Guns, death threats hallmark Chechnya election campaign

GROZNY: The election headquarters of Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov resemble a fortress rather than a base for political campaigning.

A sniper lurks behind piles of sandbags near the gate into the compound while an armoured car obstructs the approach road. Sentries with Kalashnikov assault rifles survey the perimeter, fully military in appearance apart from the sandals on their feet.

One month before presidential elections are due to be held in Russia’s war-ravaged North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Kadyrov’s team exudes confidence that their Kremlin-appointed boss will triumph over his nine challengers in the October 5. polls.

“We are counting on victory in the first round,” said campaign manager Taus Dzhabrailov before campaigning officially began Friday. “Only Kadyrov can bring order in the republic. After all these years Chechens won’t let themselves be cheated any more.”

The 52-year-old Muslim cleric and former rebel who fought the Russians before switching sides will have to get more than 50 per cent of the votes to win in the first round. His chances look good on paper at least: surveys put his rating at 55 to 60 per cent.

Countering fears of vote rigging to ensure the Kremlin’s man wins outright, Kadyrov said at a press conference in Moscow Thursday that he wanted the polls to run in the “most democratic” manner possible.

“I don’t want any falsifications, I want fair elections. I want observers to control the elections,” he said, predicting that “No one is going to vote for other candidates.”

Yet he remains a controversial figure among his own people. After almost ten years of war and terror by separatist rebels and federal troops alike, many regard Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support of him as reason enough for suspicion. And some accuse Kadyrov’s own security force of carrying out many of the abductions and killings that haunt the republic.

He is also hated with a vengeance by the separatists who continue to wage a vicious partisan war against the federals.

Considering the previous full-blown battles between rebel forces and the Russian military, the situation in the republic is relatively calmer today, with rebel attacks occurring on a more sporadic basis.

This, in the Kremlin’s view, signifies success and a return to peace. Following the March referendum that saw the adoption of a new Chechen constitution binding the republic back into Russia, the presidential elections are supposed to cap the vaunted peace process.

The over four-year-old conflict, previously classed in Moscow as an “anti-terrorist operation”, has now been given the status of “police operation”, with occasional references in official parlance to “clashes with bandits” and, chiefly for foreign policy purposes, “a struggle against international terrorism”.

But however it is termed, hundreds of Chechen militants remain holed up in the mountains and forests, emerging to ambush Russian columns and patrols. Chechen regional administrators are assassinated as collaborators, and bombings in the towns and Grozny spare no one.

Female suicide bombers were recently sent to Moscow with deadly effect, bringing back echoes of the bloody hostage-taking in the capital last October. Some 40 Chechens took more than 800 people captive at a theatre and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from the republic. All the terrorists and 129 hostages died as a result of the stand-off.

In Grozny’s administrative offices and barracks there are conflicting views about the overall security situation. Things are stabilizing, insists Anatoly Popov, the Chechen prime minister appointed by Kadyrov.

As a sign of this, Chechen refugees have returned home voluntarily, says Popov from his own fortress-like compound, contrary to the view of rights groups that many people were forced back from neighbouring Russian republics.

“Chechens want to live within the Russian Federation with full rights, and end the arbitrary conditions in their lives now,” says the official, who says he is infuriated by Western media reports. “No one writes how 14 schools have been re-opened. But when a bus is blown up, that immediately generates interest.”

But there are skeptical voices in the military about the “stabilization”.

“Rebel activities are increasing as we approach the elections. Every day our experts in Grozny find one or two radio-controlled explosive devices,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Alexei Vassiliev, commander of a demining unit based by the city’s ruined airport.

His unit and others like it cannot find all the devices in time, nor can the security forces prevent the tide of suicide attacks. More than 210 people in the North Caucasus fell victim to terrorist bombings in the past year.

But Moscow still expects the republic’s half a million voters to elect a successor to their former president and the top most wanted rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov.

Kadyrov’s key challengers are wealthy Moscow-based businessman Malik Saidullayev, whose charity work in Chechnya made him a household name there, and State Duma deputy Aslanbek Aslakhanov.

Both men have said they will pull out if it becomes apparent that the polls are being manipulated.

At a news conference this week, Aslakhanov said he could withdraw for three reasons: “First because of a bullet, which I am promised all the time. Second, if they throw me out of the race. Third, if in Chechnya no conditions are set for democratic elections ... I am not going to participate in a farce.”

Among the ruins of the Chechen capital many inhabitants seem to regard Kadyrov’s election as the lesser of evils.

“I will vote for him, since he represents the powers that be,” said 26-year-old Faina, who has lived for two years in a dilapidated hostel for refugees in the north of the city.

Her neighbour Leila, the 38-year-old mother of a disabled child, has nothing good to say about Kadyrov’s administration.

“People are being robbed and murdered everywhere now but no one is made to answer for it,” she says, doubting that Kadyrov will garner enough votes to win.

Nor is there is any visible optimism among Russian journalists who have reported on the conflict for years.

“These elections will be rigged as well. They are only being held to present the world with an image of a settlement in Chechnya,” says television journalist Dmitry while filming at the devastated Minutka Square, scene of the heaviest street fighting three years ago.

“Only negotiations can keep the rebels from fighting on,” he says.

But the Kremlin’s stance toward Maskhadov and his allies is firm: No talks with terrorists, only their capitulation and trial.—dpa