Grozny hosts “Russia and Caucasus: History and Modernity” Conference

Grozny has concluded the science-practical conference “Russia and Caucasus: History and Modernity”, marking the 1150th anniversary of Russian statehood, the press service of the Chechen government reports.

Attendants of the two-day forum discussed history of Russian-Caucasus relations starting from the 15th century. Reports were made about modern development of the North Caucasus, early stages of Russian relations with the North Caucasus, and their political, economic and cultural relations in the 16th – 18th centuries.

Scientists arrived from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Adygeya, North Ossetia and Kalmykia. Chechen MPs and officials of the Archive Service took part.

Oleg Petukhov, Chechen Deputy Minister for National Policy, Press and Information, noted the importance of dialogue. He urged attendants of the forum to tell their compatriots about the real situation in Chechnya.

Petukhov noted that modern Russia is a cultural, historic and civilized state uniting various peoples.

A resolution was passed at the conference.

The forum was organized by the Chechen Academy of Sciences, Ministry for National Policy, Press and Information and the Ministry for Culture.

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Russian Government Slashes Funding For North Caucasus

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has finally clarified the ongoing confusion surrounding the planned grandiose federal program for the socio-economic development of the North Caucasus between now and 2025. 


Speaking on June 19 in Grozny at a session of the specially created government commission for the development of the North Caucasus Federal District, Medvedev said the program will be finalized this year.


At the same time, Regional Development Minister Oleg Govorun divulgedthat the total funding for the program will amount to just 1.7 trillion rubles ($52.2 billion). That is less than half the 3.89 trillion rubles envisaged when the first draft of the program was unveiled in July 2011. It is not clear whether that drastic reduction in spending constitutes a victory for the federal Finance Ministry, which has consistently opposed the program in light of the astronomical cost, or whether other factors may have played a role.


The socioeconomic development program is the brainchild of Vladimir Putin, who in January 2011 in his capacity as then prime minister tasked the Ministry for Regional Development with drafting it. It was intended to subsume and continue three existing federal development programs -- for southern Russia, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, respectively -- that were due to end by 2016.


When the new draft program was unveiled in July 2011, the cost was estimated at 3.89 trillion rubles, of which 2.6 trillion would come from the federal budget, while the North Caucasus republics would contribute 195 billion rubles between them. Deputy Finance Minister Tatiana Nesterenko immediately made clear that the ministry would not allocate that sum, which,she pointed out, far exceeded planned budget funding for the region.


Gazeta.ru had pointed out in October that the program envisaged spending $12 billion over the period 2012-14, while the amount allocated in the state budget for the North Caucasus over that period was only $4 billion.


Notwithstanding the Finance Ministry’s categorical refusal, then Regional Development Minister Sergei Vereshchagin announced in late Septemberthat the overall cost of the program had been upped to 5.5 trillion rubles thanks to pledges of additional extra-budgetary funding from various large Russian monopolies, including Gazprom and Rosgidro.


Work on finalizing the details of the program ground to a halt, however. And last week the daily “Izvestia” reported that drafting of both the North Caucasus program and an analogous one for the Russian Far East had been suspended due to disagreements between the Finance Ministry and the Ministry for Economic Development. The Ministry for Economic Development argued that the two federal programs should be adopted first, and then the federal budget. The Finance Ministry for its part insisted the budget for 2013-15 should be adopted first, and then a wide-ranging strategy document of which the two regional programs would be a part.


“Izvestia” further quoted an unnamed government source as  saying the North Caucasus program was seen as “having no future” because of the huge sums of money involved.


Within days, the Finance Ministry denied work on the two programs had been suspended. It said the program for the North Caucasus “may” be adopted next year. Medvedev, however, said the program must be submitted to the government by December 1, and “there will be no further postponements.”


To judge by the published summaries of Medvedev’s address to the commission session in Grozny, the program will focus on basic infrastructure projects – construction of schools, hospitals, and housing – and on creating new jobs in order to reduce unemployment regionwide from 16 percent to 5 percent of the able-bodied population. The unemployment rate varies across the North Caucasus and is highest in Ingushetia (48 percent) and Chechnya (34 percent).


How the reduction in funding for the program as a whole will impact individual republics is not immediately clear. Daghestan, the largest republic in terms of geographical area and with the largest population (almost 3 million), was to have received 1.2 trillion rubles, almost one-third of the initial estimated cost of 3.89 trillion rubles. Daghestan’s share of the reduced funds available may be reduced in light of its success in attracting foreign investment, whichincreased last year by more than 6 percent to reach 35 billion rubles ($4.2 billion).


