Actual News from Chechnya

News update

A worker of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sayid-Hussein Deniyev, who went missing in Chechnya on January 13, 2004, has been found. "Deniyev's relatives called us on Saturday evening and told us he had returned home. We were happy to learn that he is back home and feels well," Anastasiya Isyuk, spokesman for the ICRC's Moscow office, told Interfax on Sunday. She declined to comment on where and how Deniyev, a worker of the ICRC's office in Grozny, had been found, noting that the ICRC had remained in touch with the authorities and Deniyev's family since he disappeared. Deniyev left the office in Grozny's Leninsky district at about 4 p.m., Moscow time, on Thursday, accompanied by two unidentified persons. He had not been seen ever since. Chechen Prosecutor Alexander Nikitin earlier told Interfax that Deniyev is being sought for. Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov said on Friday that the law enforcement agencies are doing everything possible to find Deniyev. The ICRC reported that Deniyev has been working with the ICRC's office in Grozny for over four years. He is married and has four children. Meanwhile, the fate of another worker of the ICRC's Chechen office, Usman Saidaliyev, remains unknown. Saidaliyev went missing in Chechnya in August, 2003.
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Police of the Russian North Caucasus republic Ingushetia have found several caches with arms in the course of a large scale security sweep, which has been carried out in the republic since January 11. All in all, police seized six hand grenade launchers, five projectiles for them, 40 propelling charges for grenade launcher projectiles, 15 hand grenades, a light machinegun, a 125-mm artillery shell, three makeshift bombs and 4,000 rounds of ammunition, a source at the press service of the Southern Federal Districts Police Headquarters told Tass Saturday. In addition, police have detained ten people on suspicion of having connections with illegal armed formations and 20 wanted criminals. Personnel of the republics Interior Ministry, three mobile detachments of the Russian Interior Ministry and units of Interior Ministry troops took part in the operation. The Ingush law enforcers have also carried out an ID check operation. They inspected private houses, inns, hostels, markets and settlements of refugees from Chechnya and the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. During the sweep, police checked 10,000 cars and found 15 cars stolen in other Russian regions. (more...)

Chechen history

Chechnya | Questions and answers

This pamphlet is about Chechnya, a Russian territory which has witnessed the most tragic events over the past decade. The book is the latest update on the Chechen Republic . And this is very important, since a lack of fresh and accurate information about events in Chechnya generates many distorted conceptions and rumours - both within and outside Russia . For example, that Chechen society is allegedly inherently alien to Russia , that pro-Russian elements in the republic are marginalised; and lastly, that Russian power structures are fighting the Chechen people, rather than armed bandit groups. The reality, however, is that only with the return of the legitimate authorities are villages and towns being restored, children going to school for the first time in many years, and pensioners receiving long-forgotten pensions, i.e. a social rebirth is underway. Lying ahead are a referendum on a new Chechen constitution, and parliamentary and presidential elections. These votes will be held, despite continued attempts by bandit groups and their leaders to scupper the process of normalisation in the republic, the latest terrorist act being the bombing of the republican government building. The war being waged by Chechen separatists against federal forces and more often than not against their own co-citizens is by no means a "national liberation struggle of the Chechen people", but an episode in the overall offensive by international terrorism on the fundamental principles of modern civilisation. The facts show that being a part of the Russian Federation in no way threatens the Chechen Republic 's cultural identity, the free use of its own language, and preaching Islam. On the contrary, it was during de facto "independence" from Russia that the Chechen people suffered a humanitarian tragedy on an unprecedented scale. Hostage-taking, the slave trade and plundering came to form the economic basis of the new regime, while chaos and war became the form of its political existence. We want to emphasise once more: Chechnya is part of Russia , geographically, politically and civilisation-wise. So a hypothetical triumph of radical Islamism on its territory would be anti-historical. Such a development would signify the establishment in the midst of Europe of a Taliban-like regime, with all ensuing consequences for the international community. The corporate author - journalists of the Russian Information Agency Novosti - have attempted to be as brief as possible on providing answers to the most-often aked questions (above all posed by a foreign audience) about the Chechen issue. Hence the book's title: " Chechnya : Questions and Answers". It draws heavily on information provided by various Russian ministries and departments that in one or another way are involved in normalising life in the republic.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
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Chechen economics

