Eurasia Press & News
The Head of the External Subcommittee of the information Committee of the SDC-Madjlisul Shura of the ChRI Movladi Udugov answers the questions of the agency “Caucasus-center”.
More than three months have passed since the murder of the President of the ChRI Aslan Mashadov. In Moscow they did not hide their satisfaction with this murder and, obviously, hoped, that the Chechen party would not go through this impact. Whether, in your opinion, such hopes of the Kremlin are justified?
In the name of Allah, Gracious and Merciful.
In 1996, killing President Dudaev, Moscow hoped for the same. The result of it is well-known.
The Kremlin regime is in a captivity of its own propaganda illusions. That is why there is such an inadequate estimation of the situation in the Chechen Republic . It is strange enough, but in Moscow they have seriously believed, that they are resisted with an unorganized mass led by some leader. They think, it is enough to kill the leader, and the others will dissipate. As we see, they have not. And I dare to affirm – they will not.
The Russian military aggression is resisted not by a crowd and not by a chaotic mass of people, not knowing what they want, and by a system, fastened by thousand-year ideology. Russia has attacked not a jack of robbers, gangsters or international terrorists, as they like to represent it in the Kremlin. Moscow has attacked the Chechen State , which took place the day, when Chechens took weapon in their hands to protect Freedom. And the Chechen Republic has never had deficiency of leaders, glory to Allah.
Before the death of President Mashadov the Chechen party had actively advanced the concept of “conditional independence”, which assumed an establishment of the so-called “international administration” in the Chechen Republic for a transition period, disarmament of the Chechen army, etc. New Chechen leader Abdul-Halim Sadulaev has declared, that he is going to continue the policy of Aslan Mashadov. Does it mean that the concept of “conditional independence” is still urgent for the Chechen party?
The concept, mentioned by you, was a great compromise from the Chechen State . The basic motive of this idea was the desire of our government and, first of all, of President Mashadov, to stop genocide, mass liquidation of the people by all means. Mashadov’s murder has shown that enemies do not want even these concessions from our party.
Having killed Mashadov, they, as a matter of fact, have killed also this concept. So its urgency today, in my opinion, is rather doubtful.
At the same time, the government of the Chechen State has the last word in questions of concepts, offers, tactics and policy.
In one of his recent interviews Abdul-Halim Sadulaev has made, in my opinion, a sign application, which specifies an important change in the political tactics at preservation of the constant strategic course. He has declared, that the Chechen party will not offer peace negotiations any more.
Nevertheless, the theme of possible peace negotiations has not disappeared finally from the rhetoric of those forces in Russia and in the West, which support political settlement between Moscow and Johar to stop the war. However, the impossibility to negotiate with terrorists (Shamil Basaev is meant here) is emphasized, and it is suggested becoming engaged in search of “the moderate forces among the Chechen separatists, having excluded extremist forces from the process”.
I skeptically concern to such applications, and to the position of those forces in the West and in Russia , which speak about negotiations and a political process. The matter is that the sense, enclosed by them in these terms, is not the same as we think.
The international organizations and legal experts, who criticize Moscow and suggest initiating political process, emphasize the infringements of human rights, absence of conditions for democracy, absence of legal judicial system, legal protection of people, and never specify the main and the only important reason of the event – the occupation, the aggression from Moscow against the sovereign Chechen State, the attempt of Moscow to deprive the Chechen people of the legitimate right for their sovereignty by means of military force.
More than that, even more often the situation is represented in such a manner, as if the real problem of the Chechen Republic , ostensibly, is the armed opposition between supporters of Russia and supporters of Independence of the Chechen Republic . That is, the idea about the intra-Chechen opposition, the civil war is inspired latently, and the occupation and aggression is not mentioned.
In order not to be proofless I shall read only one citation from the application of the rather authoritative in the international circles organization “Memorial”, which is distinctive with its sharp criticism of the Kremlin regime, because of the war in the Chechen Republic :
“It is obvious, that the proceeding armed opposition between the supporters of the Chechen Republic in the structure of the Russian Federation and supporters of independence of the Chechen Republic is a serious obstacle for carrying out of free elections. Therefore, it is necessary to apply the best efforts to stop this opposition, to be more exact, to give this opposition peace and legal forms”.
When the speech is about victims among the peace population, the regret of the fighters for peace, both in Russia , and in the West, is caused not by the victims, but with the fact, that with the increase of quantity of these victims, the Resistance replenishes.
More than that, the same organizations and figures constantly impose the idea of a split to the Chechen party for “moderated” and “extremists”, for “correct” and “incorrect” Chechens.
For example, they name Basaev to be a criminal, with whom it is impossible to negotiate. Thus, they suggested Putin to meet Mashadov (before his murder).
But it is full absurdity and hypocrisy, which under no circumstances can be approved.
Basaev has not made any action falling under the classification of terrorism in a peace period of time. All Basaev’s actions took place exclusively in conditions of military aggression and occupation. That is, they had and have exclusively defensive and reciprocal character and are carried out in war conditions. The participation of volunteer Basaev in events in Dagestan also cannot be qualified, as terrorism, as it was a legitimate (according to the same international law) voluntary operation in reply to an appeal of exterminated Dagestan Moslems to help them.
