CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

The Month in Brief - June 2006

June 1

Alu Alkhanov, the Moscow-backed Chechen President, visited the Council of Europe in Paris. He stated that the conflict in Chechnya "has been resolved".

June 2

Russia's Federation Council removed Vladimir Ustinov from the post of Prosecutor General at the formal request of Russian President Vladimir Putin to whom Ustinov submitted his resignation.

June 4

Two security officials died in Nazran when guerrillas opened fire at their car.

June 5

The lawyer of Nurpashi Kulayev, a Chechen national sentenced for life due to his involment in the September 2004 Beslan school siege, said that Kulayev had filed an appeal with Russia's Supreme Court against the verdict, which was pronounced by the North Ossetian Supreme Court on May 26, 2006.

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, the speaker of the lower house of the Moscow-backed Chechen Parliament, once again called for the unification of Chechnya and Ingushetiya.

June 7

Russia's Supreme Court ruled that the Captain Ulman case, in which four members of special forces of Russian military intelligence were accused of killing six Chechen civilians in 2002, would be re-heard by a panel of professional judges, not by a jury.

June 9

Unknown men driving in a car shot dead Musa Nalgiyev, the commander of Ingushetia's special police (OMON), along with his three underage children, a bodyguard and a driver in the Ingushetiyan village of Karabulak. In the nearby village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ghalina Goubina, deputy administration head of the Sunzhensky district in charge of a programme aimed at helping ethnic Russians return, was mortally wounded probably by the same attackers.

June 11

Chechen resistance leader and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev removed his special envoy to European countries Issa Askhabov from office, Chechenpress reported. Askhabov had been appointed to the post by Sadullayev on April 26, 2006.

June 13

Vakhit Mantsayev replaced Akhmarkhadzhi Gazikhanov as the speaker of the upper house of the Moscow-backed Chechen Parliament. No reasons were given.

The average subsistence level in Chechnya reached 3,006 roubles in the first quarter of 2006, up from 2,793 roubles in Q4 2005, Moscow-backed Chechen officials announced.

June 14

The first 100 days of Ramzan Kadyrov's Premiership were celebrated in Chechnya. The Moscow-backed Chechen parliament highly praised his work, which mostly focused on rebuilding the republic.

June 15

On a videotape published by the Kavkaz-Center website and dated March-April 2006, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed that 50,000 USD has been paid for the May 2004 killing of the Moscow-backed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov. Basayev added that he would pay 25,000 USD, or double the amount if necessary, for the killing of his son Ramzan Kadyrov, who is currently the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier.

Three guerrillas were killed in a security operation near the Ingushetian village of Ali-Yurt. One of them was Adam Nalgiyev, who carried out major attacks on law enforcers in Ingushetiya, according to Russian sources.

June 16

The Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov once again pledged to kill Shamil Basayev because of the Chechen warlord's involvement in the May 2004 assassination of his father and the then Moscow-backed Chechen President  Akhmad Kadyrov.

Russian Prosecutor General's Office once again put off the announcement of the results of their investigation into the September 2004 Beslan school siege, this time till January 2007, claiming additional tests were needed.

Representatives of the Moscow-backed Chechen forces announced that large scale security operations under the code name "Zaslon" had been underway across Chechnya since June 1.

June 17

Chechen resistance leader and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev was killed by Moscow-backed Chechen forces in Argun.

Subsequently, Chechen resistance sources announced that - according to the constitution of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria - veteran Chechen guerrilla commander and Ichkerian Vice-President Dokka Umarov became President.

June 23

In his first statement as President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dokka Umarov pledged to respond to Russia's aggression by expanding attacks into many regions of Russia, but to hit only military and police targets as well as national traitors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov Justice Minister. Russia's Federation Council approved the appointment of former Justice Minister Yuri Chayka as Prosecutor General.

June 24

Ibragim Mezhidov resigned as the head of the administration of the late President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and Chechen resistance leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, citing the June 17 killing of his superior and health reasons.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier, received the university degree of "Candidate of Economic Science" from the Business and Law Institute in the Daghestani capital of Makhachkala.

June 25

Three minor explosions took place in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz.

June 26

Pro-guerrilla Internet news agency Kavkaz-Center reported that in the middle of June Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev took part in a meeting with local guerrilla commanders in Russia's Krasnodarsky Region.

June 27

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev became Vice-President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, according to a decree signed by Ichkerian President Dokka Umarov and published by the pro-guerrilla Internet news agency Chechenpress.

Amnesty International awarded Russian human rights activists and journalists Stanislav Dmitriyevsky and Oksana Chelysheva of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, a Russian NGO based in Nizhny Novgorod, the "Journalism Under Threat" prize for their efforts to expose human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Russia's new Prosecutor General Yuri Chayka stated that Russia would keep seeking the extradition of the Chechen "separatist" representative Akhmed Zakayev from Great Britain.

June 29

A representative of the Moscow-backed Chechen police stated that Chechen guerrilla leaders Dokka Umarov and Shamil Basayev were hiding in the mountains of the neighbouring republic of Ingushetiya. However, the Ingush Interior Ministry promptly denied it.

Abubakir Baybatyrov, who in 2003-4 headed Chechnya's committeee on compensation for destroyed housing and lost property and who was arrested in November 2005, was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for misuse of powers, Chechen news agency Grozny-Inform reported, denying the June 26 media reports according to which he was convicted for fraud.
 

Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays to the subscribers of our free weekly newsletter.

(T,B)