Chechnya

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Template:Federal subject of Russia

The Chechen Republic ] (Template:Lang-ru; Chechen: Нохчийн Республика/Noxçiyn Respublika), or, informally, Chechnya /ˈʧɛʧnɪə/ (Russian: Чечня́; Chechen: Нохчичьо/Noxçiyçö/Nokhchiycho), sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, or Chechenia, is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). Bordering Stavropol Krai to the northwest, the republic of Dagestan to the northeast and east, Georgia to the south, and the republics of Ingushetia and North Ossetia to the west, it is located in the Northern Caucasus mountains, in the Southern Federal District.

During the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the government of the republic declared independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. As of 2006, their independence has not been recognized by any state. On September 6 1991, militants of National Congress of Chechen People (NCChP), headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev, stormed a session of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR parliament, killing the chief of the Soviet Union Communist Party (PCUS) of Grozny, Vitali Kutsenko, severely injuring several other parliamentaries, and effectively dissolving the government of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.

This situation, as well as the economic importance of Chechnya due to several oil and gas pipelines on its territory, and the fact that constitutionally Chechnya, unlike Soviet Socialist Republics, did not have the right to secede, has led to armed conflicts between the forces of the self-declared government and the Russian Federal army.

Chechen officials claim that between 1994 and 2004 over 200,000 people were killed in Chechnya, including more than 20,000 children and further that ethnic Chechens comprise only one quarter of this number . They do not account for the remainder of those killed.

Insurgent sources claim that federal forces have killed more than 250,000 people in Chechnya, including 42,000 children . Independent sources put the number of civilians killed at 180,000 .

According to official population census number of Chechens in Russia in 2002 is 1,360,253 people (in 1989 - 898,999 people) (source :results of census from Federal Service of the state statistics of Russia)

The official death toll for federal troops is more than 10,000, although insurgent sources claim the real figure is closer to 40,000. The Committee of Soldiers Mothers, the human rights NGO puts the death toll at 14,000 and 11,000 in the first and second Chechen wars, respectively .

History

Main article: History of Chechnya

Early history

Chechnya is a region in the Northern Caucasus which has constantly fought against foreign rule, beginning with the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. Eventually the Chechens converted to Islam and tensions began to die down with the Turks; however, conflicts with their Christian neighbours such as Georgians and Cossacks, as well as with the Buddhist Kalmyks intensified. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks resettled from Volga to Terek River. In 1783, Russia and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti (which was devastated by Turkish and Persian invasions) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection by Russia. In order to secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, the Russian Empire began spreading her influence into the Caucasus mountains. The current resistance to Russian rule began during the late 18th century (1785-1791) as a result of Russian expansion into territories formerly under the dominion of Turkey and Persia (see also the Russo-Turkish Wars and Russo-Persian War, 1804-13), under Mansur Ushurma -- a Chechen Naqshbandi (Sufi) Sheikh -- with wavering support from other North Caucasusian tribes (it was not uncommon for tribal khans to change sides in the conflict several times in the same year). Mansur hoped to establish a Transcaucasus Islamic state under shari'a law, but was ultimately unable to do so because of both Russian resistance and opposition from many Chechens (many of whom had not been converted to Islam at the time). Its banner was again picked up by the Avar Imam Shamil, who fought against the Russians from 1834 until 1859.

Soviet rule

Chechen Rebellion would characteristically flame up whenever the Russian state faced a period of internal uncertainty. Rebellions occurred during the Russo-Turkish War (See Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878), the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War, and Collectivization. Under Soviet Rule, Chechnya was combined with Ingushetia to form the autonomous republic of Chechen-Ingushetia in the late 1930s. The Chechens, though, again rose up against Soviet rule during the 1940s, resulting in the deportation of the Chechen population to the Kazakh SSR (later Kazakhstan) and Siberia during World War II. Stalin and others argued this was necessary in order to stop the Chechens from providing assistance to the Germans during the Second World War. Although the German front never made it to the border of Chechnya, an active guerrilla movement threatened to undermine the Soviet defenses of the Caucasus (noted writer Valentin Pikul' claims in his historical account Barbarossa that while the city of Grozny was being prepared for a siege in 1942, all of the air bombers stationed on the Caucasian front had to be directed at quelling the Chechen insurrection instead of fighting the German siege of Stalingrad). As well, incidents of covert German airdrops into Chechnya and interceptions of radio exchanges between German and Chechen rebels were frequent. The Chechens were allowed to return to their homeland after 1956 during the de-Stalinization which occurred under Nikita Khrushchev.