As far as Putin is concerned, here there are all attributes of a classical military criminal and an international terrorist. Putin carried out am military aggression against sovereign state, having broken the Russo-Chechen peace treaty. Putin has killed a quarter of one million peace inhabitants, that is, 25 % of the Chechen people. Putin has killed tens thousand of Chechen children of preschool and school age, having declared all children from 10 years to be terrorists. Putin has organized and carries out genocide of the Chechen people. Putin has carried out an act of terrorism outside Russia in another country, having killed the ex-President of the ChRI Yandarbiev, having used the diplomatic mail of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for transferring of explosives to Qatar . Putin has carried out an act of terrorism in the territory of the ChRI, having killed President Mashadov. Putin has carried out and continues to carry out murders of the Chechen politicians and public figures abroad and in the territory of the ChRI. Putin carries out mass kidnappings. Putin initiated creation of torture concentration camps, gangster terrorist formations, and “squadrons of death” in the Chechen Republic and in Russia . Putin has given the order to poison the people in the “Northeast†and to shoot from tanks and flame throwers at children in Beslan.
According to all the items of the notorious international law (let alone Sheriyat) Putin is a criminal, with whom under no circumstances it is impossible to have any negotiations. He must be arrested, judged, and sentenced.
In this connection all statements about impossibility to negotiate with Basaev and possibility to have them with Putin are an absolute profanation and false hypocrisy, which should be exposed unequivocally, instead of to play in the hands of the schemers from policy.
The question should be asked absolutely in another way: it is impossible to have any negotiations with Putin. The condition for negotiations with Russia should be not only the withdrawal of armies, but also the arrest of Putin and his delivery to the Chechen law enforcement bodies. Any charges against Basaev, if someone has them, should be considered exclusively according to the laws of the Chechen State .
Putin is not equal to Basaev; they cannot be put on the same level. Putin is a military criminal, a serial murderer, who has committed crimes against humanity. Basaev is a defender of the Fatherland, who applies compelled measures to stop the mass liquidation of his people.
The qualification of the reciprocal actions of Basaev to the aggression and genocide can be certain only by the Chechen party and only according to the laws of the Chechen state.
Chechens are not the accused party, but the prosecution. We accuse Russians and their government of 400-years genocide of the Chechen people. We accuse Ossetia of that for 250 years the aggression against the Chechen people is carried out from its territory and that the population of Ossetia participates in this aggression.
We accuse the so-called world community of the partnership in genocide of the Chechen people and no “black lists of terrorists” of the Security Council of the United Nations, serving to political interests of a small group of states-usurpers, can be approved by the Chechen state.
We are a reproach and a charge to everyone, who today helps the criminal Kremlin clique to kill the Chechen people.
The international law should protect Chechen people to claim for its place in the Chechen Republic . However, everything is on the contrary. The international law has given out the license to Moscow for murder and genocide.
However, many people, including Chechen politicians, believe, that Basaev’s actions harm to the Chechen State .
Such an opinion is developed at those, who have got under the influence of the western political tinsel, framing and camouflaging the cynicism of the world powers.
Till now two military strategies – the strategy of pacification of the aggressor and the strategy of compulsion – competed in the Chechen Republic . It is obvious, that the strategy of pacification has exhausted, while the strategy of compulsion gives results.
Outside of the context of a positive or negative background, it is necessary to admit, that Basaev’s strategy works. After the actions of Shahids the world remembers about the Chechen Republic , the prospect of peace negotiations is reanimated, feverish activity of legal experts begins, world leaders do some applications, hinting Moscow on its inability to solve the problem and offering “internalization” of the decision of “the Chechen problem”.
Basaev is abused by everybody, but everyone tries to take advantage of the situation, which is created by his actions.
It is obvious, that the Russian society quite easily digests the coffins of its soldiers from the Chechen Republic (there is no mention about the Chechen population, nobody ever remembers it), at the same time, the Russian society is absolutely not ready to smell the gunpowder in its own house. The unequivocal conclusion follows: Basaev’s strategy not only works, but also gives a real result. Owing to Basaev’s strategy the zone of military actions has extended, and it not only has lowered the pressure upon the Chechen Republic , but also has created a real threat for the colonial authority of Moscow in the whole Caucasus .
This strategy loosens today the Kremlin regime, which because of the Chechen Republic cannot adequately react to other challenges: penetration of the USA into Central Asia , Georgia , Azerbaijan , loss of Ukraine , etc.
After Beslan Putin has accelerated strengthening of the so-called “vertical of authority”. But these steps were dictated not by calculation, but by a panic. “The vertical of authority” creates in Russia just that situation, which seems to the Kremlin in the Chechen Republic . It reminds of an overturned pyramid. It is enough to beat out the first brick from the basis and the pyramid will collapse. And this is also a result of strategy of Basaev.
Anyway, the countries, which today define the world politics and name themselves to be “the international community”, negatively react to diversion actions of the Chechen divisions in the territories of Russia and liquidation of collaborators in the Chechen Republic .
This is just what should be cleared up.