Chechnya was hoping to receive 498 billion rubles over the next 14 years (38 billion annually, compared with 18.4 billion in 2011). Of that total, 156 billion rubles was earmarked as compensation for persons whose homes and property were destroyed during the 1994-96 and 1999-2000 wars.


Likewise unclear is whether the decision to reduce funding for the North Caucasus was motivated by purely financial considerations or whether it constitutes the Kremlin’s response to increasingly vociferous demands by Russian nationalists  to “stop feeding the Caucasus.”


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Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov Opens Twitter Account

The Kremlin appointed leader of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has opened an official Twitter account, the North Caucasus Republic’s government said on Wednesday.

“The account is @RKadyrov. Ramzan Kadyrov has nothing to do with other accounts in social networks attributed to the head of the Chechen Republic,” the government said.

The account, which currently has only two tweets, has collected more than 2,000 followers in just a few hours.

Kadyrov already has a blog on Livejournal, launched in 2010. However, he has not posted any new entries since July 2011.

The Chechen leader opened the Twitter account following a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who has several accounts on popular social networks.

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

The Life Choices Of Chechen Youth

There are young people in Chechnya who live in prosperity and rapidly pursue their careers. If they sing the praises of Putin and Kadyrov, that is. For all the others, life can be very difficult.


Only a few years ago, today's Chechen youth was all in the same boat, or rather in the same refugee camp. Literally and figuratively. Crowded into tents and trains, stranded in the refugee camps of Chechnya's neighbouring republics, the young were united in sympathy and hatred. Just teenagers, they prayed for Chechen rebels and dreamt of growing up as quickly as possible to join them and take revenge on the Russians. The hatred for Russia united them more than anything else.


Years have passed. The former residents of refugee camps have grown up, their paths have separated. Some have jumped on the bandwagon of new pro-Russian authorities, in pursuit of fabulous wealth and incredible careers. Others have followed their ancient dreams and joined the rebels. Those who have not chosen either path live on the margins of politics and history, trying to survive and feed their family. The camps where they hated and loved together were demolished long ago.


Radjap Musaev is among those who have quickly become accustomed to the new authorities. As a teenager, like tens of thousands of Chechen refugees, he lived with his family in Ingushetia. What remains of those days is an interesting video-interview, released in broken English to a foreign journalist. In the darkness of the tent, with the few meagre belongings and tin plates donated by some charitable organisation, young Radjap tells the story of his dream of becoming a lawyer and defending the victims of Russia's war in the region, as well as to sue Russia for what it did to his country.

A few years later, Radjap has become one of Russia's most passionate supporters. In his blog, under the name of "wild Chechen", he speaks of "foreign mercenaries" and denounces the United States' plans to weaken Russia in order to rule the world unchallenged. In his passionate invectives, he accuses the Russian opposition of receiving money from the U.S. State Department and NATO, that also dreams of Russia's downfall. Such propaganda, in the best style of Soviet news agencies, sounds strange and incongruous from the same boy, just a bit more grown up, who from a dark, damp camp dreamed of condemning Russia for crimes against humanity. It is hard to imagine how, in just a few years, he managed to make a career in the pro-Russian organisation Nashi, where he became chief coordinator for Chechnya. Having become a darling of the authorities, he was then appointed head of "Grozny Inform", the main Chechen news agency.


But there is more. As it turned out a couple of months ago, Musaev had access to millions of roubles allocated by Nashi to the online fight against dissidents. The hacker group Anonymous got into the mailbox of the head of Nashi press office and spread its content online, including correspondence with Musaev. The amount of money spent by Moscow to fund Internet trolling and create fake blogs with the "Caucasian Bloggers" project is stunning. For every letter, every minute spent online, any provocation on blogs disliked by the authorities, Musaev and his fellows received tons of money. Musaev himself, the correspondence shows, received 18 million roubles per year – 2,4 were his salary and the rest was paid in order for him to build a positive image of Russia in the blogosphere and attract more and more young people into the "Caucasian bloggers'" network. Not for free, of course. So, the boy from the refugee camp in Ingushetia has become a millionaire.


Arbi Sagaipov, who lived in a "humanitarian" tent camp in Ingushetia more or less in the same years as Radjap did, has not become a millionaire. In 2004, once war was declared to be over and the Chechen government began to fight for the return of refugees, Arbi was 16. He did not return to Chechnya, but moved to Moscow with his family. Two years later, he was admitted to the university and later, together with his father, he opened a small business in the Russian capital. Even living in the heart of this country has not allowed him to forgive Russia, let alone love it.


