Latest Updates: Chechnya RSS
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thabet
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johnpi
The Islamic revival in Chechnya worries Russians, even though Chechnyan leadership is appointed by Moscow. Islamic policies are flouting some tenets of the Russian constitution. Polygamy, for example, is illegal in Russia but practiced in Chechnya.
The head of Chechnya’s Centre for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian constitution.
“If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion,” he told Reuters near Europe’s largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union fell in 1991.
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johnpi
Chechen rebels claim Russian train bombing that killed 26.
Related: A paper from a neoconservative UK think tank linked from a Russian newswire with the spooky title, “Russia’s domestic Muslim strategy – the lurking threat.”
Criticizing neocon analysts is like shooting fish in a barrel (people of the northern Caucasus have an “inherent, traditional inclination towards long wars in the region…”), but this particular paper has a lot of information about the state of Islam in Russia and the surrounding region, and is provocative in describing Russian elite thinking and doctrine on addressing the growth of Islam and Islamism.
If Russia has an overall strategy vis-à-vis Islam and the Muslim world, it is replete with contradictions and can be understood only within the framework of how Russians see their place in the world now and in the years ahead. There is the constant contradiction between a feeling of worthlessness and the sentiment of superiority, of having a mission to fulfill.
Worthlessness found its classical formulation in Chaadayev’s Philosophical Letters (1836): we had neither a Renaissance nor an Enlightenment, we have contributed nothing to world culture, we have not added a single idea, but we disfigured everything we touched. We belong neither to West nor to East…Chaadayev’s diagnosis has influenced Russian thinking to this day and is frequently quoted.
On the other hand, there is the feeling of superiority, the view of Russia as the Third Rome possessed of a unique mission in the world….Yuri Petukhov, recently deceased, was a widely read science fiction writer. Shortly before his demise he formulated his political views and prophecies in Russkii mirovoi poryadok (The Russian World Order). According to him, all foreigners are Nean-derthals and degenerates (the term appears a thousand times in his book), Europe and America were created by Russians and should be repossessed, all Russian leaders including Lenin and Khrushchev (a weakling who did not dare to go to war over Cuba) were traitors. Only the great Stalin is an exception.
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johnpi
Kadyrov, 33, was once a separatist but switched sides, recasting himself as an Islamic leader who is also loyal to Moscow.
At first, his injection of national pride along with lots of money from the central government in Moscow soothed war-weary Chechens.
And at first, the process of Islamization was voluntary. Any female student who wore a headscarf initially earned a prize of $1,000. Now all females, regardless of their religious convictions, must cover their heads in schools and government offices.
Kadyrov has banned the sale of European-style wedding dresses in the republic’s bridal salons. Polygamy is increasing. Members of the team around Kadyrov openly have several wives. Kadyrov has also supported honor killings.
Lipkhan Bazaeva, who runs a nongovernmental organization promoting women’s rights, says Chechnya is going back to the Middle Ages.
“Yes, we are a traditional, conservative society, with our own values, but the government has gone overboard, declaring unacceptable limits on women — that they should sit at home, they should obey their husbands,” she says. “As an individual, she has no rights even if her husband beats her, despite Russian laws to the contrary.”
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abunoor
GQ has apparently published a story by journalist Scott Anderson which questions Russian security service involvement in the 1999 Moscow apartment building attacks which led to the second Chechen war “Vladimir Putin’s Dark Rise to Power. However, this NPR story tells how the magazine’s publisher has prevented the article from appearing in Russia or on the internet.
Give us a link when it does get on the internet…it’s got to right?
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thabet
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thabet
Political gangster denies he is a political gangster; accuses others of political gangsterism:
Estemirova’s colleagues blame Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. They accuse him of fostering an atmosphere of impunity in which the abductions and killings of his critics take place. But in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Kadyrov denies the accusations. He says his only concern is the welfare of Chechnya’s residents, and blames the West for spreading lies about him.
This as two more human rights campaigners are murdered in Chechnya.
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johnpi
Chechen president blamed for murder of award-winning human-rights activist Natalya Estemirova.
“This is a devastating personal loss … she was instrumental to all of us – researchers, journalists, human rights defenders – everyone who would come to Chechnya on the job would talk to Natalya,” she said.
“Natalya was providing invaluable information from the region, she was that one person whom the victims trusted fully … without Natalya, they have no one to give them a voice. And this is something the Chechen government knew quite well.”
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thabet
BBC news report on Russia’s formal end to its war against the Chechens.
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abunoor
With their Stalinist agent Ramzan Kadyrov firmly in place, Russia says it is pulling troops out of Chechnya.
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thabet
A Chechen rebel was assassinated in Dubai over the weekend.
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thabet
An old story: dress your political gangsterism in religious motifs and hope no one notices what a corrupt, vile, murderous thug you are.
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Lawrence of Arabia
The silencing of Russia’s critics in bold fashion is of course nothing new, but more subtle methods will do when available.
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abunoor
Human Rights Lawyer, Journalist shot dead in Russia
MOSCOW — A human rights lawyer who fought the early release of a Russian colonel who had killed a Chechen woman was shot dead in central Moscow on Monday by a masked man using a pistol with a silencer, officials said. A journalist who tried to intervene also was gunned down.
The broad-daylight shootings of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova prompted grief and outrage in a country where lawyers and journalists who challenge the official version of justice are frequently targeted. It also sparked anger among Chechens, already upset by the release of last week of Col. Yuri Budanov.
Colleagues drew comparisons with the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya — a client of Markelov’s and a fellow enemy of rights abuses in Chechnya and across former President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