First, what would change, if there were not these diversion actions. Whether these countries would shame Russia and would force it to withdraw its armies from the Chechen Republic , would arrest Putin and put him on a dock or would declare economic blockade, or would freeze the accounts of Russia in the western banks?
During the first war they did nothing to stop the murder of the Chechen people, but on the contrary – they gave Yeltsin 6 billion dollars for the war.
The feeling of safety and impunity induced Putin’s regime and its dogs to even greater all-permissiveness and violence. In this connection the speech of a drunken Russian officer at the block-post at the entrance to Shali in 1995, several days after liquidation of Russo-Ossetic battalion of special troops “Scorpion” in the Vedeno Gorge can be considered to be indicative. According to several tens of eyewitnesses, who were in the bus, this officer shouted literally the following, “You must kiss feet of your insurgents. If it had not been for them, we would have cut out all of you long ago, everyone, the whole your Chechen Republic …”
Secondly, we should define for ourselves, what is the reference point for us. If we are concerned with what “the international community” will think about us, it will be one policy. If we are concerned with conformity of our actions to Sheriyat (and in the Chechen Republic the Sheriyat operates, in conformity with changes and additions to the operating Constitution of the ChRI) it will be another policy.
It is necessary to define also, what is more important for us – the next insignificant “round table” and a duty concern with murder of the Chechen people from the PACE, (the United Nations, the CE and then according to the text), or an organization of a new fighting Djamaat in Moscow and a diversion impact in the deep rear of Russia, which will be condemned and declared to be an act of terrorism by the same PACE or the United Nations by all means?
Who and what should be our support and by whose opinion we should be guided – by the opinion of the so-called “international community”, which varies depending on political conjecture and purposes of propagation, or the Islamic youth of the Caucasus (and Russia), who is a reserve and rear of the operating font?
It is senseless to demand justice, not having forces to establish this justice or to punish the criminal. Our force are Moslems, and first of the youth. This force should be accumulated, bring up, and to be guided by it. We should be sensitive and sincere with this force, which disgusts the falseness and hypocrisy of the “real policies”.
Thus nobody approves, that it is not necessary to work with the international community (that is, with Europe and the USA ). Simply this work should have another context and should have different content. There should be other rhetoric and other approaches.
As far as the one, who defines the world politics, is concerned, I would not make hasty statements. It is enough to look at the nonsense, which was done by the USA , having attacked Iraq to understand, that the world politics are defined not in Washington or in Strasbourg . World politics are defined by Moslems and by the Muslim factor as practically everything, what is done today in the world, is done for Moslems (or Moslems are meant in these actions).
The whole global policy of the so-called world powers (the “Great Sevenâ€, the Security Council of the United Nations and so on) is constructed on the context of strategic opposition to the reviving Islam. The stake in this opposition is not oil and not territories, but the way of life.
What, in your opinion, steps will be undertaken by the Chechen party in future, if today the idea of “the international administration” has lost an urgency for the Chechen Republic ?
Once again I pay attention to that the government of the Chechen State has the last word in questions of concepts, offers, tactics and policy. We only adduce reasons and arguments in favor of some theses.
The international administration is necessary not for the Chechen Republic , but for Russia . As Russia is a real threat to the international community. Russia should be taken under the external management of a group of responsible countries, because of full incompetence and adventurism of the present regime in the Kremlin.
The crisis has ripened in Russia , and the explosion of it is just a matter of time. Russia with Putin rolls more and more down to the league of insolvent states. It is obvious, that the regime is worried with its future and is ready to fight for its survival. It is difficult to predict, what idea will come on minds of its heads and leaders at the moment of the crisis.
In view of that this regime has the weapon of mass destruction, which is uncontrollably squandered, (and there are such facts, as it is known), already today there should be an extreme anti-recessionary plan of an establishment of an international administration in Moscow, bringing in of special armies to the objects of the extreme danger, isolation of the most odious military and political figures.
Still in 1993 Johar Dudaev called the international community to take nuclear stocks of Russia under the control. Then the appeals of Johar were perceived by many people as a fantasy. Today we see that Johar saw for 10-15 years forward.
Having carried out the constitutional revolution in Russia (under the guise of reforms and strengthening of the imperious vertical), Putin’s regime has de jure lost its legitimacy. In this connection it is strange enough, that till now there is no alternative government of Russia (for example, abroad), which would openly declare its readiness to replace the present regime and to prepare the country for legitimate elections. Such a government could have a stabilizing role at the moment of the crisis (whether it will be a revolution, a revolt, a chaos or a political collapse, when the central government in Moscow will lose levers of control over the regions). The alternative government of Russia could de facto begin to operate already today.
Putin’s regime has led to serious destabilization of the situation in the whole Northern Caucasus and it permanently threatens the stability of Transcaucasia . Such a state of affairs should disturb the countries of the western alliance, carrying out impressive political and material investments into the Southern Caucasus .
The inconsistency and unpredictability of Moscow are too obvious to be ignored. The Caucasus needs a new political design, which would stabilize the processes in the region and would make them predicted. However, the right of the peoples of the Caucasus for their choice should be the basis of this design. Otherwise nothing will change and we will have to forget about stability.
