I regret to pull such a long excerpt, but Tom Parfitt's column at the Guardian is very interesting today, and contains a number of personal observations you won't find in any of the wire reports on the recent tragic events in the Caucasus:It is some time since strategists in the Kremlin have been pulling out their hair, wondering how they created the monster which is Kadyrov. Installed as a fixer who could stamp out the rebels and rebuild Grozny, he has largely done both things while turning the republic into his own personal fiefdom. Chechnya, traditionally an egalitarian society in which no individual is considered above his peers, is now full of risible billboards of Kadyrov clutching smiling children like some modern day Enver Hoxha ("The streets in Grozny are so clean," say his fans, but the streets are clean in Belarus and North Korea). Political opposition in parliament has been extinguished and many potential opponents are no longer a threat. Kadyrov's greatest rival, the former battalion commander and Hero of Russia, Sulim Yamadayev - himself, admittedly, no fluffy democrat - was rubbed out by an assassin in Dubai in March.
Yesterday, in Estemirova, the most prominent civil society activist still recording abuses inside Chechnya was exterminated. Others had already taken fright and backed off. Estemirova kept on with enormous courage, frequently clashing with Kadyrov, who was incensed by reports of his alleged savagery: at a tense meeting with representatives of Memorial early last year, one member of the organisation says Kadyrov clawed himself and cried, "What can I do to stop you people writing these things about me?"
What is clear is that Kadyrov's hardline rule in Chechnya receives tacit consent from the Kremlin, which signed a Faustian pact with him to quell insurrection and stop terrorist attacks reaching the Russian heartland, in exchange for wide autonomy on his home turf. But there may come a point when Kadyrov becomes just too embarrassing for a civilised country that is a member of the G8. The problem now is that he is practically impossible to sack: his beatification means removal would leave such a gaping power vacuum that the republic could slip once more into chaos.
That does not mean the issue should be fudged. If the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is serious about solving this murder, the investigation must look hard at the Kremlin's own power structures in Chechnya. Meanwhile, the west must return human rights to the top of its agenda in dealing with Moscow.
Another Russian mantra of modern times is the idea of "stabilnost". Achieving that in Chechnya has ostensibly been the aim of supporting Kadyrov. But peace in the North Caucasus cannot come at the price of human freedom. Because, as Estemirova herself knew so well, stability based on terror and killing is no stability at all.
"the west must return human rights to the top of its agenda in dealing with Moscow"
He can say it. Why can't you?
"if the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is serious about solving this murder"
Serious? What in the world would make him think Medvedev is serious? And even if he were serious, what in the world makes him think that would make the slightest bit of difference?
"what is clear is that Kadyrov's hardline rule in Chechnya receives tacit consent from the Kremlin"
Tacit? Why tacit? Just because the Kremlin doesn't admit publicly that it openly authorizes Kadyrov, does that mean it isn't happening?