Word: chechen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Russians invaded Chechnya in 1994 to try to keep it part of Russia. They failed. In 1999, three years after the end of the first Chechen war, they went back, at the prodding of then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In a move reminiscent of Tolstoy's hundred-year-old Hadji Murad - which was also set in a strife-ridden Caucasus - the chief separatist, Akhmad Kadyrov, like the title character in the prescient short novel, switched sides at the beginning of the second Chechen war and crushed the rebellion. Assassinated in May 2004, Kadyrov was replaced by his son. (From TIME...
Ramzan Kadyrov, now 32, has ruled the mostly Muslim Chechen Republic (pop. 1.1 million) ever since, and by 2008, his allies in the Kremlin were declaring victory. All the violence - the virtual razing of the capital, Grozny; the ferocious attacks by rebels - was supposed to be over. The horrible seige at Beslan and, later, the bloody assaults on a Moscow theater and a crowded underpass and the Chechen war exported into the rest of Russia were supposed to be things of the past. (See pictures of Chechnya today...
...nearly 20-year intermittent struggle inaugurated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Malashenko and Gregory Shvedov, the editor-in-chief of Caucasian Knot, an Internet news site that has drawn unwanted attention from authorities, attributed the bloodshed to Islamic extremism and corrupt government officials in Grozny, the Chechen capital; Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital; and Magas, the Ingushetian capital. "There is no access to any freedoms, political and civil freedoms, including religious freedoms, which is fueling the situation," Shvedov said...
...researcher for the highly respected Russian human-rights organization Memorial, Estemirova, 50, had recently contributed to a Human Rights Watch report that accused the Chechen government of burning more than two dozen homes in punitive attacks against the families of suspected rebels. She also exposed the public execution of a young suspected separatist by a Chechen security officer. "She was fearless, and boldly defended the truth," Shamkhan Akbulatov, head of Memorial in Chechnya, told a Russian news agency. On the day of her murder, Russian human-rights groups released a report, which she had helped research, that exhaustively documented atrocities...
...Estemirova's determined efforts over the past decade to uncover killings, torture, disappearances and kidnappings made her powerful enemies, including Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's Kremlin-backed President. (Kadyrov released a statement calling Estemirova's killing "monstrous.") She was well aware that her work jeopardized her safety. "In Chechnya, the government creates an atmosphere of fear and mistrust," Estemirova said in 2007 as she accepted a human-rights award. "Those who witness abuse keep silent, for if they speak, they can soon become a victim." By silencing this woman who spoke, her killers have victimized everyone...