Chechen head rules out opposition

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has said there is no need for any official opposition parties in the southern Russian republic. Mr Kadyrov also repeated that 100% of voters in Chechnya would support the party headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in coming elections.

Mr Kadyrov, 31, told foreign journalists in the capital, Grozny, the Chechen people loved their government.

This was not a conventional news conference. The Russian and Chechen officials who have been escorting us around Chechnya over the past two days told us to wait outside at one of the capital's main squares.

An hour later, Mr Kadyrov marched through the city streets with minimal security to greet us and answer our questions.

Dressed casually in a leather jacket he dismissed allegations that he or his notorious militia had committed human rights violations since taking control of Chechnya with the full backing of Moscow.

He also denied the population now lived in a state of fear or that he had created a personality cult around himself.

But he was blunt when asked whether there was a need for opposition parties in the republic, especially with national parliamentary elections due at the beginning of December.

"Why do we need to create an opposition if we, the government, are going in the right direction and people love us?" he said.

And, he added, there was already an opposition - "the people who tell us when we need to do things differently".

But an independent media organisation here told us there is a state of fear in Chechnya, even though the conflict with separatist rebels is now largely over.

And that probably means that most people who do turn out to vote in next month's elections will heed Mr Kadyrov's call to vote for United Russia, a political party - created by the Kremlin - of which President Putin will be chief candidate.

In Chechnya, violations of electoral law - October 31st 2007 - CHECHNYA - Banners, placards and posters have been visible in the centre of Grozny for several days now, urging voters to support the United Russia party in the forthcoming Russian parliamentary elections in December, although the official pre-election race is not due to start until November 3. The Chechen capital’s central street - Kadyrov Prospect - has already been festooned with multicoloured flags and banners for about a week. The lampposts on both sides of the busy thoroughfare are decorated with the national flags of Russia and the pennants of the United Russia Party, which carry a picture of a white bear against the backdrop of a map of Russia. In addition to the usual appeals to the voters to "make the right choice", or "vote for your home town”, there are also a large number of United Russia campaign banners. The most widely distributed one says: "United Russia is the Party of the Future!" Propaganda material of this kind can be seen in virtually all areas of the Chechen capital. Meanwhile, the campaign material of other political parties is so far absent from the city's streets, though the reason for this is clear. The launch of the official election campaign launch will not take place until November 3, one month before the date of the parliamentary elections. A member of the republic’s Central Electoral Commission refused to comment on this flagrant violation of the electoral law. "I can’t say anything about this. All questions should be addressed to the government," he said. In the event, however, it proved impossible to inquire about the legality of the early start of the United Russia campaign. As usual, the party’s information director was not available, and was also “very busy". A staff member of a local human rights organization who wished to remain anonymous said: "Of course, the display of United Russia campaign materials almost two weeks before the official beginning of the race is a flagrant violation of the law. In any civilized country the party violating the law would immediately be brought to justice. But we live in a State of quite a different sort. The person who is right is the one who has the most rights. “The silence of United Russia’s rivals in Chechnya is also quite understandable. Chechnya’s United Russia supporters are led by [President] Ramzan Kadyrov. Who will seek to obtain justice in a cause that is obviously lost? Clearly no one. So everyone is silent," the employee says. "What’s more, everyone in the republic already knows that the candidates who will get into the Duma aren’t the ones who are elected (even if one were to suppose that the elections will be free and fair, which I personally doubt), but the ones whom the government wants to see in it," he says. “Also, it shouldn’t be forgotten that today the list of United Russia candidates is headed by Vladimir Putin himself. And in our republic he is a person who enjoys the high esteem of the officials."

Russia curb on vote monitors "negative" says U.S. - November 01, 2007 VIENNA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States described a Russian proposal to restrict the number of European monitors at a December election as a "negative" development on Thursday, triggering an angry response from the Kremlin. The United States' unhelpful attitude to foreign observers at national elections made it the last country that should advise Russia, the Kremlin said.

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