Actual News from Chechnya

News update

Unknown attackers opened fire on the military commandants office in the Leninsky district of Chechnyas capital Grozny on Monday. An Itar-Tass correspondent in Grozny said some five shells were shot with a grenade-launcher at 9:05 Moscow time. The attack has left injured military servicemen, a number of who was not immediately certain. Personnel of the military commandants office has begun the search in the district. According to preliminary information, fire was opened from one of passing cars. The military commandants office of the Leninsky district is located in a sector of governmental buildings near a base of the regional Emergency Situations Ministry, on which several shots were fired with a under barrel grenade-launcher in last years August. The attack then left no casualties.
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It is too early to predict what influence the death of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov will have on the settlement process in Chechnya, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Russia told Interfax on Thursday. The U.S. government admits that Aslan Maskhadov was a key figure in the Chechen conflict, the spokesman said. What impact Maskhadov's death will have on steps aimed at ending the conflict in Chechnya is yet to be seen, he said. (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

Chechnyas railway infrastructure is being reconstructed

Russian Railways Company spent 915 million rubles for this purpose last year. A share-holder company in the republic has carried out all reconstruction work in the railway infrastructure since 2004 under an agreement between the two sides on joint work. This means, reconstruction of railway stations and railroads, new communication centeres, food supply enterprises and pharmacies is being carried out according to a plan. The territories of railway stations Alpatevo, Nayrskaya, Solkushino, Chervlennaya-yzlovaya, Gudermes, Dzhalka, Argun and Grozny have been reconstructed. The guarded zones near the bridges over the rivers of Sunzha and Belka are supplied with electricity and the main cable link, Isherskaya-Chervlennaya-Yzlovaya-Khasavyurt is repaired. The Grozny department of the North Caucasian railway infrastructure was restored in September last year by an order of the director of the Russian Railways Company, Gennady Fadeev. It has recruited its staff too. The staff of the locomotive depot Gudermes has been determined and locomotive brigades have been set up to carry out maintenance work of carriages. The reconstruction works includes the restoration of social facilities. In all 22 houses of railway workers have been repaired. The overall area of the buildings is 8 thousand square meters. The start of the direct railway link between Grozny and Moscow after a 5-year break was a significant event. By taking into account the desire of passengers the train passes through Rostov-on Don but not Astrakhan. This shortens the way by one hour. Russian Railways Company plans to invest 82 million rubles this year to reconstruct facilities of the railway infrastructure in Chechnya. This sum will be spent to electrify some sectors and restore communication network.
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Issue 271
14.03.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

14 Mart 2005  Russia against discussing Chechnya at UN commission session
Russia has warned the European Union and the U.S. against putting a draft resolution on the situation in Chechnya on the agenda of the upcoming regular session of the UN Commission on Human Rights to open in Geneva on March 14. "Russia has never refused to cooperate on the Chechen issue with the international community. However, we will not allow anyone to gamble on the theme of human rights observance in Chechnya and try to derive some opportunistic political dividends from this," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said in an interview with Interfax.
(more News from Chechnya...)

14 Mart 2005  Three militants detained in Chechnya
Three militants were detained in Chechnyas Shali district and in the city of Argun on Sunday. One was a leader of a band in 1999-2000 when federal troops conducted a military campaign against large bands in Chechnya. A spokesman for the North Caucasus Regional Operational Staff told Itar-Tass on Monday that this gunman was known to be involved in terrorist acts in the Grozny and Gudermes districts, in which policemen and civilians were injured. Two other bandits were members of a group operating in the Shali district. Both had taken part inn the attack on the village of Avtury in June 2004 when 12 policemen were killed. The investigation into the record of the detainees has begun.
(more News from Chechnya...)

14 Mart 2004  Russian regional UNESCO office to be opened in Grozny
The Russian Commission on UNESCO Affairs will open a regional office in Grozny, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov told Interfax on Saturday. "This will be the first regional UNESCO office opened on Russian territory," Alkhanov said. Alkhanov and the commission's executive secretary, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, discussed the construction of a national museum in Grozny on Saturday. A museum named after painter Pyotr Zakharov, which earlier existed in Chechnya, was razed to the ground during the hostilities, and its exhibits have been lost or looted. In addition, Alkhanov and Ordzhonikidze decided at the meeting that a campus with an aqua-park and a cultural and entertainment complex should be opened on the grounds of the Chechen State University.
(more News from Chechnya...)

Russia - Chechnya

Chechen culture

The fifth filial of Mikhail Y. Lermontov - the great Russian poets museum opened in an ancient house in the village of Paraboch of the Shelkovki Region in Chechnya . The house is nearly 250 years old and it belonged to a local landlord, retired general Akim Khastatov whose wife Yekaterina Stolypina was a distant relative to Lermontovs grandmother Yelizaveta Arsenyevna. The latter visited Khastatovs estate several times. And she took along young Mikhail, whom she raised after his mothers death. In 1837 during his exile to the Caucasus, Lermontov revisited the home of his relatives. In 1841, he went there for the last time shortly before his death. The building has been well preserved. In 1990 restoration work was begun to make a museum of the great poet. But the events of the past decade postponed all restoration work. Fortunately the building wasnt damaged in the course of hostilities. But it is in need of maintenance. The most important thing that its internal architecture, the living room, window shutters and certain items that the poet may have touched, have all been preserved. In 2004 museum personnel was formed. Svetlana Temirbulatova a learned person and a known philologist in Chechnya was appointed the museums director. The employees will be allocated part of the museum as a working area. The employees will engage in search of items and materials of Lermontovs time and complete the museums exposition. As soon as the building is passed over into the Chechen Culture Ministry care, restoration and maintenance work will get underway. Later on it will receive its first visitors.
(chechen culture ...)

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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