Actual News from Chechnya

News update

The route of bus number 4 is the longest and most difficult in the Chechen capital. 12 state fixed route taxis and 30 private ones are plying the route and moreover, passengers using the route also enjoy the services of private car owners who carry passengers without a license and or agreement. A raid has therefore been undertaken to find out such cases but there remains the problem of lack of appropriate, well equipped stops. At the bus terminals passengers wade through dirt to reach vehicles and drivers have nowhere to make a turn also due to the ever present dirt. The problem is being looked into by city authorities but so far no measure has been taken. Reason? Lack of funds. But attempts are being made to improve public transport service in the Chechen capital and 4 additional buses have been allocated to route number 4. The fare on that route is 4 rubles, twice cheaper than by fixed route taxi. Passengers are satisfied and happy.
(more...)

The ecological environment in Chechnya has significantly deteriorated. The level of deleterious exhausts into the atmosphere has increased, the rivers are greatly polluted, and large segments of forests are mined. According to Magomed Mamakayev _ Department Chief of the Chechen Security Council _ no significant measures to improve the situation are being undertaken. Although some burning oil wells have been extinguished, which are being taken care of by _Grozneftegaz_. And this is the only positive moment concerning the improvement in ecology in the Republic. The atmosphere is badly damaged by the mini oil refineries located in the pre-mountainous villages of the Kurchaloi, Gudermes and Shali regions The capital_s chemical combine is the greatest threat to the ecological environment in Grozny. One of its shops contains storage of radioactive materials. Radioactive radiation exceeds normal levels by scores thousands of times. But there are no funds to eliminate them. It will require 22 million roubles today to restore ecological balance in the Chechen Republic. (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.
(more...)

Issue 295
30.06.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

30 June 2005  Chechnya_s only newspaper that is being distributed free-of-charge
This daily is Daimokhk, which has been published in Chechen language since 1923. The first issue of the newspaper came out of print on the 23rd of April and under a decree by Chechen President Alu Alkhanov this day will be marked as the Chechen Language Day. The deputy editor-in-chief Buvaisar Schamsudinov says that the teachers of the Novoatagin secondary school were the first to receive the information about the move and they were very happy. The editorial board traditionally holds such meetings every week. This makes possible for journalists to get information about all problems that worry the society. The journalists try to highlight them in the issues published twice a month with 10 thousand copies. The newspaper examines regularly political, economic and cultural issues. B. Schamsudinov is focussed on moral issues. He believes that it is high time to teach the society to think correctly and assess the developments in the republic appropriately. The newspaper is basically oriented to residents in rural areas and youth. And Schmasudinov believes that there is a need to talk to young people in a simple and understandable language as they are the future of the republic. This is not a difficult job for the staff, which consists of 30 people. Only three of them are under fifty the rest is youth.
(more News from Chechnya...)

29 June 2005  Shali Provides Home for 89 Orphans
This home is the republican socio-rehabilitation center for minors commissioned a couple of years ago. Now it houses 89 children. The youngest of them are three years old. Eighty four of them live in the center itself, while five, aged from 3 to 11, reside in family educational groups, created at the center. These groups are a novelty in the center_s activities and this novelty has gone down well. These groups are led by the center_s educators. The children in their charge live with their families. They are cared for with the same affection and attention as their own children. The center provides them with food, clothing and footwear. foster children from the center attended classes in the neighboring middle school # 10 last school year. And nearly all of them received _b_ (good) and _a_ (excellent) grades (marks). Such academic achievements are , of course, attributable to the children themselves. But the center made its own contribution into that. Two classes were opened of additional studies which are given by social tutors who have considerable school teaching experience with children. The center closes for summer vacations, as children leave for rest and sanatorium treatment. This summer the children leave for Nalchik and Gelenjik. Each group of 6 children is accompanied by an educator. And each three-year-old foster child from the center will have an individual educator during the summer rest. Ruslan Berdukayev _ the center_s director says proudly that it has become a real native home for the children. _We do our utmost so that the children begin to smile and be provided with everything necessary. It is hard to overestimate the noble mission that the Shali center carries on. But he himself needs assistance. The center lacks a sports gym and play grounds for the younger children, as well as facilities to teach the kids work habits. And the children live in large multi-bed sleeping rooms, although the federal law # 120 calls for settling no more than 5-7 children to a room. Repair work was recently done at the center under the federal program, but the construction workers failed to install partitions in the sleeping rooms. The center_s employees, after sending the children on summer vacation, will do the work themselves. Ruslan Berdukayev is sincerely grateful to the Labor and Social Development Ministry of the Chechen Republic for rendering assistance to the center. And he hopes that other co-founders of the center, such as the Health Ministry and the Interior Ministry of the Republic, will not neglect the current needs of the center.
(more News from Chechnya...)

28 June 2004  Lipetsk Designers Help Rebuild Naur Region
The program of cooperation between Naur and Lipetsk regions is in its third year. Last spring Lipetsk_s _Grazhdanproyekt_ research and design institute joined this program. This institute is a leading organization in the sphere of designing the construction of civil projects. The institute has gained profound experience and excellent specialists work for it. And when representatives of Naur region turned to Lipetsk region_s leadership for help in rebuilding a hospital and a boarding school for 360 children, no question arose which organization would handle the job. A group of 30 leading specialists was formed, practically completed design and assessment papers for rebuilding these much needed sites. In order to do a quality job, Lipetsk specialists visited Naur and took all necessary measurements, because no documentation on the damaged sites were available, since all archives vanished in the 90s. Those who went to Naur acknowledged that after reading all those horror stories about the situation in Chechnya, they went with considerable foreboding. But their apprehensions dissipated as soon as they arrived there. They were given a hearty welcome and accorded all the necessary conditions for work and acquaintance with the region_s life and how it was being restored. The Lipetsk specialists who went to Naur now say that they would gladly go there again. Their Naur friends received a complete set of documents and technological sketches, prepared by the Lipetsk institute. They include restoration work schemes, engineering equipment, exterior networks, facade designs and layouts of the adjoining territory. Lipetsk specialists will themselves oversee the whole process of construction work. Its implementation is entrusted to an experienced contractor, which has already established a close contact and complete cooperation with the institute and with the leadership of Naur region. Lipetsk specialists are certain that reconstruction of the hospital and the boarding school will be carried out with the highest quality. Tatyana Nechayeva _ the institute_s general director notes that _if need be, the institute_s employees will continue their cooperation with Naur region on other projects, which require reconstruction or development_.
(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 ...)

Copyright © CHECHNYA FREE.RU