CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Chechen opinion thinks Ramzan Kadyrov will be republic’s new head

By Umalt Chadayev

CHECHNYA – Dmitry Kozak, the Russian President’s special representative in the Southern Federal District, arrived today in Grozny for consultations on the selection of a  new Chechen President. Meanwhile, hardly anyone in Chechnya doubts that the next head of the republic will be Ramzan Kadyrov, who is currently acting President.

 "Today the first stage of consultations for the selection of a new President of the republic begins in Grozny. The Federal Russian President’s special envoy Dmitry Kozak will discuss this question with  representatives of political parties, public and youth organizations, and the clergy,” the office of the president and government of the Chechen Republic has announced. “Each party or movement has the right to propose its own candidate. Two or three individuals will be selected from the list of candidates, and their candidacies will then be presented to the President of Russia for confirmation."

On February 15 Chechen President Alu Alkhanov left his post and prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov was appointed temporary acting head of the republic. This event was marked in Chechnya by shooting in the air and dancing. By literally the morning after Alkhanov’s resignation the many and numerous portraits of him had disappeared from the streets of Grozny and other population centres.

"The report of Alkhanov’s departure and Ramzan Kadyrov’s appointment came late at night. And almost immediately the streets of the city began to resound with the merciless firing of submachine guns, machine guns and other weapons,” 45-year-old Gudermes resident Abdul Yasayev says. “That was how the local ‘siloviki’ celebrated Ramzan Kadyrov’s appointment. After that, ‘mass popular festivities’ were organized, also with shooting and dancing. As far as I know, the same thing happened in other cities and regional centres, not to mention Tsentoroy (the Kadyrovs’ ancestral village in south-eastern Chechnya).”

Hardly anyone in Chechnya today doubts that Ramzan Kadyrov will be the next head of the republic. This is all the more likely as the representatives of the United Russia Party in Chechnya, which has an absolute majority in both chambers of the Chechen parliament, have already announced that Ramzan Kadyrov is their candidate for the post of president.

"Everyone in Chechnya knows perfectly well that Ramzan Kadyrov is the master of the republic. Almost no one has any doubt that he will be the next president,” a local political analyst is convinced. “All these consultations and proposals of candidates are just an attempt to show a bit of ‘democratic spirit’. Some people are saying that Magomed Vakhayev, currently Minister of Labour and Social Development will be put forward as a rival candidate. And perhaps another couple of people will be proposed. But even if Moscow doesn’t appoint Kadyrov, but someone else, Kadyrov will remain the real leader of the republic", the observer thinks.

(T/MD)