Posted on 04/21/2008 4:49:29 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
MOSCOW, April 19 (Reuters) - A dissident Chechen military commander said on Saturday amnestied rebels recruited by Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov were engaged in violence and stood ready for another war with Russia.
Sulim Yamadayev, in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station, described a situation in Chechnya at odds with Kremlin claims that it has re-established control there. Russia fought Chechen rebels in two wars since 1994 which killed thousands.
"You think there is order here? This amnestied army goes around with weapons. They do not have to hide and run... They have everything. They are just waiting," said Yamadayev.
The pro-Russian commander believed the amnestied rebels could at any moment return to the mountains and fight against Russia, Echo Moskvy's commentator said.
Yamadayev's comments followed a clash this week between his fighters, who formally report to the Defence Ministry in Moscow, and soldiers commanded by Kadyrov. Vehicles in their convoys failed to give way and several fighters were killed.
Both leaders, decorated with Russia's top military award, the Hero of Russia medal, pledge their loyalty to Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin, who is due to step down after the inauguration of president-elect Dmitry Medvedev on May 7.
"This is a very embarrassing statement and a very embarrassing situation for the Kremlin," said defence analyst Pavel Felgengauer of Yamadayev's interview.
The outcome of the new Chechen power struggle between the pro-Russian factions would most likely be settled in the Kremlin after a personal intervention by Putin, but a resumption of Chechnya's armed conflict was always a possibility, he said.
"These fighters are officially serving under the Russian flag but in fact they are only loyal to their commanders. A conflict is always possible. This is a volatile region which is never stable," Felgengauer said.
OUTRAGE
Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov, loyal to Kadyrov, said police were outraged by Yamadayev's statement, noting that 80 policemen were killed and 130 wounded in clashes with rebels since 2004.
Yamadayev, 35, a former rebel, who switched sides after falling out with rebel leader Shamil Basayev, killed in 2006, said Kadyrov's troops were also involved in kidnappings.
"They can pick anyone and throw them in their cars," said Yamadayev, commander of the elite Vostok (East) battalion.
Kadyrov, 31, a son of a former rebel commander handpicked by Putin to rule the violent region and killed in a bomb explosion, has established a tight grip over Chechnya, creating a loyal personal army mostly of former rebels.
Kadyrov and his men have a history of violent encounters with their Chechen and Russian rivals who fail to recognise Kadyrov's authority.
The Russian military and security agencies are warily watching Kadyrov's rise as the Kremlin's influence in the region wanes. Russian troops tend to stay in their bases, leaving Kadyrov's forces to patrol and launch raids against rebels.
A Reuters correspondent who was granted a rare visit to the base in Chechnya last month saw Kadyrov's fighters armed with the latest Russian weapons -- part of the trade-off that has helped Putin subdue a separatist insurgency.
"I only have questions for certain 'criminals,' who are part of the battalion... As president I have summoned law enforcement heads and asked them why the Vostok battalion is 'commanded' by Badrudi Yamadayev - a man who should be in jail, but instead is walking around armed to the teeth and committing further crimes," Kadyrov said.
Badrudi Yamadayev, the younger brother of the commander of the Vostok battalion in Chechnya, Sulim Yamadayev, was sentenced in 2003 to 11 years in prison for attempted murder, but was later released on parole. He is currently wanted by law enforcement bodies.
Yamadayev received a prison sentence for the attempted murder of Moscow's deputy chief sanitarian Alexander Melnikov in June 2000. Melnikov was shot, but survived.
The search for Yamadayev began last week after he was suspected of being behind an alleged shootout in Chechnya April 14, involving security convoys of President Kadyrov and Vostok battalion's Commander Sulim Yamadayev.
Two rival columns of vehicles crashed last Monday on a highway in Gudermes after refusing to give way to each other. However, the Russian Defense Ministry officially denied last Wednesday that a shootout between the rivals had occurred.
Last week Kadyrov accused the Yamadayev brothers of a number of crimes and demanded that they be brought to justice.
Wait, you mean that if given amnesty some people will still repeat their crime? Better not let the pro-illegal immigration bunch hear that.
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