Accessibility links

Breaking News

Kadyrov Seeks To Expel Illegal Migrants And Russian Police


Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov
In recent days Ramzan Kadyrov has proposed two new moves to reduce to a minimum the number of non-Chechens in Chechnya. And as part of his project to transform Chechnya into an Islamic state, he has also issued instructions to leading Muslim clerics to improve the religious education of the younger generation and to introduce a mandatory uniform timetable for daily prayers.

Meeting on March 12 with First Deputy Prime Minister Magomed Daudov and Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov, Kadyrov said he sees no further need to deploy additional police to Chechnya from elsewhere in the Russian Federation, and will therefore asked the federal authorities to stop such deployments.

He said that while such additional manpower was needed at the start of the counter-terror operation in Chechnya, today the Russian Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) forces permanently stationed in Chechnya, together with the Chechen police, are capable of stamping out the last remaining insurgents.

Kadyrov explained that the deployment of police to Chechnya from other Russian regions is a drain on the federal budget, and he claimed that the heads of other federation subjects frequently complain to him that such deployments negatively affect the fight against criminality at home. He also claimed that police from elsewhere in Russia are ineffective in Chechen conditions because they do not know the region or the psychology of the population.

Kadyrov also instructed Daudov and Alkhanov to launch checks on foreigners in order to identify (and presumably expel) illegal migrants. He predicted this would reduce the unacceptably large number of beggars on Grozny streets, most of whom he said are not Chechens. Two days earlier, on March 10, Kadyrov summoned Chechen mufti Sultan Mirzayev to discuss a uniform schedule for daily prayers at the republic's mosques. The first deputy head of Kadyrov's administration, Galas Taymaskhanov, has been tasked with drafting that schedule.

About This Blog

This blog presents analyst Liz Fuller's personal take on events in the region, following on from her work in the "RFE/RL Caucasus Report." It also aims, to borrow a metaphor from Tom de Waal, to act as a smoke detector, focusing attention on potential conflict situations and crises throughout the region. The views are the author's own and do not represent those of RFE/RL.

Subscribe

Latest Posts

XS
SM
MD
LG