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Friday, 10 October 2003

CHECHEN PRESIDENT-ELECT RESTATES PRIORITIES

Published in News Digest

By empty (10/10/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on 10 October, Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov said he wants the Kremlin to bestow special economic privileges upon Chechnya, specifically allowing the republic to retain until 2010 all taxes and revenues from the sale of oil. Kadyrov also reaffirmed his intention to set up a commission to determine who was responsible for the 1991 dissolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, branding as one of the culprits then-Russian Supreme Soviet speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, whom he referred to as \"an enemy of the [Chechen] people.\" Kadyrov said he plans to strengthen the Chechen police force as a preliminary step to securing the withdrawal from Chechnya of all Russian forces except for one motorized division and one brigade of Russian Interior Ministry troops, which will be permanently stationed there.
Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on 10 October, Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov said he wants the Kremlin to bestow special economic privileges upon Chechnya, specifically allowing the republic to retain until 2010 all taxes and revenues from the sale of oil. Kadyrov also reaffirmed his intention to set up a commission to determine who was responsible for the 1991 dissolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, branding as one of the culprits then-Russian Supreme Soviet speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, whom he referred to as \"an enemy of the [Chechen] people.\" Kadyrov said he plans to strengthen the Chechen police force as a preliminary step to securing the withdrawal from Chechnya of all Russian forces except for one motorized division and one brigade of Russian Interior Ministry troops, which will be permanently stationed there. In a reversal of his earlier statements, Chechen President-elect Kadyrov also said on 10 October that he is ready to establish contacts with Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechen president in January 1997 in a ballot recognized by Russia and the international community as free and democratic. But Kadyrov advised Maskhadov to surrender and face trial, or to go into exile, rather than risk being hunted down and killed. Kadyrov said that even if the Duma declines to renew the amnesty it declared in June for Chechen fighters who surrender their arms, he will work out a \"legal procedure\" for those fighters who wish to return to a peaceful life. (Interfax)
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