Actual News from Chechnya

News update

People suspected of planning a terrorist attack against the top Chechen leadership have been detained, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Saturday. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers acting together with the Chechen Interior Ministry detained Ruslan Arsanukayev and his accomplices. Arsanukayev has confessed to preparing terrorist attacks on the government complex and identified his accomplices, Shabalkin said. The suspect also reported certain information about himself that could be of interest to law enforcement agencies, including foreign ones, he said.
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An abandoned car that is believed to have been used by guerrilla leaders Abu Mujahid and Alash Daudov has been found in the suburbs of Grozny, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus said on Wednesday. "Law enforcement agencies are taking steps to search for and detain Mujahid and Daudov and other members of their group," the spokesman said. Daudov, leader of the Amanat Wahhabi group, is suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack on the Dubrovka theater in Moscow in October 2002 and raids on Ingushetia in June 2004 and Grozny in August 2004. He is also accused of playing a role in plotting last year's school siege in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. (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
(in detail ...)

Chechen economics. An Entrepreneurs Table Book Published in Chechnya

An Entrpreneurs Table Book with a circulation of 5,000 copies has been released in the Chechen Republic. Its appearance comes in the nick of time, as according to specialists, there about 5,000 small businesses, including farming collectives. This sector of the economy employes nearly 100,000 farmers. Over the next five years the Chechen leadership is targeting to double the number of small business and increase the number of employees up to 250-300 thousand people. The Republic has set up a modern support infrastructure for small business and developed programs of development and support of small entrepreneurship. And the most important thing is that there are dynamic people, ready to undertake small business. It is precisely for those people that An Entrepreneurs Table Book has been released. Its compilers include Shaarani Shuaipov Committee Chairman on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Chechen government, and Magomed Shovkhalov -- Fund Director in support of small entrepreneurship of the Chechen Republic.
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Issue 287
12.05.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

12 May 2005  Youth parliament opens in Chechnya
An important event has occurred in the life of Chechen youth: Toward the end of April the first session of the youth parliament was opened in government house in Grozny and was attended by the Chechen prime minister Sergei Abramov. A parliamentary speaker has been elected in the person of Hozh-Akhmed Haladov, deputy chief of the government committee on youth affairs who is also the head of the committee for the creation of a youth parliament. Representatives of all the faculties of the 3 state higher educational institutions, special secondary and trade secondary schools are in the youth parliament. Also represented are youth social organizations and active young people in the regions and towns. In all the youth parliament has 60 members. The house has commissions for the order of business, schedule of work, social and economic issues, employment and legal defense of youth, healthy life style, sport, healthcare, culture and education Leaders of the various commissions should submit their plan of work to the next session of parliament after the May holidays. The commissions will be accommodated in the premises of the committee on youth affairs and prime minister Abramov has promised that a joint meeting of the youth parliament, the head of government and officials of state structures will be held once a month to discuss youth problems. At the first session the issues of the creation by the youth of a park of culture and rest as well as the construction in the black sea of a rest camp for Chechen students were considered.
(more News from Chechnya...)

11 May 2005  Over 200 houses flooded in Grozny area
Over 200 houses are flooded in the Voikov residential area in Grozny as the Sunzha River has burst the banks. Last nights downpour in the Chechen highlands overfilled the rivers. There is a flood hazard in the Vedeno, Sunzha, Gudermes, Grozny, Urus-Martan, Achkhoi-Martan districts and the city of Grozny, Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov told Itar-Tass. Some houses are flooded in the village of Assinovskaya in the Sunzha district, where water has burst a concrete dam and the situation is difficult to control, he said. There are many oil spots on the water of the Sunzha River, which is carrying away crude naturally coming to the surface in the Grozny area. There is an environmental hazard to the Caspian Sea, where the Terek River flows. We cannot handle this situation independently, so we have asked the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry for help, Abramov said. Chechnya announced a flood emergency on May 3. The government assigned 3.5 million rubles for the republican emergency situations ministry, so that it would charter equipment and buy fuel and lubricants for the flood period. We are working day and night in cooperation with the Russian Defense Ministry to ensure the security of citizens. We have prepared vehicles for the evacuation of people from the flood zone. Some people, whose homes are flooded, have been moved to the homes of their relatives or temporary dwellings. They are being given aid, Abramov said. Weathermen predict more precipitation in the mountains, and the critical situation in the republican rivers will reach its climax this night.
(more News from Chechnya...)

11 May 2004  Suspected suicide bombing instructor detained in Chechnya
A suspected female instructor who is believed to have trained female suicide bombers has been detained in Chechnya. "Interior troops have detained an active member of illegal armed groups in Urus-Martan on suspicion of training female suicide bombers," spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Sunday. An investigation has been launched to track down female suicide bombers she has trained, Shabalkin said. He said, a member of the illegal armed group controlled by Saidullayev [Maskhadov's successor] has been detained in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district. The detainee is suspected of carrying out a series of terrorist attacks and blowing up motor vehicles in Grozny from 2001 to 2004, causing several deaths, Shabalkin said. He said a female terrorist who planned to blow herself up near a group of policemen was detained in Staropromyslovsky district on May 6. When a car was stopped for a check, a woman got out of the car and walked to the policemen. She disregarded the command to stop and warning shots, and was killed. Policemen found a bomb filled with explosives equivalent of 1.5 kilograms of TNT on her, Shabalkin said. The woman has not been identified yet, he said.
(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.
(in detail ...)

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