Russian savings bank is restoring its branches in Chechnya

TheNorth Caucasus branch of the Russian savings bank was opened in the middle of December in prospect Pobedy, house number 5 in Grosny, where all existing 40 banking operations can be carried out. Money can be received and sent to any part of Russia, payment for communal services and other financial operations can be effected. In addition to the Grozny branch another one has been operating for 3 years in the Naursk settlement, serving in the man, private individuals and enabling residents to keep money safe in the bank. It also pays compensation for depreciated savings and accepts payment for communal services. In an interview for the free Chechnya radio chairman of the North Caucasus subsidiary of the Russian savings bank Viktor Gavrilov has said that among the functions of the banks branches in Chechnya is paying both state and local compensations to Chechens, including for lost and damaged property and house arising from the fighting in Chechnya. They equally pay compensation to former account holders as well as pay out states pension and benefits. The recently signed agreement between the Chechen prime minister, Sergei Abramov and the chairman of the Russian savings bank, Andrei Kazymin on compensations payment envisages the orders of remittance and payment into special account of residents as well as payouts and accounting. The agreement lists out affiliates of the North Caucasus savings bank in which a special account can be opened. Apart from the branches in the Nausk village and Grozny 6 other branches are also to pay out money. They are located in the border regions of Chechnya: two are in the Dagestani branch in the town of Kizlyar, pereulok Rybni, house number 4-A and the town of Hasav-Yurt, Daibova street, house number 8. In Ingushetia; the town of Malgabek, Gardanova street number 27; in the village of Ordzhonikidzovskaya, Oskanova street number 34; the town of Nazran, prospect Bazorkin, 10; and in the town of Mozdok, Kirov street, house number 61. The Russian savings bank is to enlarge services to clients in Chechnya with the granting of loans to buy goods, building materials as well as give out mortgage credits. The participation of the savings bank in economic projects in Chechnya is under active consideration and an agreement is to be signed with republican leaders on the construction of apartment buildings. In 2005 the 3rd branch of the North Caucasus subsidiary of the Russian savings bank will be commissioned in Gudermes and the opening of other branches in several parts of Chechnya will follow.
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Issue 255
18.01.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

18 January 2005  Telephone services to be provided for Naursk region
The telephone is fast becoming a commodity in high demand in Chechnya and in 2004 the Naursk electronic communication hub did a marvelous job. Chief of the center Elmurza Musayev has used professional language in describing what has been done. Work in three pilot regions has been completed: they pertain to the main line and the distributing line, he said. That means that we can now add 300 telephone lines to the existing 40. But the 40 existing ones have been provided to government and ministerial offices. New telephone lines will be supplied not only to companies but also to private citizens in the region. We have received about. 200 applications, an eloquent testimony to the return of normalcy to Chechnya, said Mr. Musayev. Installation fee for individual is 5 thousand rubles, but a year ago only a few could afford to pay that sum of money. Elmurza Musayev is quite satisfied with the financing of the work of providing telephones to the residents and he also has enough equipment and specialists. In the old 2004 year one of his men graduated as a specialist and will now be responsible for providing telephones to the Kalinovskaya stanitsa, for which the quantum station has been supplied, leaving the installation to be completed. In the new year the station will be using its own telephone facility in place of the present reliance on the exchange facility and the armys telephone. Naursk region is not limiting its plans to the Kalinovskaya stanitsa for in the new year Alpatovo will get a telephone facility. A New Years present has been made ready for many families in the Naursk region.
(more News from Chechnya...)

