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Simultaneously, political power was being gradually delegated to the
Kremlin-appointed leaders of Chechnya’s administration, while law
enforcement was, little by little, entrusted to armed Chechen police
forces. Some see this attempt at “re-Chechenizing” the province
(that is to say, putting Chechens back in charge of the civil
administration) as an old colonial tactic to try to get local forces
to do the fighting for somebody else. Such critics point out that
neither “Vietnamization” in the war in Vietnam nor “Afghanization”
of the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan worked properly for either
the United States or the former USSR. |
“Re-Chechenization” could also be part of a propaganda effort
designed by the Kremlin to convince Russians and the international
community that the war in Chechnya is over and that civil conditions
there are normalizing, despite the deadly clashes that are taking
place on an almost daily basis.
Be that as it
may, the newly created Chechen power agencies are playing a more and
more important role in neutralizing the attacks of the remaining
militants. A new government structure is being gradually set up in
the republic. In March 2003 a referendum on the republic’s
constitution was held. It approved the new constitution, which puts
an end to separatist aspirations and firmly declares Chechnya a part
of the Russian Federation.
The referendum
paved the way for the election of the republic’s president. In the
election of October 2003, Akhmad Kadyrov, the de facto Chechen
president installed three years earlier by Russia, officially became
president. It is still unclear how much power Russia would actually
grant the separatist province. The negotiations on power sharing
between the federal center and the republic’s administration are
planned in the near future. The republic’s representatives have
retaken their seats in both the State Duma and the Federation
Council. Chechnya is slowly returning into Russia’s political and
legal environment.