The Russification policies towards Chechens continued after 1956, with Russian language proficiency required in many aspects of life and for advancement in the Soviet system. Many ethnic Chechens managed to achieve top positions in the government and military of the USSR (notable among them are Ruslan Khasbulatov (speaker of Soviet Supreme Soviet), Dzhokhar Dudayev (Soviet general), Doku Zavgaev (chairman of Chechen-Ingush ASSR), and Aslambek Aslakhanov (Soviet/Russian lawmaker)). The Chechens remained peaceful and relatively loyal to the state until the introduction of Glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s.

With the impending collapse of the Soviet Union, an independence movement, initially known as the Chechen National Congress, formed in 1990. This movement was ultimately opposed by Boris Yeltsin's Russian Federation, which argued: (1) Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union – as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian States had – but was a part of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede; (2) Other ethnic groups inside Russia, such as the Tatars, would join the Chechens and secede from the Russian Federation if they were granted that right; and (3) Chechnya was at a major chokepoint in the oil-infrastructure of the country and hence would hurt the country's economy and control of oil resources.

First Chechen War

Main article: First Chechen War

File:Czeczenia1.JPG

coat of arms of independent Chechnya

A Chechen insurgent near the Presidential Palace in Grozny, January 1995. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Chechens Warm in Grozny just days before Russian troops entered the city. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Chechen insurgents in downtown Grozny, 1995. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

The first casualties - a Russian helicopter downed by Chechen fighters near the capital Grozny, December 1994. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Republic of Chechnya's nationalist president, declared Chechnya's independence from Russia in 1991. Dudayev's cabinet was largely filled with relatives and members of his teip, many of whom were alleged to have been involved in criminal activities, and a few of whom had previous criminal convictions. This, combined with a failure to maintain control over the republic, saw his rule descend into chaos and wide-spread corruption. From 1991 to 1994, as many as 300,000 people of non-Chechen ethnicity (mostly Russians) fled the republic, and an unknown number (some estimate as high as 50,000) were murdered or disappeared (). At this time, the slave trade also re-emerged in Chechnya (the earliest known person taken as a Chechen slave, Vladimir Yepishin, was kidnapped in 1989 and released in 2002, and claims to have come in contact with other slaves kidnapped by Chechens in the mid-80s ). .

Chechen sources claim non-Chechens were victims of common criminals and were not singled out. Russian sources, however argue that xenophobic rhetoric of Dudayev and other Chechen nationalists played some part in the events of those years.

On May 26 and on July 29, 1994, Chechen terrorists took hostages (including schoolchildren) in Russian city Mineralny Vody. 4 people died.

In December 1994 Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered 40,000 troops retake Chechnya (see First Chechen War), after having been told by close advisors that it would be a popular, short, and victorious war. Yeltsin hoped to use the victory to overtake political opponents and win in the 1996 presidential elections, which was extremely uncertain as opponents within the former Communist Party and nationalists under Vladimir Zhirinovsky had gained a large amount of popular support while Yeltsin's approval ratings hovered in the single digits.

The Russian army entered Chechnya on December 10, 1994, with only a few weeks of preparations and almost no prior planning or reconnaissance, with the official mission of restoring constitutional order. Unprepared for and not expecting intense fighting, Russian forces suffered humiliating losses after entering Grozny, which unbeknownst to ground troops had been fortified and filled with the Chechen army and a large number of volunteers in preparation for the invasion (it should be noted that despite knowing they would be fighting for control of Grozny, Dudayev's government did not issue an evacuation notice for the city, something which was responsible for the majority of civilian casualties during the battle for Grozny). Russian troops had not secured the Chechen capital of Grozny by year's end, managing to gain control of the city in February 1995 after heavy fighting. A few months later, the majority of active Chechen resistance was pushed back into the mountains around Ichkeria. In response, Chechen fighters launched two attacks on Russian soil. The most high-profile of these, led by Chechen field commander and later first vice-premier of Ichkeria, Shamil Basayev, was the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in June 1995. Shamil's large group seized the hospital and the 1,600 people inside for a period of several days. In total, 129 people died and 415 were wounded. Most victims died in a cross-fire. Ten hostages (Russian military men) were shot by separatists. Separatists used patients of a maternity hospital as covering. Although he failed in his demands to withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya, Basayev and his fighters were able to successfully retreat back to Chechnya under cover of hostages. The media coverage surrounding the hostage-taking and Basayev's safe retreat propelled the then mostly unknown Basayev into Chechnya's most famed national hero overnight. Seeking to emulate Basayev's success, Dzhokhar Dudayev's son-in-law, Salman Raduev, led a similar raid on the hospital of Kizlyar in January 1996. 78 hostages and policemen, and most of Raduyev's 300-strong group, died in the hostage crisis.