17 January 2005  Alkhanov once again speaks against talks with Maskhadov
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has yet again spoken against negotiations with Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov and pledged that Maskhadov and prominent guerilla leader Shamil Basayev will be hunted down soon. "Aslan Maskhadov has cut off his path back to politics and normal life forever," Alkhanov said in an interview with Interfax. "I sometime find it difficult to understand the people who call from various rostrums and newspaper pages for negotiating with Maskhadov. These so-called experts on Chechnya are far from reality like heaven and earth. I wonder how they imagine Maskhadov's legalization since he publicly associated himself with dozens of terrorist attacks that claimed hundreds of lives. Can they imagine what an army would have to be appointed to guard Maskhadov from the relatives and beloved ones of hundreds of terrorist attack victims in Grozny, Nadterechnaya district, or Belorechye, who are eager to tear him to pieces?" Alkhanov said. He suggested that the problem of capturing Maskhadov and Basayev "might be resolved quite unexpectedly." "They are being searched for by perfectly trained task forces capable of thrashing any bodyguard units and detaining them," Alkhanov said. He refrained from answering whether there is intelligence on the possible whereabouts of Maskhadov and Basayev.
(more News from Chechnya...)

17 January 2004  7,000 Muslim pilgrims cross Russian border in N. Caucasus
More than 7,400 Moslem pilgrims en route to Mecca have crossed the Russian border through checkpoints of the Federal Security Service's North Caucasus Border Department in the past month, a source in the department's press service told Interfax on Monday. "More than 7,400 Moslems on a hajj to Islamic holy places have legally crossed the border. Not a single militant has tried to cross the border under the disguise of a pilgrim. No one has tried to smuggle weapons or other prohibited items," the source said.
(more News from Chechnya...)

Russia - Chechnya

Chechen culture

The modern-age Chechen literature started in the 1920s when writers and poets in Chechnya established contacts with colleagues in other parts of the Soviet Union. It was a close concern of such great founding fathers of the Soviet literature as A.Serafimovich, M.Gorky and M.Golodny. A.Serafimovich was a frequent visitor to Chechnya at the time. In 1929, he attended an executive meeting of the Grozny Association of Proletarian Writers. In an address to the gathering, he called on the Chechen writers 'to move as one into real life'. In 1930, he sponsored the publication of a Russian version of the poem 'To the Time of the Tsars' by the Chechen poet Said Baduyev. The poem was published in the opening issue of the NA PODYEME ('On the Rise') literary journal. In the late 1920s and in the opening half of the 1930s, M.Gorky was in overall charge of inter-ethnic literary exchanges within the Soviet Union. His favourite method was dispatching writer support brigades to outlying Soviet republics and regions. Said Baduyev in 1932 responded to this by publishing an essay entitled 'Maxim Gorky is Our Teacher'.
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Chechen tarditions

The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev is an utmost important work at a time when the life in Chechnya is returning to normal. Edi Isaev is a historian, Professor at the Chechen State University, writer and publicist directs his book to youth. In introduction he emphasizes: "The norm of Vainakh ethics is the code of wise truths of people that reflects their ideals." The book is educational. It contains the ideas on ethics by thinkers of various people and various times from Epicurus and Confucius A.S. Makarenko and L.N.Toltoi. The second chapter is devoted to ethic norms of Chechens. The third chapter considers in detail traditional family ethic code. The final chapter is devoted to Islamic ethic norms. Materials from the book Vainakh Ethics by Edi Isaev is devoted to customs and traditions of Chechens.
(more about chechen traditions...)

Chechen cuisine

"The Chechens, like the rest of the highlanders, avoid extremes in their eating and drinking habits. What they usually eat is chureks or corn bread with mutton lard spread on it, and wheat stew with lard in it; water is their basic refreshment." "...Unleavend wheat or barley bread baked on charcoal, milk and cheese constitute their daily menu; meat is eaten, very rarely, by the richest of the Chechens." That was written about the Chechen eating habits in the 19th century. And it was not until the late 19th century that many vegetables grown in Europe - tomatoes, cabbage, radish - had found their way to the kitchen gardens of mountainous Chechnya. Chechen farming units have, since times immemorial, been self-sufficient, with only spices and sweetmeats being bought at the market. And, although they have become familiar with the cuisines of many other ethnic communities, the Chechen women cherish the very special culinary traditions of their own.
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