Euro-tour for Kadyrov (weekly review) By Vadim Borshchev, special to Prague Watchdog
In a recent review I wrote that everything that is happening in connection with Zakayev can be left without commentary. I now admit that I was wrong. The present course of events merits the most careful attention and analysis.
At first it was rather difficult to understand what had prompted Ramzan Kadyrov to begin so-called “negotiations” - much publicized ones - with Akhmed Zakayev. After all, Kadyrov’s plans for the “former leaders” are well-known. Returning to their homeland, the Ichkerian "veterans" are to become part of two public relations campaigns – one aimed at advertising and the other designed to do its opposite. In the first campaign, their task is to sing the praises of Kadyrov’s "new order". In the second, it is to repent in visual, graphic terms of the baseness, greed and stupidity of the founding fathers – those with whom not so long ago they were on friendly terms and built an independent state of Ichkeria.
There is no question that by comparison with the nondescript line-up of men who have never been successful bureaucrats or brilliant politicians, the figure of Akhmed Zakayev with his European glamour looks like a winning number. In addition, he should be given his due. He has never been known for indulging in vengefulness or backbiting. For many long years he refrained from making public disclosures and uncomplimentary comments about his former allies, living and dead. Although he never tired of accusing his ideological opponents - Isa Umarov and Movladi Udugov – of being FSB agents, he never made any personal attacks on them. And so on a TV programme like “Points of Leverage” he would not cause much of a disturbance.
As for Zakayev’s credibility among Chechens living in Europe today, he has long and consistently done all that he can to reduce it to zero. That is no secret to anyone, and it must be assumed that Moscow and Grozny are also well-informed about the true state of affairs. It would therefore be absurd to rely on Zakayev as someone capable of importing Kadyrov’s ideology to the Chechen diaspora in Europe. The so-called “Government of Ichkeria” is a typical émigré club composed of one or two beneficiaries of the Russian-Chechen wars who are mired in the dividing up of an ephemeral inheritance.
Many people have been convinced that Zakayev is on the point of appearing in Grozny, and have been counting the days until he turns up in Chechnya. But it is not to be – "the last of the Ichkerians" has clearly managed to bargain a better fate for himself. In his numerous interviews he firmly adheres to two positions that do not fit into the primitive, standardized scripts that have been written in Grozny for the “former leaders”. In the first place, Zakayev speaks in absolutely categorical terms about his total and inalterable unwillingness to return to Chechnya and take up "employment" there. And second, he continues, gently but insistently, to criticize Russia and pressure it for the need to return to the idea of independence.
So what is going on here? The answer, I think, is quite simple. Zakayev’s only political capital is his reputation as a moderate separatist with democratic views. In this capacity he is accepted in the West and it is precisely there, among Western journalists and politicians, that his opinions and comments are considered most appropriate and ideologically correct. And that is the principal value of the current status of the “Prime Minister of Ichkeria”. Unlike Said-Emin Ibragimov or Akhyad Idigov, Zakayev is able with success to relay to Western society one or two ideas about the current situation in Chechnya.
I believe that the Kremlin is anxious to try to clean up Kadyrov’s blood-and-mud-stained image in the West. Zakayev may turn out to be the best publicity agent for that task. But it needs to be handled carefully, without any sudden movements. There must be no ordering people to come out with their hands up, no stripping of ranks or demands for the surrender of weapons. On the contrary, the less the Zakayev of today differs from the Zakayev of the past, the more confidence his public statements will inspire. For this reason he can afford to maintain the steely notes in his voice and his courageous gaze that is fixed imploringly on his European sympathizers.
To take away his status of a leader persecuted by the Russian authorities would not be advantageous – it would cause suspicion and render meaningless the political asylum he has been given in Britain. The further workings of the minds of the Kremlin puppet-masters are not really so important. Indeed, the actual words they put in the mouth of their new employee do not really matter. The plan for an advertising campaign may be successful or it may not. What matters is that success has been achieved in opening a channel for the broadcasting of positive ideas about today’s Chechnya right into the epicentre of the Western world.
Photo: zhair-lial.livejournal.com. (Translation by DM) (P,DM)
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