CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

The Month in Brief - August 2006

August 3

Four servicemen of the Chechen battalion North died after their car crashed near the central Chechen town of Argun.

Two Russian Interior Ministry servicemen were shot dead in Nazran.

The US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it had helped, within its Global Threat Reduction Initiative, remove radioactive waste, cobalt-60 and cesium-137, from a petrochemical production site in Chechnya. A day later Russia's Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy (Rosatom) said the operation was carried out by Russian experts and financed by Russia.

August 4

The Moscow-backed Chechen Parliament proposed to change the republic's constitution to harmonize it with the federal one.

August 5

The Moscow-backed Chechen authorities organized celebrations in Argun to mark the official completion of reconstruction of this third largest Chechen town.

August 6

Almost simultaneous explosions partly destroyed the retranslating equipment of Chechen monopolist mobile network Megafon in six different locations in and around Grozny.

August 7

Nowadays there are 1,500 full orphans in orphanages in the Chechen Republic, stated Chechen ethnographer Said-Magomed Khasiyev on local TV, according to the Russian-Chechen Information Agency.

August 8

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Defence Ministry and Interior Ministry to present by December 15 their plans for the withdrawal of a part of the units under their command from Chechnya, which could take place gradually in 2007-8. The planned withdrawal would only concern "temporarily deployed units", not the "permanently stationed" ones.

Umar Abuyev, former director of Grozneftekhimprom and presidential candidate in the 2004 elections, was arrested on fraud charges, the republic's Prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov announced.

August 9

The prosecutor of the Daghestani town of Buynaksk died in a car bomb attack. Later that day, the Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerey Magomedtagirov, who was travelling to the scene, was subjected to a car bomb attack as well, but he survived thanks to his car's armour.

August 10

An overnight assassination attack against the Prosecutor of Ingushetiya's Nazranovsky district, Gerikhan Khazbiyev, carried out at his residence in Nazran, resulted in the killing of his brother and injuring of about a dozen of other people.

August 11

The press service of the Moscow-backed Chechen President Alu Alkhanov announced that the Security Council of the Chechen Republic had been transformed into the Public and Economic Security Council and its head Khayrudi Visingeriyev replaced by Chechen presidential aide Gherman Vok.

August 12

At least two soldiers were killed and seven others injured when Chechen policemen and Russian troops fired on one another in an overnight friendly fire incident in Chechnya's Kurchaloysky district.

August 15

The Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the Mayor of Grozny Movsar Temirbayev that the center of the Chechen capital and its main roads should be rebuilt by the end of this year.

August 16

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkov arrived in Grozny, where he visited several construction sites and pledged to keep helping with the reconstruction of the Chechen capital.

August 17

The Moscow-backed Chechen authorities said nearly 120 guerrillas had decided to surrender to them since the July 15 appeal by Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the National Anti-terrorist Center and Federal Security Service. However, the FSB said they were mostly participants in the first war.

Elina Ersenoyeva, a staff member of the Chechen organization Info-Most and contributor to the newspaper "Chechen Society", was abducted by masked armed men in camouflage in the center of Grozny. Info-Most is a joint HIV/AIDS prevention project of UNICEF and the Chechen government's Youth Affairs Committee.

August 18

The Moscow-backed Chechen authorities showed Akhmad Umarov, the older brother of Chechen guerrilla leader Dokka Umarov, to the media, presenting him as a surrendered guerrilla, although he was detained one and a half year ago.

August 21

During his visit to Grozny, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev ordered that a plan should be drafted by mid-December according to which the Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry units temporarily deployed in Chechnya would be gradually withdrawn from the republic in 2007-8.

During his visit to Grozny, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev announced the dissolution of the Regional Counter-terrorist Operations Headquarters (ROSh) for the Northern Caucasus and the creation of the Operations Headquarters for Chechnya, with Russian Deputy Interior Minister and ROSh head Arkady Yedelev becoming the head of the new headquarters. The Joint Troops Group (OGV) in the Northern Caucasus has been preserved, Nurgaliyev added.

August 23

The Moscow-backed Chechen authorities organized various events marking the 55th birthday of the late Moscow-backed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov. However, many the planned events have eventually been cancelled due to the mourning for the 171 victims of the Russian aircraft crash in Ukraine on August 22.

August 24

Information emerged that Chechen journalist Elina Ersenoyeva, who was abducted by masked armed men in camouflage in the center of Grozny on August 17, was allegedly the last wife of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who was killed in Ingushetia on July 10.

Four Russian Interior Ministry servicemen were killed in a blast at their base in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district. While Russian sources said the soldiers were dismantling a mine, a pro-guerrilla source said it was an attack by resistance fighters.

August 25

The guerrillas have recently become more active in the North Caucasus regions that border Chechnya, said Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and National Anti-Terror Committee.

August 26

Three Russian policemen were killed in an attack by unknown gunmen in the Ingushetian village of Voznesenskaya near the border with North Ossetia.

The Moscow-backed Chechen human rights commissioner Nurdi Nukhazhiyev expressed concerns about the alleged ill-treatment of Chechen prisoners in Russia, namely in the regions of Ryazan and Pskov, where bases of Russian paratroop units deployed in Chechnya are located.

In Makhachkala, security forces killed Gadzhi Melikov, the alleged leader of guerrillas operating in the Daghestani capital. Two other alleged guerrillas as well as the owner of the house where they were hiding were also killed in the battle.

August 28

August 29

During his meeting with relatives of the children affected by the mysterious illness that hit Chechnya's Shelkovsky district in December 2005, the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov pledged to finance a visit by any renowned foreign expert who would determine the true reasons for the disease.

In Gudermes, about fifty guerrillas took part in a ceremony marking their alleged surrender. The ceremony was attended by the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov, who said the group also comprised several guerrilla commanders.

Ismail Barakhoyev, former head of the Ingushetian Interior Ministry's anti-organized crime department, was killed in Nazran.

Taymuraz Mamsurov, the president of North Ossetia, signed a decree on the dismissal of the republic's government.

August 30

About one hundred women staged a protest outside the office of Grozny's mayor against the abductions and illegal detentions of their relatives.

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)