Chechnya - Articoli

“Abchazja” and other untranslated bits of Wojciech Górecki's Caucasus trilogy

26/06/2020 -  Giorgio Comai

Górecki spent a lavish amount of time in the Caucasus, meeting people across the region and hearing their stories. His Caucasus trilogy makes for excellent reading. Yet, not all of it is accessible to the international readership it deserves


Chechnya, the strange case of Islam Kadyrov

13/11/2019 -  Marat Iliyasov

An unexpected tv report puts shame on Islam Kadyrov, a disgraced grandson of President Ramzan and former mayor of Grozny. The news quickly spread throughout the social media, leading users to guess what happened behind the curtains


End Violence Against Children: who has heard of INSPIRE strategies in South Eastern Europe and the Caucasus?

13/11/2019 -  Roxana TodeaCristina Rigman

According to the World Health Organisation, the seven INSPIRE strategies are the most effective in reducing violence against children. ChildPact and its members surveyed 296 child focused organisations and institutions across South-Eastern Europe and the Caucasus to find out who's working on the INSPIRE package


Chechnya: taxis, Islam and independence

13/03/2019 -  Marat Iliyasov

Soon the Chechen women will be able to take taxis driven by women and only for women. An initiative sponsored by an Arab investment fund that caused very different reactions


Chechen demographic rise: reasons and concerns

10/01/2019 -  Marat Iliyasov

Why are birth rates much higher than the Russian average in Chechnya and in other North Caucasus republics?


Chechnya-Ingushetia: a border change fuels new tensions

31/10/2018 -  Marat Iliyasov

An unusual wave of protest has rocked Ingushetia. Changes in the administrative borders between Chechnya and Ingushetia sparked the mobilisation. Lack of dialogue and Ingush fears of having their republic merged with Chechnya kept them going


Human rights. Give them shelter

28/02/2018 -  Lucia Bruni

Human rights activists are essential to the functioning of democratic societies, but they are all too often subject to threats and arrests. To safeguard their lives and their work, the EU has adopted various instruments, one of which is the “shelter city”


Witnesses detail continuing anti-queer purge in Chechnya

10/08/2017 - 

The Russian LGBT Network has released witness testimonies from a number of queer people caught up in the systematic persecution of queer people in Chechnya


Chechnya’s courts: a tool for the authorities and a thorn in their side

07/06/2017 -  Kazbek Chanturiya

It is no secret that the courts in Russia fail to maintain their independence from the government. This is perhaps most acute of all in Chechnya


Sochi, the Circassian factor

28/01/2014 -  Maria Elena Murdaca

Many Circassians are calling for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics, saying the Games will take place on the same grounds where their people was ethnically cleansed by Russian troops in the XIX century. Interview with Fatima Tlisova, journalist


Russia, NGOs become "foreign agents"

21/11/2012 -  Irina Gordienko* Moscow

Today, a new federal law on NGOs enters into force in Russia. All associations working on human rights will have to register as "foreign agents", and could stand accused of high treason. The Russian government, apparently frightened by the wave of protests against electoral fraud, introduced the new law to restrict the activities of organizations researching the election process, but the law will affect all NGOs, especially in the Caucasus


Gakayev, the enemy Kadyrov needs

30/08/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Over the years, almost all historical leaders of the Chechen separatist rebels have been killed. In the movement there are no more figures known to the general public, but attacks continue. For the Chechen leadership, however, it is important that enemies have a name. Today, the enemy's name is Gakayev


Chechnya, power is sacred

24/07/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Two weeks ago, 16 items allegedly belonging to Prophet Muhammad arrived in Grozny. It is not the first time that alleged relics of the Prophet have arrived in the Chechen capital - it has become a frequent occurrence lately – yet such events never fail to find an audience


The life choices of Chechen youth

01/06/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

There are young people in Chechnya who live in prosperity and rapidly pursue their careers. If they sing the praises of Putin and Kadyrov, that is. For all the others, life can be very difficult


Kanta Ibragimov, the Chechen writer nominated for the Nobel Prize

17/04/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

For the second time, the Chechen writer Kanta Imbragimov has been included in the list of official nominees for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ibragimov has won prizes in Russia and the local government loves him. According to our correspondent Majnat Kurbanova, however, he has no talent. A tasty literary controversy


