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April 21, 2008
The internecine battle for Chechnya
The battle for control over Chechnya heats up with Kremlin puppet Kadyrov challenging another pro-Kremlin clan
Commentary by Simon Saradzhyan in Moscow for ISN Security Watch
Simon Saradzhyan is a security and foreign policy analyst based in Moscow. Mr Saradzhyan is the author of several papers on terrorism and security, including "Russia: Grasping Reality of Nuclear Terror," published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov appears to be closer than ever to his goal of winning full control, if not absolute power, over this North Caucasian republic.
Kadyrov's opponents - in the form of the Yamadaev brothers clan - are on the defensive, with one brother a fugitive and another facing the possibility of losing command of the Vostok commando battalion. The battalion is stationed in Chechnya's second largest city, Gudermes, and reports to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, but is manned and controlled by Yamadaev loyalists.
Like Kadyrov, Vostok battalion commander Sulim Yamadaev is a former rebel who switched sides during Russia's second military campaign and supported the Kremlin's efforts to end Chechnya's short-lived de facto independence.
Together with Ramzan Kadyrov's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the Yamadaevs arranged for Gudermes to be taken over by federal troops without a fight. In return, a grateful Kremlin allowed Yamadaev and his brothers to form a special commando unit out of their fighters under the auspices of the Defense Ministry.
As part of that expression gratitude, one of the brothers - Ruslan Yamadaev - was elected to the State Duma (Russia's lower house of parliament) on a pro-Kremlin United Russia ticket. Yet another gesture of gratitude could be behind the fact that Badruddi Yamadaev - who was sentenced in 2003 to 11 years in prison for attempted murder - has been granted an early release and allowed to assume a commanding post in the Vostok battalion, according to local news reports.
Kadyrov, of course, has even greater leverage in Moscow than the Yamadaev brothers, who are thought to enjoy the support of top generals distrustful of the Chechen leader. The Chechen president has very good relations with both outgoing and incoming presidents of Russia, if not their full trust. Furthermore, Putin granted Kadyrov a higher post than any of the Yamadaev brothers by making him the president of Chechnya.
As such, on 14 April the Chechen president had reason to be angry and resources to vent his anger when a convoy of Vostok battalion vehicles failed to yield to his motorcade, causing a crash.
Kadyrov was swift to unleash his fury against "disrespectful" Badruddi Yamadaev - who commanded the Vostok convoy on that day. Several Vostok soldiers were killed in the ensuing violence, and Yamadaev has been slapped with charges that could land him in prison for five years.
In addition, unlicensed guns and ammunition have been confiscated from the Yamadaevs' estate in Gudermes. Vostok battalion premises has also been searched and its personnel interrogated.
Local law enforcement loyal to Kadyrov say they have discovered that dozens of young men have been illegally serving in the battalion without first enrolling in the army.
The local parliament, also loyal to Kadyrov, has demanded that the Defense Ministry relieve Badruddi Yamadaev from his position as Vostok battalion commander.
While the searches were underway on Wednesday, Kadyrov's press service distributed a flurry of press releases in which the Yamadaev brothers were accused of having organized extrajudicial killings, torture, extortions and kidnappings over the course of the past several years.
One may wonder why Kadyrov - whose own loyalists have been accused by independent human rights activists of the same crimes - has waited for so long to publicize charges and why his officers have not acted on those. Certainly there is speculation that local commanders may kill, torture and kidnap civilians as long as they do not cross the republic's president.
It is also possible that the Yamadaevs have been trying to oust Kadyrov as the Kremlin remains preoccupied with the transition of presidential power and that the car accident was merely "the last straw," as one Chechen official opined in an interview with a Moscow newspaper last week.
Kadyrov's men, most of whom are former rebels, already call the shots, be it in the Interior Troops' Yug and Sever commando battalions or the Zapad battalion, with the latter reporting to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff.
After a protracted battle, Kadyrov has managed to oust even the head of the special 2nd Operational and Search Bureau, which answers directly to the Interior Ministry's central staff. He also managed to arrange the disbanding of the Gorets special unit, which has answered to the Federal Security Service (FSB), while its commander Movladi Baisarov was charged with kidnappings and murder, and subsequently shot and killed by Chechen police officers sent to Moscow from Grozny in what the officers said was a result of him resisting arrest.
In addition to these elite units, there are also regular troops deployed in the republic, but they are manned with volunteers from other parts of Russia and commanded by ethnic Russian officers.
If the Defense Ministry heeds the request to fire Yamadaev, it will raise questions as to whether the federal government would have any control over the republic if the local leader's loyalists call almost all the shots, with Kadyrov in control of those Interior and Defense Ministry units manned with Chechens and loyal to him.
Paradoxically, Sulim Yamadaev - a former rebel himself - is now warning that the former rebels under Kadyrov would be ready for another war with Russia should a chance arise.
"You think there is order here? This amnestied army goes around with weapons. They do not have to hide and run [...]. They have everything. They are just waiting," Yamadaev told a Russian radio station over the weekend.
The Kremlin must face the realization that "outsourcing" the control of Chechnya - which has already fought two bloody secessionist wars - to one man and his loyalists is not a wise strategy, especially, if these men have a record of violence.
Russian authorities would do well to investigate accusations of brutal human rights violations committed by both Kadyrov's men and Yamadaev's men and prosecute them if they are guilty of these crimes.
Likewise, the Kremlin should put an end to the practice of different federal agencies and groups of officials factionalizing Chechnya by playing rival clans off one another in the republic. The age old divide and conquer could easily backfire in this volatile republic.
Instead, all branches of federal and local government should work together to put an end to extrajudicial military and police actions in Chechnya and to build a law-abiding, socially and economically viable Chechnya. For what exists now, however "stable" it may seem simply due to the lack of outright war, is in fact internecine clan conflict that the Kremlin can never truly win and through which the people can only suffer.