Chechen Scholar Criticizes Lack of Kremlin Contract With Chechnya Moscow Ekho Moskvy Radio in Russian 1008 GMT 02 Aug 04
[Report] Moscow Ekho Moskvy Radio in Russian at 1008 GMT on 2 August carries an interview with Nadir Sultan Elsunkayev, director of the Center for Humanitarian Studies in Chechnya, on the upcoming presidential elections in Chechnya.
Asked if the poll will be valid and who might win, Elsunkayev says:
"It will be formally valid. [Alu] Alkhanov will formally become the Chechen president." He goes on to say: "I have no doubt about that, just as I have no doubt that the Chechen people will not go to the polls."
"Somewhere between 15 and 20 percent will turn out - that many really might turn out. But the absolute majority of the people today are isolated from the political processes in the republic. Isolated. And that is the most important strategic mistake by the federal center, the consequences of which we can feel today," he said.
Asked if it was wrong for Alkhanov to be president, Elsunkayev says Alkhanov is plainly not good enough.
"I am personally acquainted with Alu Alkhanov. He is a very decent man. He is an expert in his business. Having said that, this is not sufficient to make a president in Chechnya. He should be an absolute national leader for that. Alkhanov does not have those sorts of qualities for now, unfortunately."
Elsunkayev says his main concern is "humanitarian studies". He says he is not aligned to any particular political group in Chechnya, whether loyal to Moscow or otherwise. However, he is full of praise for slain pro-Moscow Chechen president Akhmat Kadyrov and denies any sympathies for the rebels, notably separatist president Aslan Maskhadov.
He says Chechnya has been increasingly volatile since Kadyrov was killed on 9 May 2004 and the federal government is to blame. At the moment, he says, rebels are able to strike anywhere, damaging Russia's credibility.
"In order to stabilize the process in Chechnya, the president of Russia needs to come to an agreement with the Chechen people, not one particular political faction, whether he sympathizes with it or not," he says. He says the way the Chechen constitution was adopted by referendum was the one and only example of that "contract between the Russian president and the Chechen people".
"All the subsequent events, where someone was imposed on the Chechen people to be made a State Duma deputy or a president without prior consultation, were attempts to do a deal with a certain clan, nothing more. Not until there is a proper democratic election in Chechnya will there be another example of a contract with the people. At the moment, the Chechen people is being denied that opportunity. We can see what happened with Malik Saydullayev, can't we?"
The candidature of Malik Saydullayev, a Moscow-based businessman, was disqualified by the Chechen electoral commission on 22 June 2004 on a technicality.
Asked by Ekho Moskvy if creation of jobs would "arrest the negative processes" in Chechnya, Elsunkayev says it could make a difference. "Indeed, the jobless rate in Chechnya is about 90 percent. This situation is itself explosive. Having said that, not a single economic program that has been declared by the Kremlin has been implemented in Chechnya. They have not even managed to pay out compensation in these past five years. Moreover, the little that does get paid comes with a form of racket, if I may say so, and the dispossessed get only a pittance. It is such a small percentage it would take between 20 and 30 years to complete the process of paying out compensation at this rate. And that's by far the easiest task. Yet not even this problem has been resolved," he says.
Asked if it was sufficient for the federal center to deal with the Chechen problem by throwing money at it, he says not much money seemed to get thrown at Chechnya to start with. "The federal center now declares that R63 billion was allocated to rebuild Chechnya. People who live in Chechnya are looking around in bafflement: Just where is that money? Some money probably does get allocated by the federal center, but we cannot see any payoff, any noticeable effect on the ground in Chechnya," says Elsunkayev.
The interview lasts 22 minutes.
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