Dagestan, two years of Magomedov

06/03/2012 -  Irina Gordienko* Mosca

Two years ago, in February of 2010, Magomedsalam Magomedov became the President of Dagestan. His appointment was accompanied by the hope that this successful entrepreneur, young and educated, could bring actual change to the Caucasian Republic. A hope that was widely thwarted, leading to previously unseen street demonstrations and spelling out of the strong desire for social dialog that characterizes today’s Dagestan


Russian elections and the wonders of Chechen arithmetic

01/03/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

In December's parliamentary elections, Putin's "United Russia" party obtained 99.48% of votes in Chechnya. Sceptics attributed this result – a record for the whole Russia – to a massive use of administrative resources. However, the wonders of Chechen arithmetic do not stop here: President Kadyrov anticipated that Putin would get 150% of Chechen votes at March's presidential elections


Chechnya, school of corruption

25/01/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

In his most recent televised address to the people, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said corruption in Chechnya was minimal. In reality, it is enough to spend a few days in the region to realise that corruption, like a spider web, envelops almost every sphere of life in Chechnya starting in primary school


Myths and legends of contemporary Chechnya

25/11/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

In the age of the Russian Empire, people used to believe the tsar was good and the Boyars were the evil exploiters. In Stalin's times, many believed the leader was good and wise and that his corrupt underlings were responsible for cruelties he did not even know about. What about now? What legends circulate in Kadyrov's Chechnya?


The Kadyrov system: neither Russian nor sharia

21/10/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Life in contemporary Chechnya cannot be subsumed under any one stereotype. The mix of Russian constitution, despotism, and sharia makes it virtually impossible to understand the rules of the game in this republic that is officially part of the Russian Federation. Stories from the “Kadyrov system” told by Majnat Kurbanova


A language in danger, or, what is the Chechen word for “table”?

18/07/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Chechnya recently openly celebrated Chechen Language Day, but Russian is still the country's official language and fewer and fewer Chechens are fluent in their own mother-tongue


Kids Across the Caucasus

20/06/2011 -  Amanda Wilson Budapest

Ngos in the Caucasus often fill the gap left by the state in areas related to children care, including basic education and assistance to the disabled. The Open Society Foundation supports local Ngos active in these fields in both the Northern and Southern Caucasus. Journalist Natasha Yefimov told their stories in a book, Kids Across the Caucasus. An interview with the author


Umar Israilov's killers sentenced in Vienna

13/06/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova Vienna

Heavy sentences for the three Chechens accused of murdering Umar Israilov, former body guard of Ramzan Kadyrov, killed in Vienna in January 2009 after denouncing the Chechen leader to the Strasbourg Court


Nani and the Russian tsars

22/04/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Nani was an elderly woman. Every day she sat alone in the yard under the shade of a walnut tree, spinning and singing songs about the cruelty of the Russian tsars. She believed that the salvation of the Chechen people was in corn, while its damnation in the tsars and their soldiers.The twentieth century, seen through the eyes of a Chechen woman


Ramzan Kadyrov, father of the nation

13/04/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Ramzan Kadyrov recently inaugurated in Grozny his second term – no longer as president, but as Head of Chechnya. A journey into the extravagant life of a young “father of the nation”


Stories from Chechnya: Azim

14/02/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Azim is 92. Due to the bombings during the Chechen wars of the nineties, he had to rebuild his white-stone house six times. His life reflects the destiny of the Chechen People through a century characterised by war, deportations and more wars


The old man and the tulips

07/01/2011 -  Majnat Kurbanova

In Duba-Yurt, a Chechen village hard hit by the war that devastated the region in the 1990s, there lived an old man who grew tulips. A spark of colour and hope in dark times. A true story that almost seems like a fable


Kadyrov requested to testify in Vienna

02/12/2010 -  Majnat Kurbanova Vienna

Umar Israilov, ex Chechen guerrilla fighter, denounced the Chechen leadership for torture at the European court of human rights. He was subsequently murdered, in January 2009 in Vienna, where he had been granted the status of political refugee. Right now in the Austrian capital the trial regarding his assassination is being held. The Chechen President Kadyrov has been called to testify


The Chechen rebels: portrait of a generation

09/11/2010 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Eleven years after the second war with Russia, a series of violent attacks by the Chechen rebels reminds us that war is raging in the northern Caucasus


Chechnya, choked by headscarves

20/10/2010 -  Tanya Lokshina

In Chechnya there is official support for attacks on women when they are considered to have ‘flouted’ Islamic rules by not wearing a headscarf or covering up enough. Tanya Lokshina listened to some of the women’s despairing accounts. From openDemocracy.net