Yeltsin's government, weary of negative media coverage of the conflict and wanting a quick end to the fighting, halted the Russian advance and began a long series of fruitless peace talks with the separatists. Most of the Russian army was withdrawn, with the biggest contingent being a 3000-strong force left to secure Grozny. The error in this judgement became immediately apparent as the remaining Russian troops came under small but regular guerrilla-style attacks despite the many cease-fires under effect during negotiations. During a break in the negotiation process in April of 1996, Dudayev was killed in an air raid. The peace process impacted Russian intelligence gathering as well, demonstrated most dramatically when thousands of Chechen irregulars from all over the country poured into Grozny in early August 1996 to retake the city in a plan hatched by Shamil Basayev, catching the Russian forces completely unprepared. With 3000 servicemen besieged in Grozny with no possibility of timely relief, Yeltsin was forced into negotiations on the Chechen leaders' terms. The hostilities effectively ended with the signing of the Khasavyurt accords by Gen. Aleksandr Lebed on August 31, 1996. The formal peace treaty was signed by Presidents Yeltsin and Maskhadov in the Kremlin on May 12, 1997 These accords declared that Chechnya's national status would be decided by the end of 2001, but gave the Republic of Ichkeria de-facto independence in the meantime .

Second Chechen War

Main article: Second Chechen War

Despite the peace agreement the situation remained unstable.

On November 16, 1996 an apartment house in Kaspiysk (Dagestan) was blown up. Sixty-nine people, mainly members of frontier guards' families, died. Moscow authorities blamed Chechen fighters for this action and other actions listed below. Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov did not support any of these actions.

On December 17, 1996 six members of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC were assassinated while asleep in the ICRC hospital of Novye Atagi, a village twenty kilometres from Grozny.*

On April 7, 1996 the Russians besieged the city Samashki with a population of 65,000. A peace delegation approached the troops and asked for mercy. According to unsubstantiated reports from Radio BBC this included many mothers from the village. The Russian commanders ordered their troops to fire upon the people, and they refused. They later obeyed their orders and opened fire on the people. That report said that 'They said it was like killing their own mothers'. . Later an alleged massacre by Russian forces in the city of town of Samashki killed hundreds of people. .

On April 23, 1997 a bomb was detonated in the Russian railway station of Armavir. Three people died.

On May 28, 1997, there was an explosion in the Russian railway station of Pyatigorsk, killing two people.

In December, 1997 the Chechen warlord (emir) Hattab attacked the Russian garrison of Buynaksk (Dagestan). The President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov condemned this action, but many comentators accused him of not taking action to prevent the incursion; Russian authorities blamed Chechen govenment for all the hostilities taking place at that time.

On March 19, 1999, an explosion in the Central market of Vladikavkaz (Ossetia), killed 64 people.

On April 23, 1997 a bomb was detonated in the Russian railway station of Armavir. Three people died.

The incursion by Chechen armed groups into Dagestan and apartment bombings on September 1999 (attributed by the Russian government to Chechens) were used to justify the second invasion of the Russian army into Chechnya in late 1999. Bombs determined to be hexogen based were set off at apartment blocks at Buynaksk in Dagestan (on September 4, killing 62 people, mostly members of families of frontier guards), Moscow, and Volgodonsk (on September 16, killing 18) in Southern Russia. The Russian government immediately blamed Chechen terrorists. Later two Islamists allegedly participating in these acts, were convicted of terrorism in a closed trial in Moscow . It has since been alleged by oligarch Boris Berezovsky that FSB agents, rather than Chechen separatists, were behind the Moscow attacks. In support of his theory, Berezovsky cited an incident in Ryazan, where undercover FSB agents were caught by the local police on September 23, 1999 while planting explosives (or a substance simulating an explosive ) in the basement of an apartment house .

