According to InformCenter ORCHD, on January 20th, additional subdivisions of the President’s Security Services were directed to enter the territory of the Vedensky region The order was given by Ramzan Kadyrov. Representatives of the society of Russian- Chechen Friendship and the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights said that the situation in the region is now even more aggravated. People are frightened by the enormous concentration of Kadyrovites and federal forces in the village of Vedeno. They try not to discuss the prevailing situation openly, and say the word Kadyrovite only in whispers.
The Kadyrovites tell local residents that they are in the village "to verify the correctness of the distribution and delivery of compensation for destroyed dwellings". In order to distinguish themselves from other forces they wear sleeve badges of different colors.
The appearance of the Kadyrovites was marked by a change in the local police. Immediately on arrival, they replaced Shavkhat Moguyev as
Chief of the ROVD. The new chief, Tomusu Dekhiyev, was brought by the Kadyrovites themselves . Furthermore, they discharged 12 other police officers. The police cannot appeal their discharges in court because the Kadyrovites threatened them with being charged with having "connections to the fighters",
These types of changes in local primary structures can be partly explained by financial considerations. The fact is that obtaining a good position in the Chechen police now costs 1700 US dollars, and the person who purchased the post occupies it for approximately one year, and is then dismissed under any pretext, in order to free the place for another candidate capable of paying the required sum. Taking into account the shortage of work in the republic, finding new people looking for work is simple.
Some civil servants in the MVD were also they discharged - by “voluntary” forced order. For example, the Chief Accountant of the ROVD, 27-year-old Malik, was given two days to leave of his own free will. When the period elapsed, and they had not received his release form, they broke in and stole the papers at night from his house. A worker in the Visa Division decided to appeal the order of her release from work in court. Kadyrovites threatened to take away her young nephew, who she was bringing up after the death of the child’s parents. The woman was forced to withdraw her complaint.
Kadyrovites regularly carry out night raids on the houses of local residents. Their visits are often not connected with official checks. They can enter any house at any time of day or night if they believe suspect persons are there. Inhabitants of Vedeno say that their behavior varies sharply depending on the time of day: “In the daytime they are polite, and at night they put on masks and become entirely different ".
Kadyrovites regularly interact with subdivisions of federal forces when conducting special operations and detaining people suspected of sympathizing with the Chechen resistance or of having relatives among members of the so-called illegal armed units. In these cases, they are extremely severe with people. On the night of January 22nd, a group of six Kadyrovites and federal forces broke into the house of 28-year-old Louise, a resident of Vedeno, and a distant relative of Shamil Basayev. She lives with her mother and two children - a five-year-old son and three-
year-old -daughter. They took the woman away and beat her children. The boy obtained especially severe injuries while attempting to prevent the abduction of his mother. The child did not regain consciousness for several days. The grandmother and grandson were sent beyond the village limits.
The declared intention of ensuring order and peace in the Vedensky region is not being fulfilled. Between the villages of Vedeno and Eshelkhatoy two male corpses were recently discovered – an adolescent 15-16 years old and a young man of up to 20 years old. A group of federal forces delivered the bodies to the district morgue where the remains were photographed, after which the residents buried the unknowns in the local cemetery. Identification of the remains was not carried out. There is no information on a criminal complaint.
The situation in the Vedensky region is complicated by competing Chechen power groupings. The Kadyrovites subdivision conflict with the Chechen police, controlled by the President of the Republic Ali Alkhonuv, is one of the most alarming tendencies of recent times. The situation is aggravated by the statements of Ramzan Kadyrov to local media. In one of his appearances on Chechen television Kadyrov stated: “If I were an inhabitant of the Vedensky region, I would fight against the police, and perish fighting against them ". In additon, in this region there has long been a subdivision of Sulim Yamadayev (GRU MO battalion "Vostok"), taking orders from no one but its commander. Relations between this subdivision and federal forces, as well as with Kadyrovites, have recently been extremely aggravated. Yamadayevites are stationed every 10-20 meters along the entire route from the village of Serjen- Yourta in the Shalinsky region to Tsa -Vedeno in the Vedensky region. Local residents say that in the last two days there has been an increase in the frequency of military engagements between Yamadayevites and Kadyrovites.