President Vladimir Putin nominated a widely feared security chief as the new president of Chechnya on Thursday, while EuropeÂ’s human rights chief denounced torture and other rampant abuses in the war-battered region. the Associated Press news agency reports. Ramzan Kadyrov, who previously had served as ChechnyaÂ’s prime minister, has run a security force that is accused of abducting and abusing suspected rebels and civilians believed to be connected to them.Speaking at a rights conference in Chechnya on Thursday, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of EuropeÂ’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said he had found widespread evidence of torture and other rights abuses on his trip to the region, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Kadyrov had been widely expected to seek the presidency after turning 30 in October — the minimum age for presidents under local law. His nomination follows Putin’s dismissal of regional President Alu Alkhanov earlier this month and needs to be approved by the local legislature — a mere formality given Kadyrov’s clout. Kadyrov is the son of the late Akhmad Kadyrov, who became Chechen president in 2003 in a Kremlin-conducted election aimed at undermining the separatist rebel movement. He was assassinated seven months later.
More than a decade of separatist fighting has left much of Chechnya, particularly the capital Grozny, a moonscape of ruins, but Kadyrov has led a largely federally funded campaign to rebuild. During a meeting with Kadyrov on Thursday, Putin hailed the reconstruction efforts, saying Chechnya has seen “significant positive developments,” according to televised remarks. He expressed hope that Kadyrov would continue efforts to improve social and economic conditions in the region, so that “people Chechnya feel a greater security.”
International rights groups have accused Kadyrov’s security force of abuses against civilians, including abductions, torture and killing. Some have speculated that the October killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had reported critically on Chechnya, may have been connected with her investigation of Kadyrov’s administration. Kadyrov denied any involvement, saying, “I don’t kill women.”
Chechnya has been plagued by fighting with separatist rebels for most the past dozen years. A 20-month war ended in 1996 with the withdrawal of Russian troops after rebels fought them to a standstill, giving the province de-facto independence. Russian forces swept back into the region in September 1999 following an incursion by Chechnya-based fighters into neighboring Dagestan and fatal apartment bombings in other parts of Russia which officials blamed on the separatists. Major fighting in the latter campaign died down by 2001, but skirmishes still break out between rebels and Russian soldiers in the region.