In early December, 1999 the invasion of the Chechen village Alkhan-Yurt by Russian forces resulted in a unsubstantiated terrorist attack against civilians.

In February 5, 2000, there was a massacre in Aldi by non-Chechnyan units which resulted in the deaths of over fifty people.

In June 2001, two women detonated a truck bomb in Alkhan-Yurt against the Russian military headquarters there. This attack killed about eighty people.

On February 24, 2001 a mass grave containing fifty-one Chechnyan bodies dressed in civilian clothing was discovered near a Russian military base near Dachny. They had been allegedly been detained earlier by Russian forces and bore indications of non-battlefield wounds.

On February 25, 2001 a mass grave containing civilian remains was discovered on the outskirts of Grozny.

On May 9, 2004 a terrorist attack in a stadium killed the Russian appointed leader of Chechnya and eight others.

Today, Chechen separatists still claim an independent Chechnya. Official authorities of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria such as late President Aslan Maskhadov, Deputy Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister Akhmed Zakayev and current President Abdul Khalim Saidullayev condemned any actions against civilians. Maskhadov and Zakayev often made proposals of peace talks, however all these proposals were rejected by the Russian side. However some Chechens decided to choose terrorist attacks in their fight against Russia. Such acts took place in the republic and within Russia itself. These acts were used by Russian President Putin to associate the conflict with the War on Terrorism after the attacks of September 11th . Terrorist attacks have ranged from mass hostage-takings to rail, subway, and suicide bombings. The most memorable occurred in Moscow in October 23, 2002 where over 700 hostages were taken during the Moscow theater hostage crisis and in Beslan in September 2004, during the Beslan school hostage crisis where 1,200 were taken hostage at a school and over 330 were killed – half of whom were children. In the end, a decade of war has left most of Chechnya under the control of the Russian military. On 13 October 2005, buildings in Nalchik associated with the Russian security forces were attacked by a large group of armed men. The attackers are thought to be insurgents from nearby Chechnya. Fighting between the Russians and Chechen separatists continues, although in the form of guerrilla fighting. The Russians and their Chechen allies have been accused of human rights abuses by international observers, such as the Russian group Memorial and the American organization Human Rights Watch . In this atmosphere, attempts to create a pro-Russian government have also been far from successful to date, as became apparent with the assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov in May 2004.

Many Chechen separatist groups have become increasingly radicalized and fractured, with Shamil Basayev adopting a strongly Islamist position and inviting support from Arab Islamist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda. This was opposed by Aslan Maskhadov, who publicly desired a negotiated settlement to the conflict until his death on March 8 of 2005 when he was killed by Russian forces.. While the two may have stood together against what they saw as a Russian occupation, they appeared to differ greatly in both vision and ideology.

Politics

Chechnya is considered an independent republic by its separatists, and a federal republic by its federalists. Its regional constitution was entered into effect on April 2, 2003 after an all-Chechen referendum was held on March 23, 2003. The referendum was held far from international standards. The officially given turnout seemed to be much bigger than the reality. Some Chechens are or were controlled by regional teips, despite the existence of pro- and anti-Russian political structures.

Since 1990, the Chechen Republic has had legal, military, and civil conflicts involving separatist movements and pro-Russian authorities.

The motivations of the Russian and Chechens in these conflicts are complicated. Principally, Russia's stake in Chechnya relates to the fear that if Chechnya becomes independent, even more territories will break away from Russia, leading to its disintegration. Another factor are economic interests: Chechnya possesses large oil reserves, and the Russians are concerned that prolonged instability may lead to third parties entering the region in order to seek to control the oil, causing further instability and war. There is also a long standing conflict between Russia and Chechnya that has perpetuated itself due to bad blood on both sides.

There are different groups, within Chechnya, fighting the Russians who have different political, economic and/or ideological motivations for doing so. Some of these derive from hatred and a desire for the revenge of past Russian military and political action in the region. Most notably the forced relocation, in the 1940s, of the entire population to Siberia, resulting in the estimated death of a quarter of the population. The combination of motives demonstrates the cycle of violence and hatred that often fuels regional conflicts of this nature, as well as a military culture that makes much of the population willing to engage in military struggle under the command of one leader. Unemployment and poverty are also factors in the prolonged conflict.

