The Electronic Telegraph (UK) September 7, 2003 Most Chechens 'want to remain part of Russia' By Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Almost four out of five people living in Chechnya believe that the disputed republic should remain part of Russia, according to the first professional opinion poll to be conducted in the war-torn region.
The surprising result comes as Chechens prepare for a presidential election, touted by the Kremlin as a step on the road to ending the 10-year civil war between Russian federal forces and rebel groups fighting for a breakaway state.
The civil war has resulted in thousands of deaths, heavy casualties among Russian soldiers, accusations of atrocities by both sides against civilians and a fierce anti-Russian terrorist campaign, including suicide bombings, by the rebels.
More than 1,000 Chechens were surveyed in the independent poll organised by the Moscow-based research organisation Validata, in partnership with Russia's respected Public Opinion Foundation. Interviewers fanned out into the warring republic with questionnaires, working without security guards and talking to people in the privacy of their homes. They found that 78 per cent of respondents thought that Chechnya should stay as one of Russia's 89 regions.
Sergei Khaikin, head of the research team, said that the results bucked the "stereotype" of Chechens as committed separatists. "The attitude of the international community towards the Chechen problem must change," he said.
Mr Khaikin said that researchers found that Chechens had some practical reasons for wanting to remain Russia citizens, such as the elderly continuing to receive their pensions - but that the overriding argument "for Russia" was bad experience of Chechnya's previous brush with independence.
The republic was briefly independent between 1994 and 1996, after Russian troops withdrew, but sank into lawlessness and infighting. Although 73 per cent of those polled said that the main threat to Chechens' personal safety was from federal forces, 54 per cent said that they looked to the future "with hope".
The Kremlin is expected to latch on to the findings as evidence that Moscow can bring peace to the region as an integral part of the Russian Federation. Political commentators warned, however, that the poll should be treated with scepticism.
Critics of the poll noted that Validata's interim findings, published before all 1,000 face-to-face interviews were complete, were given wide coverage on television channels controlled by Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed chief of the Chechen administration. Mr Kadyrov is one of 10 candidates contesting the presidential election on October 5.
President Vladimir Putin is to meet President Bush at Camp David later this month, ahead of the vote, and is likely to use the result of the opinion poll to bolster his argument that Chechen separatists are terrorists with very limited popular support.
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