In 2010, unbeknownst to his family, Arbi returned to Chechnya to join the rebels. By then, nobody called them with the noble name of "resistance fighters" any longer – just terrorists. Since then, his mother Tamara has been looking for him all over Chechnya, hoping to dissuade him from an apparently meaningless fight. Once, she managed to get in touch with a group of rebels in a forest near the Chechen village of Shatoi. "They seemed almost like children", she says. "None of them was older than my Arbi". There were about twenty rebels in the group. They called themselves mujahideen and their fight against the Russian occupation a jihad – a holy war against the invading enemy, the duty of every Muslim. "I watched them and could not hold back the tears. They are children, they are 17-18. What have they seen of their lives, and what do they know of life? Why should they wander in the woods, half-starved, and die so young, when their peers get to live the big life? They should not have to die just because they can't or won't submit to power". Tamara has not managed to find her son. The rebels told her there were three or four Arbis in that group. And rebels in the woods do not use their real names. However, Tamara returns to Chechnya a few times a year and wanders through villages and towns, looking for information about her son who left for a confused, incomprehensible war that swallows more and more young lives.


The young Chechens who go "into the woods" to join the rebels are generally considered misfits. Many experts of Chechnya and Northern Caucasus see unemployment and social problems as the main reasons pushing young men to join the rebels. It would certainly be foolish to deny the influence of unemployment and lack of prospects on young Chechens' radical and even religious fanaticism. Probably, however, the main reason why, despite over a decade of cruel persecution, the Chechen resistance cannot be crushed lies in the patriarchal tradition of Chechen society, where the man is not only the breadwinner, but first and foremost the head of the family. Now, the position of men has changed dramatically. They cannot protect or provide for the family if they do not collaborate with the regime and become part of it.


The phenomenon, completely new in Chechnya, of men singing the praises of authorities from the TV screens, rivalling in servility and flattery, sickens the younger generation. Moreover, with thousands of armed men from various security agencies around day and night, violence against unarmed people, or at best verbal humiliation, is routine. Going to court is useless, because the court – as all other state institutions – is a party to power.

Thus, part of Chechen society, educated according to a tradition of equality and justice, has no place in the new system of rules that has suddenly engulfed the country: rights are on the side of those with weapons and money, and in order to get weapons and money Putin and his lieutenants must be worshipped. Hence the growing gap between the young people who drink with pleasure at the Kremlin's springs and those who consider them poisonous.


The injustices and humiliations suffered by young Chechens at the hands of their pro-Russian peers fuel the resistance. In this sense, the Chechen government – and the Kremlin, which put it there – are indeed tirelessly working in favour of the resistance movement, by multiplying with each passing day the injustices in the country and thus driving young people to armed struggle as the only means for protecting their dignity.


The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Chechen War Poem - The Chechen Wolf

This mountain I sit on with my AK47 by my side is the philosophy to my rebel led life

I sit under a star lit sky of this most serene night reminiscing about being out in the wilds. I am nothing but a survivor of too many battles fought all across this land I have called my Chechen home, I am nothing but a young man whose future is a gun I hold in my battle hardened hands, I am nothing other than a pauper of a youth whose only wealth is the bravery bestowed upon me by being born into such a proud people who only know the bullets of the gun and the dream of everlasting peace

I am all alone on this mountain top, I am listening out for the Russian gunship that will soon come down from behind the darkened clouds to erase and bury me under the dirt of this remote place on Earth, this remote place on Earth where no choir of Angels dares goes to sing, this remote place on Earth where one day I will be sentenced and buried in bullet holes for having the courage to say NO

I say this with so much sincerity and with no such shame, for when times get hard all I do is pray I can do the Chechen wolves that have been and howled before me proud, the Chechen wolves who never asked for much, just to be like the Chechen wolves who never learnt to stop their growls

I am a speck of dust under the skies of this cold evening night whose never ending love for Chechnya will never leave no matter how cold I become, coldness never will suffocate me for my Chechen land warms up my fearless heart with love, I know in the history of this world this moment is but a passing second but for this one moment I am the lone soldier with the heart of a wolf who stands up to the merciless and stronger bear, I am the wolf who prevents the bear from extinguishing the Chechen flame

I am the wolf who wants nothing less than the freedom of my land, the freedom of this land to be liberated from the greed and corruption of all the exploitation and wickedness of a distant countries oppressive control

