Actual News from Chechnya

News update

Chechnyafree.ru Internet-portal took part in the second International festival of non-commercial internet projects, which was held from 2003 by the Web-masters Union of Russia and sponsored by the Federation Union, the State Duma, the Moscow City Government. Taking part in it were state, commercial and public organizations. The festival is aimed at spreading Russias non-commercial internet space and supporting youth initiatives dealing with social problems, reducing extremist tendencies in our society and strengthening international ties. More than 3,000 people representing 468 data resource managers from Russia, the Commonwealth countries, the Baltic states and other foreign countries participated in the festival in 2004. The final program of the festival took place in Moscow from January 18 through January 23, 2005 and it featured seminars, instruction and master-classes with leading IT experts. The festival declared Chechnyafree.ru the winner in the Best Information Regional Project nomination. On January 20 at a ceremony in the Smaller Hall of Russias Federation Union, an official of the information policy committee of the Federation Union presented it with an honorary diploma. Video ...
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A final settlement will be achieved in Chechnya without the involvement of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov or his foreign emissaries, Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told Interfax on Wednesday. "The settlement of the situation the republic, including political, is in its final stage and nobody is asking their opinion," Dzhabrailov said. This was his commentary on an article that Maskhadov's envoy Akhmed Zakayev published in a Western newspaper, in which he claimed that armed resistance has not been crushed and the recent cease-fire declared by Maskhadov is a chance for peace in Chechnya. (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

The Construction Directorate maintains its active effort in Chechnya

The Federal Construction agency singed an agreement with the Chechen government to transfer the function of state contracts to the Republic. In fact, this process began last year. The Chechen government thus assumes overall control over the construction of sites in Minutka Square, Zhukov and Dudayev avenues, as well as two schools, nursery. All the rest sites begun in 2001, still unfinished due to lack of financing, will be left to the Federal State enterprise the Chechen Construction and Restoration Directorate. They will carry on with construction and assembly work. The state contractors, including Gosstroy, Rosobrazovaniye, Rossport, Roszdrav, Minselkhoz, Industry Ministry and many others, have commissioned more than 200 infrastructure objects. These sites have been certified by state commissions and have been commissioned to local authorities.
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Issue 264
18.02.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

18 February 2005  Arms cache found near railroad track in Dagestan
An arms cache was found near the railroad track in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan, a source in the Khasavyurt station's police department told Interfax on Thursday. The police found a shoulder-held grenade launcher, ammunition, gunpowder and bomb components, the source said. OMON special task forces are confiscating videocassettes and CDs with terrorist act recordings at Chechen marketplaces. Hundreds of such videocassettes and CDs were confiscated at the central marketplace of Grozny over the past day alone, commander of the Chechen Interior Ministry's OMON special task unit Artur Akhmadov told Interfax.
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17 February 2005  Council of Europe will not open Chechnya office
"We are not going to open an office in Chechnya again," Council of Europe Secretary General Terri Davis said at a news conference. He recalled that the CE once had an office in Chechnya and closed it two years ago. Mr. Davis also drew the attention of journalists to the round table on Chechnya slated for late March. He noted meeting would be in round-table format and that it was originally to be held in Grozny, but then cancelled. The CE wanted to hold the meeting "somewhere in between Moscow and Strasbourg and then opted for the former," he said. The Chechnya round-table idea was advanced at the PACE fall 2004 session. The Russian delegation has insisted that participants not be people engaged in terrorism or those who don't recognize Russia's territorial integrity. Mr. Davis also emphasized that the CE condemns terrorism in any form and that he advocates Russia's territorial integrity.
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17 February 2004  Two active members of armed groups captured, arms caches found in Chechnya
Two active members of armed groups have been detained in Chechnya on Tuesday. A spokesman at the North Caucasus Regional Operational Staff told Itar-Tass that one militant had taken training at a camp of Arab mercenary Khattab in the village of Serzhen-Yurt. His involvement in many kidnaps of civilians has been established. A mobile unit of the Russian Interior Ministry in Chechnya also detained a 20-year-old resident of Baitarki. He had been on a federal wanted list for grave crimes. The two bandits were placed in a detention prison. The investigation is underway. Federal troops have spotted, on information from locals, an arms cache Chernorechye suburb of Grozny. It contained 300 grammas of plastid, two Kenwood radios, an army grenade, cartridges and cables for homemade explosive devices. Police have found another arms dump in a Chechnya-bordering area of Dagestan. An earlier detained militant showed its place. The dump contained a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a handgun, a gas pistol with a silencer remade into a firearm, rounds of ammunition for small arms and a homemade bomb made of 300 grammas of TNT and a clock. It has been ascertained that the Kalashnikov rifle had been seized when bandits took hostage the family of a head of the Kurchaloi district of Chechnya.
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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.
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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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