The former separatist warlord, Akhmad Kadyrov, looked upon as a traitor by many separatists, was elected president with 83% of the vote in an internationally monitored election on October 5, 2003. Incidents of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation by Russian soldiers and the exclusion of separatist parties from the polls were subsequently reported by the OSCE monitors. Rudnik Dudayev is head of the Chechen Security Council and Anatoly Popov is the Prime Minister. On May 9, 2004, Kadyrov was assassinated in Grozny football stadium by a landmine explosion that was planted beneath a VIP stage and detonated during a World War II memorial parade. Sergey Abramov was appointed to the position of acting prime minister after the incident. However following a car accident in Moscow in 2005 Sergey Abramov has been unable to function as prime minister. Ramzan Kadyrov (son of Akhmad Kadyrov) has been caretaker prime minister since the accident and on March 1 2006 Abramov resigned from his post as prime minister. Abramov told the Itar-Tass news agency: "I resigned on the condition that Ramzan Kadyrov lead the Chechen government because I sincerely believe that this decision is right."

Many believe that Ramzan Kadyrov would have attempted to succeed his father if he had not been barred from doing so by his age – he is currently in his 20s and the constitution requires that the president be 30 years of age or older. Many also allege he is the wealthiest and most powerful man in the republic, with control over a large private militia referred to as the 'Kadyrovski'. The militia – which began as his father's security force – has been accused of killings and kidnappings by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch.

On August 29, 2004 a new Presidential election took place. According to the Chechen electoral commission, Alu Alkhanov, former Chechen Minister of Interior, received approximately 74% of the vote. Voter turnout was 85.2%. Some observers, such as the U.S. Department of State, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, as well as the opposition, question the election, citing, in part, the disqualification of the major rival Malik Saidullayev on a technicality. Polling conditions were also questioned, but no formal complaints have been made. The election was internationally monitored by the Commonwealth of Independent States and Arab League; western monitors didn't participate in monitoring the election in protest at previous irregularities, despite being invited.

In addition to the elected government, there is a self-proclaimed separatist government that is not currently recognized by any state (although members have been given political asylum in European and Arab countries, as well as the United States). The separatist government was recognised by Georgia (when Georgian President was Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Chechen President was Dzhokhar Dudaev. In 1999 the Taliban government of Afghanistan recognized independent Chechnya and opened an embassy in Kabul on 16 January 2000. Recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The president of this government was Aslan Maskhadov, the Foreign Minister was Ilyas Akhmadov, who was the spokeman for Maskhadov. Ilyas Akhmadov is currently living under asylum in the United States. Aslan Maskhadov had been elected in an internationally monitored election in 1997 for 4 years, when the separatists were a major political force. In 2001 he issued a decree prolonging his office for one additional year; he was unable to participate in the 2003 presidential election, since separatist parties were barred by the Russian government, and Maskhadov faced accusations of "terrorist offences" in Russia. Maskhadov left Grozny and moved to the separatist-controlled areas of the south at the onset of the Second Chechen War. President Maskhadov was unable to influence a number of warlords who retain effective control over Chechen territory, and his power was diminished as a result. He came to denounce the attack by insurgent forces on Beslan and attempted to distance himself from the Islamist Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the attack. Russian forces claimed to have killed him on March 8, 2005.

Akhmed Zakayev, Deputy Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister under Maskhadov, was appointed shortly after the 1997 election and is currently living under asylum in England. He and others chose Abdul Khalim Saidullayev to replace Maskhadov following his death, bypassing Basayev. It has been reported, however, that Basayev turned the position down and has since pledged loyalty to Saidullayev. Saidullayev is a relatively unknown Islamic judge who was previously the host of an Islamic program on Chechen television. His position as a rebel is also unknown, leading the Russians and others to speculate that his selection marks the continued rise of Basayev – with Saidullayev as a figurehead – and the dearth of leadership figures that remain in the Chechen separatist movement.

