Russia Ends Operations in Chechnya

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Russia Ends Operations in Chechnya
Michael Schwirtz, NYT, 16 Apr 2009

Russia officially ended what it called its counterterrorism operation in the southern region of Chechnya on Thursday with an announcement that carried symbolic weight as the end of a decade of Muslim separatist battles for independence.

The announcement also underscored the success of Chechnya’s strongman president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, in establishing a fragile stability that has, among other things, allowed rebuilding to begin in Grozny, the obliterated capital. But critics charge that the peace has been achieved through campaigns of unsparing brutality that have included human rights violations.

Russia’s National Antiterrorist Committee said in a statement that the decision was made “to guarantee conditions for the further normalization of the situation in the republic and for the development of its social and economic spheres.”

The committee did not mention troop withdrawals, though Russian officials said they would now have more legal leeway to scale down the number of federal military and security forces. While the violence in Chechnya has declined, it seemed likely that many troops and security forces could remain for some time.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya has been perhaps the most troubled region in Russia, the site of two wars that caused thousands of deaths.

The second war began in 1999, under President Boris N. Yeltsin, after explosions at several apartment buildings in Moscow and elsewhere that killed hundreds. The government blamed Chechen terrorists for the bombings and sent forces to the republic.

The military assault was coordinated by Vladimir V. Putin, then and now Russia’s prime minister. The strong-armed response bolstered Mr. Putin’s image, helping him win election as the country’s president in 2000.

In 2007 Mr. Putin gave Mr. Kadyrov the task of cleaning up after the Russian campaign and ending the insurgency. Mr. Kadyrov moved with speed and brutality, killing rebel leaders while also granting amnesty to separatist fighters in exchange for their loyalty. Human rights groups have accused his government of employing kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial executions to meet these ends.

On Thursday, Mr. Kadyrov said the end of the counterterrorist operation signified victory over terrorism in Chechnya and a return to normalcy.

“We have come a long way to this day,” he said at a news conference, according to a transcript on his Web site. “I have lost more than 400 of my colleagues, friends and family. Today we have confirmed that our republic is the most peaceful and safest region of Russia.”

Thursday’s decision is a victory for Mr. Kadyrov, who has long made ending the Russian operation a major policy goal in his drive for greater autonomy from Moscow.

“This is a demonstration that he is able to beat out the federal center and to gain political space for the Chechen government,” said Sergei Markedonov, head of the inter-ethnic relations department at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis in Moscow.

In the near term, analysts said, the decision to end the operation could serve to mask the many problems still associated with Chechnya and its leadership.

It was just three weeks ago that Sulim B. Yamadayev, a former Chechen general and a leading opponent of Mr. Kadyrov, was assassinated in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a murder that resembled similar killings of the Chechen president’s enemies in recent months.

And inside Chechnya, the situation is not as rosy as it is depicted by Mr. Kadyrov and the Kremlin, said Grigory S. Shvedov, the editor of the Web-based news service Caucasian Knot.

“The number of bombings, terrorist attacks and murders as in the past remains high; they occur every week,” he said. “It is a fairy tale that Chechnya has become a stable region.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/wo...r=1&ref=europe