Word: chechnya
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...express concern that the decision gives even more control to the heavy-handed Kadyrov. "It's not a victory for Moscow, it's a compromise," says Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "For Russia, it's necessary to save the money spent on assistance to Chechnya because of the [economic] crisis. For Kadyrov, he now has the chance to become a dictator." (See pictures of Putin's patriotic youth camp...
...When Vladimir Putin was appointed Russian prime minister in 1999, Chechnya was a de facto independent region where Russia had already fought one bloody war. One of Putin's first moves, before he became President, was to launch the Second Chechen War. Kadyrov's father, Akhmad, was installed by Moscow as part of its new strategy of "Chechenization" of the conflict: turning power over to local rebels-turned-allies...
...After Akhmad was killed by a bomb in 2004, Putin installed Ramzan as prime minister, and later president; the two continue to enjoy a close relationship. "If it were not for Putin, Chechnya would not exist. I owe my life to Putin," Kadyrov said of his political patron in a recent interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta...
...Kadyrov has overseen the rooting out of insurgents and the reconstruction of Chechnya with billions of dollars of aid from Moscow. But human rights groups have questioned the tactics employed to achieve Chechnya's much-vaunted "rebirth" and relative current stability. "The legacy [of the counterterrorist operation] is one of absolute impunity for blatant human rights abuses, such as disappearances, murder and torture," says Tatyana Lokshina, a researcher for Human Rights Watch speaking by phone from Chechnya. Human Rights Watch estimates there have been 5,000 disappearances since...
...number of abuses has fallen in the past few years, but Lokshina notes that Kadyrov's security forces continue to commit "serious human rights violations." "Kadyrov plays by his own rules," says Lokshina. "Under his rule, Chechnya became an enclave outside Russia's legal framework where the Kremlin didn't interfere...