Russia 090813 Basic Political Developments

World Chechen Congress Created

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/380639.htm
13 August 2009Bloomberg

LONDON — A leading Chechen exile and the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament announced Wednesday the creation of a World Chechen Congress to draw up “a joint political platform on all crucial issues” to reconcile the republic.

“The objectives of my meetings and official dialogue with Akhmed Zakayev are to strengthen political stability with the ultimate goal of consolidating the Chechen nation,” Speaker Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov said at a news conference with Zakayev, a former Chechen foreign minister now living in Britain who has been named prime minister of a government in exile. “As a result of our consultations in London, we are united in calling on the independent World Chechen Congress to take the process forward.”

Asked why the Chechen authorities were negotiating with Zakayev, who is wanted by federal prosecutors, Abdurakhmanov said the world was changing. Zakayev refused to be drawn about a possible return to Chechnya.

“The prospects for Chechen-Russian relations and the Chechen people are going in the right direction for the first time in 20 years,” said Ivar Amundsen, director of the Norwegian nonprofit group Chechnya Peace Forum that mediated the London talks and a first round July 24. (Comment, Page 8.)

New Hope for Peace in Chechnya

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/380627.htm
13 August 2009By Ivar Amundsen
In a groundbreaking move to resolve the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, the Chechnya Peace Forum has mediated the first talks in nine years to seek lasting political stability in the region. Last month, Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled prime minister of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament, met in Oslo and spoke for the first time in public about their negotiations.

Continuing these discussions behind closed doors, the most recent meeting between both sides took place Wednesday in London. As a direct result of these talks, a commitment to convene the World Chechen Congress was announced.

As the mediator and host of these talks, I am delighted with these landmark developments. Both parties in these Russian-Chechen consultations have taken an important step toward transforming the geopolitical landscape. This process can have a radical impact on both Russia and Chechnya. By reaching an agreement on the necessity to convene the World Chechen Congress, the prospects for Chechen-Russian relations and the Chechen people are going in the right direction for the first time in 20 years.

I have spent many years trying to promote the cause of democracy, the rule of law, peace and human rights in Chechnya with the hope of encouraging a new negotiated settlement between the Russian government and the resistance movement.

The Kremlin-friendly government under Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has not been able to stabilize and control the continual violence, kidnappings and abductions and other human rights abuses that remain commonplace in Chechnya. The killings of Chechen charity worker Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Umar Dzhabrailov, on Tuesday are the latest case of brutal violence against human rights workers in the republic. Like the work of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya in mid-July, Sadulayeva’s work gave many people hope that the rest of the world would not turn a blind eye to what is happening in Chechnya.

That is why these talks are so crucial in the hope of putting an end to the struggle of the Chechen people. Approved at the highest levels of the Russian leadership, this new dialogue is certainly a significant step toward a serious political discourse between the Kremlin’s official representatives and the Chechen opposition. Abdurakhmanov made it clear in Oslo and again in London that his talks with Zakayev were approved by both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This is of particular significance because now a direct and promising Russian-Chechen dialogue for Chechnya’s future has started on an official level. It also represents a shift in Russia’s approach for peace in the North Caucasus.

Engaging both sides through settlement talks rather than violence is the only way to achieve stability in the region, and for the first time in a decade there is a desire to establish a unifying platform in the hope of reaching a joint agreement through political resolution.

This is indeed why many would call these talks a breakthrough in the much-needed peace process. Of course, there is a lot more work to do, but my hope is that these talks will ultimately lead to a higher degree of Chechen autonomy within the Russian Federation.

Ivar Amundsen is the director of the London-based Chechnya Peace Forum.

EU speaks out on Chechnya murders

http://euobserver.com/9/28544

ANDREW RETTMAN

Today @ 09:15 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Swedish EU presidency has urged Russia to protect its NGO community after a string of killings of human rights activists in Chechnya.

The EU statement comes after the bodies of Alik Dzhabrailov and his wife Zarema Sadulayeva, who worked for the children's charity Save the Generation, were found dumped in the Chechen capital Grozny on Tuesday (11 August).

Mr Dzhabrailov may have been targeted because of alleged links with separatists. But his wife on Monday night asked kidnappers to take her as well, family members reported.

"It is important that an investigation into these latest murders is conducted promptly, transparently and thoroughly. The perpetrators must be brought to justice," the Swedish statement said.

"The EU urges the Russian authorities to do everything in their power to ensure the protection of human rights defenders."

The Save the Generation deaths follow the shooting in July of civil rights activist Nataliya Estemirova and the earlier slayings in Moscow of Chechnya human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anna Politkovskaya.

A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel told DPA that she will raise the topic at a meeting with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on Friday.

Mr Medvedev himself has condemned the Grozny killings as "vile."

Previous statements by both Moscow and Brussels have done little to bring people to justice, however.

The string of murders has been widely linked to the regime of Ramzan Kadyrov, the 32-year old president of the semi-autonomous Chechen republic, who dresses in Armani sportswear and lives in a mansion with caged lions.

Mr Kadyrov has blamed "militants" trying to destabilise his rule.

Two of Russia's leading human rights organisations, the Memorial NGO and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, have pulled out of Chechnya in recent days due to safety concerns.

"The light of public scrutiny is gradually being turned off in Chechnya. First, international organisations and journalists were banned from the region, and now, local civil society is being eliminated," Amnesty International said.

The situation in Chechnya is part of growing instability in Russia's North Caucasus region.

In neighbouring Ingushetia, gunmen on Wednesday murdered the local construction minister while he was sitting at his office desk. A suicide bomb in June almost took the life of Ingushetia's president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
Medvedev reinstates in post Ingushetia president

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14229212

MOSCOW, August 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Yunus-Bek Yevkurov resumed his office of Ingushetia’s president on Thursday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on recognizing invalid the July 3 presidential decree on the acting president of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia. Rashid Gaisanov was appointed as acting president of the republic.

Wounded leader returns as Ingush president: Kremlin

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-G3m-hZTPI7JcxogEzYx07Un_7w

(AFP) – 40 minutes ago

MOSCOW — The president of Ingushetia, badly wounded in a bomb attack in June, has returned to his post as leader of the increasingly unstable Russian region, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

However Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is still recovering in a Moscow sanatorium, will only return to Ingushetia at the end of this month, his spokesman said.

President Dmitry Medvedev cancelled a decree of July 3 which had appointed Rashid Gaisanov acting president of Ingushetia while Yevkurov recovered from serious head injuries, the Kremlin said in a statement.

"Yevkurov has again returned to his duties as president of Ingushetia," the Kremlin said.

Yevkurov returns amid mounting fears over the stability of Ingushetia, a day after its construction minister was shot dead in a brazen attack inside his own office and with almost daily attacks on security forces.

"He wants to return to work as quickly as possible but the doctors are insisting that the treatment continues. We are expecting him in Ingushetia at the end of the month," his press secretary Kaloi Akhilgov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Yevkurov had been released from hospital earlier this week and television pictures showed him dressed in a black tracksuit emblazoned with "Russia" walking with the support of one crutch but apparently largely recovered.

The decorated former paratroop commander was appointed by the Kremlin last year to halt the militant violence and also to reduce corruption in Ingushetia which had reached endemic levels in recent years.

There have been increased militant attacks over the last months throughout Russia's Caucasus region, where Islamist militants are battling pro-Kremlin local authorities and Russian security forces in a low-level insurgency.