#15 - JRL 7273
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www.tol.cz
31 July 2003
Who's really running Russia's Chechnya operation?
from Gazeta.ru
Editor's note: Since its launch in September 1999, Gazeta.ru has established itself as one of Russia's leading news websites, providing continuous news updates and articles on political events, business and finance, and social issues.
Gazeta.ru has discovered that the 29 July ceremony of transfer of control over the North Caucasus operation from the Federal Security Service (FSB) to the Interior Ministry was staged. In truth, control will remain in the hands of the FSB. The new commander, Yuri Maltsev, was transferred from the FSB to the Interior Ministry only recently, and seemingly only for the sake of publicly carrying out the presidential decree.
This detective story began as early as 19 June, when the deadline for the transfer of control over anti-rebel operations from the FSB to the Interior Ministry was set for the first time. Police were supposed to have full control over the regional operations headquarters (ROH) in Khankala by 1 July, and beginning on 1 September, direction of all counterterrorist operations on the federal level was to be turned over from FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev to Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov.
However, officials failed to meet the deadline. Only on 4 July did President Vladimir Putin sign a back-dated decree transferring control over the regional operations headquarters to the deputy chief of the Interior Ministry.
The name of the deputy minister in question for some reason was not mentioned in the text of Putin’s decree. It was announced later, which proves that serious difficulties had arisen in connection with the procedure of transfer of ROH in Chechnya from the FSB, as well as with the selection of the right candidate for the post inside the Interior Ministry.
Immediately after the presidential decree was published, Deputy Interior Minister Ivan Golubev told the press that FSB Lieutenant General Anatoly Yezhkov, who headed the headquarters at this time, would be replaced by Lieutenant General Mikhail Pankov, who was directly connected with Chechnya.
With the rank of deputy minister, Pankov is heading the main directorate of the Interior Ministry for the Southern Federal District. Before April 2002, he headed the Main Headquarters of the Interior Troops. Three and a half years ago, the general stormed Grozny and was decorated with a star of the Hero of Russia. In early July, Deputy Interior Minister Golubev said General Pankov would take up his new duties in Khankala within three days.
But Pankov never made it to Khankala. Instead he continued to work at his directorate in Rostov-on-Don. It was not him, but the FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev who arrived in Chechnya--contrary to his custom of avoiding visits to the rebellious republic. Upon arrival, Partushev held a secret meeting on the transfer of the FSB’s duties to the Interior Ministry.
No details of that session were disclosed to the press. Twelve days later, on 29 July, Patrushev again arrived in Chechnya, this time accompanied by Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov. Together they officially presented the new chairman of the regional operations headquarters: not General Pankov, but Rear Admiral Yuri Maltsev, who also holds the post of deputy interior minister.
The official spokesman for ROH, FSB officer Ilya Shabalkin, did not respond to questions about why the rear admiral was appointed instead of the general. Gazeta.ru’s attempt to find out the answer to that question on its own has led to unexpected results.
First, the rear admiral’s name is not mentioned anywhere--not in the open electronic media archives nor on the official Interior Ministry and FSB sites.
Second, nobody in the Interior Ministry seems to know anything about Maltsev. Employees of the Interior Ministry’s directorate for South Federal District have never heard of him, either. General Pankov was not available for comment on 29 July, but his office told Gazeta.ru that the general would continue carrying out his duties as head of the directorate.
Eventually, we succeeded in getting the following explanation from a spokesman for the central apparatus of the Interior Ministry concerning Yuri Maltsev: “We know nothing about him because he is from the Federal Security Service and has only just been appointed deputy minister.”
The FSB’s press service refused to provide any information about the rear admiral, saying he was assigned to the Interior Ministry, but indirectly confirmed that even rank-and-file security officers know this man very well. “Yuri Alexeyevich is the deputy head of the Interior Ministry, so that is where you’d better call,” said the FSB official, revealing that he knew the mysterious deputy minister’s first name and patronymic.
Thus, the 29 July transfer of control over the counterterrorist operations in Chechnya from the FSB to the Interior Ministry is but a fiction. Formally, control has been turned over, but in truth, it will still be exercised by FSB officer Yuri Maltsev, who was quickly assigned to the Interior Ministry.
Military experts to whom Gazeta.ru turned for comment on Maltsev’s appointment--and who have never heard anything about him either--suggested that he could be from Ugryumov’s team. However, so far that suggestion cannot be either confirmed or refuted due to lack of information.
The department that stands to suffer most from Maltsev’s appointment is the Chechen Interior Ministry. While the transfer of control over the Chechen operation was discussed on all levels, almost nothing was said of the independence of the Chechen police, which means that the efforts of the Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who has always insisted that the Chechens must wage the war against rebels themselves, will now amount to nothing.
In the long run, Kadyrov has managed to get the idea to Putin, whereupon the president handed down a decree on the transfer of control over antiterrorist operations from the Federal Security Service to the police. Thus, formally, the Chechen police will be at the helm, but all decision-making power will rest with the FSB--whose relationship with the Chechen leadership has always been fraught with tension.
Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov, who was appointed to his post at Kadyrov’s request, was away from Chechnya on 29 July. Gazeta.ru was told by the minister’s office that Alkhanov was at a meeting in Rostov-on-Don, which means that Patrushev and Gryzlov instituted this important power reshuffle in his absence.
However, the Chechens were not totally left out. As ROH spokesman Ilya Shabalkin has told the press, the new leadership is in charge of ensuring law and order in the run-up to and during the presidential elections, set for 5 October. On 29 July, local activists from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party gathered in Gudermes to nominate Akhmad Kadyrov as a candidate and to pledge their support to the Chechen leader.
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov even earlier expressed his backing for this initiative. Yet now Kadyrov will have to win support of Maltsev, who will monitor the voting in October.
As to the hunt for Shamil Basaev and other terrorists, for the time being it will recede into the background. As it was announced in Khankala on 29 July, the main task of eradicating terrorism in Chechnya has already been fulfilled.
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