Administrative divisions

Districts

Chechen Republic consists of the following raions (districts):

Naursky (Наурский)
Shelkovsky (Шелковский)
Nadterechny (Надтеречный)
Groznensky (Грозненский)
Gudermessky (Гудермесский)
Sunzhensky (Сунженский)
Achkhoy-Martanovsky (Ачхой-Мартановский)
Urus-Martanovsky (Урус-Мартановский)
Shalinsky (Шалинский)
Kurchaloyevsky (Курчалоевский)
Itum-Kalinsky (Итум-Калинский)
Shatoysky (Шатойский)
Vedensky (Веденский)
Nozhay-Yurtovsky (Ножай-Юртовский)
Sharoysky (Шаройский)

Major settlements

Grozny (city, 210,720)
Urus-Martan (city, 55,000)
Shali (city, 40,356)
Gudermes (city, 33,756)
Achkhoy-Martan (16,742)
Itum-Shale
Naurskaya
Nozhay-Yurt
Shatoy
Shelkovskaya
Vedeno
Znamenskoye

Geography

Situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, Chechnya is surrounded on nearly all sides by Russian territory. In the west, it borders North Ossetia and Ingushetia, in the north, Stavropol Kray, in the east, Dagestan, and to the south, Georgia. Its capital is Grozny.

Area: 19,300 km²
Borders:
- Inside Russia:
- Foreign:
  - Georgia

Rivers:

Time zone

Chechnya is located in the Moscow Time Zone (MSK/MSD). UTC offset is +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD).

Economy

As of 2003

During the war, the Chechen economy fell apart. Gross domestic product, if reliably calculable, would be only a fraction of the prewar level. Problems with the Chechen economy had an effect on the federal Russian economy - a number of financial crimes during the 1990s were committed using Chechen financial organizations. Chechnya has the highest ratio within Russian Federation of financial operations made in US Dollars to operations in Russian Roubles. There are many counterfeit US Dollars printed there. In 1994, the separatists planned to introduce a new currency, the Nahar, but that did not happen due to Russian troops re-taking Chechnya in the First Chechen War.

As an effect of the war, approximately 80% of the economic potential of Chechnya was destroyed. The only branch of economy that has been rebuilt so far is the petroleum industry. The 2003 oil production was estimated at 1.5 million metric tons annually (or 30 thousand barrels per day), down from a peak of 4 million metric tons annually in the 1980s. The 2003 production constituted approximately 0.6% of the total oil production in Russia. The level of unemployment is high, hovering between 60 and 70 percent. Despite economic improvements, smuggling and bartering still comprise a significant part of Chechnya's economy.

According to the Russian government, over 2 billion dollars were spent on the reconstruction of the Chechen economy since 2000. However, according to the Russian central economic control agency (Schyotnaya Palata), not more than 350 million dollars were spent as intended.

Demographics

Main article: Chechen people

The current population of Chechnya is approximately 1.3 million; this includes Chechens, Russians, Ingush, and other North Caucasians.

Most Chechens are Sunni Muslim, the country having converted to that religion between the 16th and the 19th centuries. At the end of the Soviet era, ethnic Russians comprised about 23 percent of the population (269,000 in 1989). Due to widespread crime and the alleged ethnic cleansing carried out by the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev most non-Chechens (and many Chechens as well) fled the country during the 1990s. Today there are only several thousand ethnic Russian residents of Chechnya.

The languages used in the Republic are Chechen and Russian. Chechen belongs to the Vaynakh or North-central Caucasian linguistic family, which also includes Ingush and Batsb. Some scholars place it in a wider Iberian-Caucasian super-family.

Chechnya has one of the youngest populations in the generally aging Russian Federation; in the early 1990s, it was among the few regions experiencing natural population growth.

Population: 1,103,686 (2002) - numbers are disputed.
- Urban: 373,177 (33.8%)
- Rural: 730,509 (66.2%)
- Male: 532,724 (48.3%)
- Female: 570,962 (51.7%)
Average age: 22.7 years
- Urban: 22.8 years
- Rural: 22.7 years
- Male: 21.6 years
- Female: 23.9 years
Number of households: 195,304 (with 1,069,600 people)
- Urban: 65,741 (with 365,577 people)
- Rural: 129,563 (with 704,023 people)

2004 Population in Chechnya: 1,088,816.
- In Grozny (the capital of Chechen Republic): 80,000.
- Ethnic Chechens predominate, with 98% of the population.

References

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