quasi-independent state. But since that time, the rebels were removed from office, and in other processes that were also regarded as flawed, a new constitution was put forth, making Chechnya part of the Russian Federation, and a pro-Moscow president, Alu Alkhanov, was elected. Now, in these elections, voters would have to choose from a list of candidates known to be loyal to the Kremlin, and generally aligned with the pro-Moscow party, United Russia.
In March 2006, the regional assembly of Chechnya voted unanimously in favor of the appointment of Ramzan Kadyrov as the new prime minister. Kadyrov was chosen to officially replace Sergei Abramov, who was set to resign as a result of health problems derived from a car crash. Kadyrov had been functioning as the caretaker head of government since Abramov's accident. Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of assassinated former president Akhmad Kadyrov, was the leader of a powerful security militia, which has been accused of human rights abuses. Specifically, Kadyrov's security forces have been linked by Russian and international human rights groups to extra-judicial killings, torture and abductions. For his part, the new pro-Moscow head of government has denied the charges.
An attack by militants in Chechnya left at least six Russian soldiers dead and 20 wounded in early July 2006. According to reports, a military convoy was ambushed near the town of Avtury -- just to the south-east of the Chechen capital city of Grozny. A Chechen rebel website posted details of the attack and said that it had been carried out to avenge the killing of separatist leader, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, by Russian forces a few weeks prior.
In July 2006, Russian media reported that Chechen warlord and rebel commander, Shamil Basayev, was dead. Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia 's security service, said that Basayev had been killed in a special operation in Ingushetia on the border with Chechnya. According to reports, Basayev was among a group of militants who had been killed while preparing to carry out a terrorist act in Ingushetia. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Basayev's killing was "deserved retribution" for his many attacks, which had left a bloody legacy of thousands dead over the course of more than a decade.
After Russian troops withdrew from Chechnyain the mid-1990s, Basayev was defeated by Aslan Maskhadov in his bid for the Chechen presidency in 1996. He later served as prime minister in the self-proclaimed Chechen republic of Ichkeriain 1997. From the 1990s onward, he was known for his leadership role within the Chechen resistance, as well as his orchestration of terrorist activities aimed at achieving independence. To that end, Basayev was said to have been responsible for a host of major attacks by Chechen separatist rebels against Russia.
Basayev had been wanted by Russian authorities for his involvement in the October 2005 attack in Nalchik, the September 2004 seizure of a school in Beslan, the suicide bombing of two airliners in August 2004, the suicide bombing outside a metro station in Moscow also in the summer of 2004, the taking of theatre-attendees as hostages in October 2002, the takeover of a hospital in Budyonnovsk in June 1995, and the 1991 hijacking of an aircraft traveling from southern Russia to Turkey.
But Basayev was more than an architect of terrorist activities in Chechnya. Indeed, he was the central figure in the modern Chechen separatist movement. In many senses, he was the symbol of the independence enterprise. His death had to be regarded as a blow to the thrust for Chechen sovereignty and a coup for Putin's government.
In October 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment building in the Russian capital of Moscow. Reports stated that she had been shot repeatedly in the apartment elevator, and a pistol was found next to her body. Throughout the years, Politkovskaya had forged a reputation as a strong critic of the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya. Only days before being killed, she had been scheduled to publish and article dealing with kidnappings and torture in Chechnya. Her last published article had dealt with human rights abuses by a pro-Moscow militia in Chechnya. Her murder was thusly believed to have been politically-motivated. The Prosecutor-General of Russia has been charged with overseeing an investigation into her killing, was expected to consider if and how her journalistic focus may have been linked with her death.
On March 1, 2007, a new president of the breakaway republic of Chechnya was confirmed as president. Ramzan Kadyrov (discussed above as regards his appointment as prime minister) was nominated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and endorsed by the Chechen parliament. In an address to the Chechen parliament, he said that his focus would be on economic development.
Two years later in 2009, Russian authorities announced that Moscow was ending its “counter-terrorism operation” against separatist rebels in Chechnya. The move would end military operations in the semi-autonomous republic with a majority Muslim population after more than a decade. It would also set the foundation for “normalizing the situation,” according to Russia’s anti-terrorism committee. Russian authorities said that after years of violent unrest, Chechnya was not stabilized under the leadership of its pro-Kremlin leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.
For his part, Kadyrov responded to Moscow’s announcement saying, "We received the news about cancelling the counter-terrorism operation with great satisfaction." He continued, “ Now the Chechen Republic... is a peaceful, developing territory, and cancelling the counter-terrorism operation will only promote economic growth in the republic.”
Critics of Kadyrov have said that stability in Chechnya has come at a grave price -- via fear of violence. They alleged that he has used torture and death to intimidate his opponents. Human rights groups concurred that such allegations were not without merit. For his part, Kadyrov has dismissed such charges as untrue. Meanwhile, occasional unrest prevails in parts of Chechnya as well as the nearby regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.
In July 2009, prominent human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, was abducted in the Chechen capital of Grozny and later shot to death. Her body was discovered in a woodland in neighboring Ingushetia. Estemirova's apparent assassination was met by outrage in Russia and across the globe. She was the latest victim in a string of murders that appeared to target activists and journalists trying to bring attention to the human rights situation in Chechnya where a long-standing conflict between Muslim separatists in the semi-autonomous republic and Russian authorities intent on preserving territorial sovereignty. In recent times, that conflict has waned and, in fact, Russian authorities announced earlier in the year that Moscow was ending its “counter-terrorism operation” against separatist rebels in Chechnya. The abduction and murder of Estemirova was therefore seen as a blight on the increasingly stable political situation in Chechnya.
In reaction,the human rights agency, Memorial, as well as Russia's longest standing non-governmental organization, the Helsinki Group, both placed the blame for Estemirova's death on Chechnya's Kremlin-backed President Ramzan Kadyrov. For his part, Kadyrov denied any involvement and vowed to investigate the killing. Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also promised a full investigation as well as justice. But the Russian president went further in acknowledging that Estimrova was likely assassinated for political reasons. He said: "It is obvious to me that this murder is linked to her professional work and this work is necessary for any normal state." The Russian president then paid tribute to that work saying, "She did something very useful. She spoke the truth, she gave a very open and sometimes very tough evaluation of what's happening in the country. And that is the value of human rights campaigners, even if they make those in power feel uncomfortable." In so doing, President Medvedev broke new ground by rapidly, expressly and publicly condemning the assassination of a human rights activist with ties to Chechnya.
Written by Denise Youngblood Coleman, Executive Vice President and Editor in Chief, CountryWatch Inc.
Source: CountryWatch News Wire.