If I must spill my blood to make this happen I will bleed without a whimper or a complaint, let this wolf die alone and brave, let this wolf bleed for the sake of an end to the war and an end to all the mass graves of men, women and children whose only guilt is living in this sacred place

I did not ask to be a witness to all this death, I did not ask to be thrust into this mess, but I will never turn my back on what is being asked, so give me strength Chechnya and fill me with your conviction, let the soldiers of your message continue to rise up and let the soldiers of your message never stop the fight

I do not care for politics, I do not care for the rest of the world’s petty squabbles, I do not care for the greed and the terror of the bureaucrats who have sent these foreign soldiers out here to fight against me but I understand for Chechnya I must go on and for Chechnya I will never stop howling this rebel song

All I want is to roam on this mountain top and go into the night with my Chechen pack, to be free and proud, to live and die like a son of Chechnya so the sun can set on a free Chechnya.

The wolf I have become is a wolf made wild in the night, the wolf who will never be tamed by intimidation, the wolf who will never bow down to a superpowers boot or an oppressors dictatorial rage

I have been forced to become ferocious and alone. I have seen so much bloodshed, and I have spilled too much blood but as a true son of Chechnya I shall never ever give up

The youthful gift given unto me will be a youth that will roam and howl until this youth can howl no more

So give me a full moon is all I ask as I look up above to the cloud filled darkened sky, give me a full moon so I can show my solidarity for this cause, give me a full moon so I can see my shadow spread across the mountains behind me. Let the full moon reflect the silhouette of my shadow, let my silhouette be the flag of the cause and let the gun I hold in my battle hardened hands be the gun to fire the last shot

 I will now stand up on this mountain top and look all around me, I see Chechnya, I see the land of my birth, and I know this will be the land of my death, the land of the brave and the land of the blessed

Let me howl to the plants which one day will be washed away of all the spilled blood and let me howl so no Chechen daughter will be dishonoured or deflowered again

Now I will go out into the night to risk my life once again, and all I have to protect me from death is this wolf I have grown to call a friend. For my land and home I will lay down all I have ever known.

Let me pass this life with Chechen blood coursing through my veins and let me give all I have for this land I sincerely adore, all I have to give is defiance to the rest of the world who want to stop Chechnya from howling into a sovereign state

But little does the world know

As long as there are wolves in Chechnya no wolf will be silenced, as long as there are wolves in Chechnya then no Chechen wolf will ever stop howling for that longed  for sovereign Chechen state.

Originally Posted Here

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Witness - Chechen Fighters

Al Jazeera Documentary on the Chechen rebels and their war against Russian Federal Forces in Chechnya: "The war in Chechnya might officially be over, but rebels are still prepared to die for their beliefs."

The First Chechen War, was the conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. 


The official figure for Russian military deaths is 5,500, while most estimates put the number between 3,500 and 7,500, or even as high as 14,000. Although there are no accurate figures for the number of Chechen militants killed, various estimates put the number at about 3,000 to over 15,000 deaths. Various figures estimate the number of civilian deaths at between 30,000 and 100,000 killed and possibly over 200,000 injured, while more than 500,000 people were displaced by the conflict, which left cities and villages across the republic in ruins.


The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the Counter-terrorist operation on Chechnya, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB).


During the initial campaign, Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary forces faced Chechen separatists in open combat, and seized the Chechen capital Grozny after a winter siege that lasted from late 1999 to the following February 2000. Russia established direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000 and after the full-scale offensive, Chechen militant resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several more years. Some Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia. These attacks, as well as widespread human rights violations by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation.

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Unreported World - Abkhazia, Valley of the Lost (31-10-2008)

On the Abkhazian-Russian conquest of the (Georgian held) Kodori Gorge, in the shadow of the 2008 South Ossetian conflict. Highlighting the displacement of (Georgian) civilians, and the contradictory stories of Abkhazian authorities. 

Channel4 wrote: "Fighting in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia grabbed the headlines in the summer of 2008. But Unreported World reveals that in Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia, a tragedy was secretly unfolding. 

Arriving in Abkhazia, reporter Aidan Hartley and director Alex Nott hear reports of fierce fighting taking place in the Kodori Gorge, high in the Caucasus mountains. After being forced back at checkpoints by militia commanders, the team talk their way onto a helicopter taking mainly Russian journalists on a government organised trip to the valley.

Full Documentary

The Wolf Of The Caucasus