The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, paid a lightning visit to the capital of war-torn Chechnya on Tuesday, announcing the Kremlin would increase the republic’s police force by more than a thousand men.
The move was widely seen as a bid to show he had taken personal control of the crisis caused by the assassination of the Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, on Sunday.
It also ended speculation that the Kremlin might order a reinforcement of its military presence in the region, the increased police numbers continuing Moscow’s policy of using loyal Chechens to repress separatists.
Putin’s trip, characterised by such tight security that his persistent claims that life in the province is returning to normal may have been undermined, was only announced upon his return to Moscow. There had been no visible sign of his presence in Grozny, where security was stepped up early in the morning.
It was his first trip to Chechnya since 2000, when he flew into the republic in a fighter jet as Russian forces completed their military campaign against separatists.
Putin told his government to add 1 125 police to the region’s force by the end of the day, a move that will be largely symbolic in a country already held in the grip of 70 000 Russian troops and thousands of pro-Moscow Chechen police and security forces.
”No one should have any doubts that the basic conditions for the reconstruction and revival of Chechnya — the law enforcement, legal and organisational components — are today so fundamental that nobody will be able to reverse them,” he said on his return to Moscow.
In an attempt to unite Chechens exhausted by two separatist wars in a decade, he added: ”We have the support of the people.”
The Kremlin head remained keen to appease the three groups upon whom Chechen’s future depends: the Russian military, the Chechen public, and loyalist Chechens.
Recognising the slow pace of the city’s reconstruction, Putin told his cabinet to ”resume steps to put Grozny’s restoration plans into effect. In spite of the fact that something is being done, the city looks awful from a helicopter”.
He also paid tribute to the assasinated man: ”Kadyrov was a person of rare integrity, decency and courage. A nation that has sons like Kadyrov deserves respect”.
Putin appointed Taus Dzhabrailov as the Chechen state council’s new chairperson, replacing Khussein Isayev, who was killed along with five others in Sunday’s blast at Grozny’s Dynamo stadium.
In a bid to ensure the pro-Moscow Chechens retained the stranglehold they gained over the republic when the late Kadyrov was installed as president after heavily criticised elections in October, Dzhabrailov said: ”I’m convinced that the brunt of the struggle against terrorism in Chechnya must be put on the Chechen interior ministry, as was proposed by President Kadyrov.”
Yet amid the Kremlin’s announcements, the quest to find a suitable successor continued yesterday.
Some local analysts said Dzhabrailov, perhaps the only high-profile Chechen trusted by Moscow, was a strong candidate. Rudnik Dudayev, a former member of the security services, was also mentioned.
Kadyrov’s son Ramzan, who has been accused of masterminding a wave of Chechen-on-Chechen violence yet was appointed deputy prime minister on Monday by the Kremlin, also made comments indicating wider plans for the republic.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the presidential bodyguard, said his father’s work to rebuild schools and hospitals had to continue. He said rebels who had committed crimes should be dealt a tough hand and not pardoned.
”Those with blood on their hands must be thrown behind bars for good, or be destroyed before they take the lives of hundreds of civilians,” he said.
Yet Ramzan Kadyrov’s succession appeared improbable, even to his own men.
As security measures were being stepped up moderately across the capital, one member of the ”Kadyrovtsy”, the 4 000-strong security force amassed by the assasinated president, was stopping cars on the road from Grozny to Argun.
Wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his black weightlifter’s glove, he said: ”We just need a decent, honest man. Ramzan is just too young.” – Guardian Unlimited Â