Price for pro-Moscow loyalty

Date: May 3, 2002
By R. Tarnavsky

Not long ago one of my Chechen acquaintances visited Gantamirov. He was stricken by the luxury in the "newly-baked Chechen minister's" apartment. It seems, the federal authority condoned the embezzlement of public property and let him without hindrance enjoy the wealth got by robbery. Such is apparently the price of Gantamirov's loyalty to the Kremlin. But he is not the only one among the pro-Moscow Chechens. This is, by the way, proved by the preliminary data of checking of the "activity" of Kadyrov's "administration and Ilyasov's "government" carried out by the Chamber of Control of Russian Federation. I would like to consider several examples.

Episode one, or, how pro-Moscow Chechen administration "heated" the residents of Chechen towns and cities during the last winter. According to documentation, for this purpose "government" of Chechnya purchased several thousand tons of coal on account of the federal State. As a result of the checking it is ascertained that only 33 tons of coal has been distributed among the population!!! This is confirmed by the presented documents. The disappearance of the rest of the purchased coal is a mystery. It is not difficult to guess what amount of money has been embezzled as a result of this operation. One can multiply the price for one ton coal by several thousand. As to the total amount of coal, it is not fixed in the documents. Though, suffice it to say that "several" means not less than three.

Episode Two, or, how the "Kadyrov's team" restores the damaged and destroyed buildings in Chechnya. The Chamber of Control of the Russian Federation revealed the documents drawn up on about 200 residential buildings which had been restored for two and even three times. But it is not fixed in the documents that above-mentioned is reasoned by the excessive activity of Russian troops. The experts of the Chamber of Control suppose that the point is elementary putting to of the robbed property to the official account the more so as the price of building materials for the rest of "honestly" restored houses were increased at 200-300 USD in each case without exclusion.

Episode Three. They are not accustomed in the Federal Center to squander their gifts on trifles. According to the official data of the Chamber of Control of the Russian Federation, only 85 % of the means allotted for restoration works got in Chechnya. Nothing is known about the rest 15%. It should be reminded that we speak about the millions and milliards of roubles.

Thus, we can conclude that there are sufficient officials both in Russia and Chechnya who do not wish the termination of this war. Judging from the above-mentioned we can also fix the price of loyalty of the pro-Moscow Chechen officials. Though, this subject should be considered separately, and I am afraid the efforts of the Chamber of Control will not be sufficient.