Liudmila Alekseeva: "People in Chechnya fear to utter a word"

The last decade in Chechnya was "presented" to illegal armed formations (IAFs), believes Ruslan Martagov, a Chechen political analyst. Liudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, believes that people in Chechnya are still fearful.

Liudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, believes that during the rule of Ramzan Kadyrov the situation in the Chechen Republic has not deteriorated, because it had been very bad before; however, it has changed dramatically.

"It's still bad, but it's bad otherwise. The most important result of the decade is that people in Chechnya are terrorized and are very afraid to say an extra word. Because if they incur the wrath of the authorities, the repressions will be applied not only to this person, but to his or her all kin," Liudmila Alekseeva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This is, as she stressed, an absolutely "Stalinist practice, totally illegal and characteristic, first of all, for Chechnya."

According to her story, Chechnya has no more independent human rights organizations.

"They cannot work properly, because they are under complete control of the Chechen Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev. He invites heads of those organizations which irritate him, threatens them and demands to give up their words. He comes up with some collective letters, written on behalf of human rights defenders, puts their signatures without asking," said Liudmila Alekseeva.

In her opinion, the only organization able to operate in Chechnya is the united mobile group of rights defenders from other regions.

Nurdi Nukhazhiev himself often sharply criticizes the activities of Russian rights defenders in Chechnya, especially the work of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". "The person who is engaged in the state system of rights protection since 2002, and who had stretched a hand to them (to the HRC 'Memorial', - note of the 'Caucasian Knot'), was just myself. I included their representatives into all coordination boards and commissions, which were created in the republic, including the late Natasha Estemirova. I always went to meet them up until the 'Memorial' received a tough instruction from its leader Orlov," runs Mr Nukhazhiev's interview, published on April 8 this year on the website of the Chechen Ombudsman.

Nukhazhiev asserts that the aim of the Russian human rights organization is "a banal show-off"; and in general, the organizations, working from external funding, pursue political goals. "Negative information from the republic is spread via them," he said.

The Ombudsman also failed to value and appreciate the work of the united mobile group of lawyers and rights defenders from Russia's regions. "They are of absolutely no need in the republic: let let them defend human rights in their own regions," said Nukhazhiev.

Earlier, on October 15, 2010, at one of court sessions on Kadyrov's slander case against Oleg Orlov, head of the HRC "Memorial", Nukhazhiev stated that nobody cared so much about people's rights in Chechnya like Kadyrov.

Ruslan Martagov, a Chechen political analyst, noted in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that since former separatist Kadyrov-senior had been appointed to be head of the republic, a lot of irreparable things had been done in terms of fighting the terrorist underground in Northern Caucasus.

"All these 10 years were presented to militants by the federal leadership. We really have exchanged the asphalt compactor and construction crane for the fight against the ideology of terrorism. At the same time, we have nothing to oppose it, except for the so-called 'traditional Islam', which, as interpreted by local Mullahs, built-in into the vertical of power, causes rejection of young people and not still vividly expressed sympathy for those, who interpret the same texts of the Koran in some other language that they understand much better," said Martagov.

"It is a custom to say," said the Chechen political scientist, "that Ramzan Kadyrov has dispersed, by means of his tough fight, all the underground fighters, who had been present in the territory of Chechnya; and they, fearing his wrath, spread over other North-Caucasian republics."

"I'd treat these assertions as a serious blunder, because they can only be moved by a dilettante, who knows about the Caucasus only from the press. Please tell me, why should Wahhabis, or Salafis, as they call themselves, be at war with Kadyrov, if he does exactly what they had intended to do in the republic? They benefit from not spoiling his image," Ruslan Martagov has added.

According to his version, militants have got a chance, within this decade, by leaving Chechnya behind them, to tackle with other republics of Northern Caucasus.

"And it happened: in other republics they built very powerful military and, most importantly, ideological structures, since ideology is most important for them. Armed with ideology, they are quite easily able to recruit - instead of two slain militants - ten new and young ones. We see the results today," Martagov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Chechnya is in the process of clericalization; Muftiats become an integral "structure of production"; the official dress code has been introduced, said the analyst.

"We are called to give up many achievements of free society in order to return to our allegedly primordial past. This is an attempt of some institutionalized feudalization, aimed to build a theocratic state. This is exactly what Wahhabis wanted to do," said Martagov.

However, as the expert noted, this system will collapse one day, "and with such effect that the whole Russia won't be able to stand."

"Loyalty is only preserved as long as money comes. Once these flows cease, the loyalty will be immediately broken. Loyalty may be disrupted also in the event, when, having listened to some international human rights movements, they will somehow try to restrict the power of Kadyrov here. This all moves towards it," Mr Martagov has stressed.