Chris Doss The Russia Journal ---------------------------- Chechen television and radio network Khladov:
The so-called myth about Chechens, the negative myth is a serious moral and psychological damage for Chechens and for those, who live beyond the borders of the republic. Do you think it is possible to dissipate it? We have another question – is it possible to amend the system of cleansing procedures in Chechnya, in order to make them not so painful for civilians?
VP: Speaking about the negative image of the Chechen nation. The Chechen people are not guilty of anything about it. I think that it is the guilt of the federal center, because the Chechen people were left to the mercy of fate. We will not be looking for certain guilty people, but it is clear that Russia’s state machine has not worked. What can a common Chechen citizen do, when an armed gang of 100-200 people enters a village? Even when there is a Kalashnikov in every Chechen house? They cannot do a thing with that Kalashnikov and the state turned out to be unable to protect the interests of the Chechen people. Extremist fanatics used that, was there anything in common between the bandit incursion in Dagestan of 1999 and Chechnya’s interests? There was nothing in common. Were those people protecting Chechnya’s interests? They used Chechens as the living shield. It is a tragedy today, I repeat, there is no point to look for the guilty, we have to look at the reality. Yes, there is that negative image, unfortunately, but we have to dissipate this perception, this image of the enemy, of the terrorism, and there are a lot of reasons for it. We are to blame. You know it very well that they do not talk and write much about the heroism of Chechen volunteers or Chechen police that was shown in the beginning of the struggle with extremists, by the way. The latest event – the elimination of Khattab – it became possible owing to the direct participation of the Chechen population. There are other examples to illustrate Chechens’ efficient work to oust terrorists and establish peaceful life. One has to talk about it more and that’s all. This is everyone’s goal – yours and ours, and everyone’s who is in this room today. Now speaking about cleansing procedures. They cannot be amended, they should be stopped. This will become possible only after strengthening the Chechen administration, its legal, military, and judicial constituents. The military constituent is the establishment of capable bodies of home affairs. This work is being conducted actively now, this is the next step of the normalization of the situation in Chechnya. Only Chechens must defend Chechnya. It goes without saying that this cannot be done quickly, but let’s remember the time, when everyone was saying a year or two ago, that there would be no Chechen person found, who would support the federal forces. We have forgotten about it today, because the Chechen people are actively supporting the efforts of the federal center for the establishment of law and order in their fatherland. We have to give them the opportunity to do it with the help of guns in their hands. This will take a lot of time and energy, but this work is being done now. I believe that this work is to be completed by the end of the current year, then we will move over to the next step of the normalization, I mean the constitution of the Chechen republic.