According to news reports from Chechnya, Akhmad Zavgayev, head of the Nadterechny region administration, has been killed. In the past ten years this very region has been the most pro-Russian territory in Chechnya and a stronghold of the opposition forces initially resisting the government of Dzokhar Dudayev and, recently, of Aslan Maskhadov. And all this time the region had been headed by Akhmad Zavgayev, eldest of the Zavgayev brothers. It will be recalled that in the Soviet era Doku Zavgayev was first secretary of the Chechnya — Ingushetia revolutionary committee of the party and during the first Chechen war he became a pro-Moscow head of the republic and is currently Russia’s ambassador to Tanzania. One more brother, Akhmar, is member of the Federation Council. However, the killing of the elder brother has undermined the authority of the Zavgayevs in Chechnya. Moreover, it has once again showed how unstable is the situation in the warring republic: even the devoted champions of Moscow cannot be counted upon as the chances are they will be blown up in their car. And the Federal Government is also unable to ensure their safety. After all, real safety is not when field commanders are killed or arrested, before all it means tactlessness of government representatives. There is one more important aspect — no one in Chechnya can say confidently that Zavgayev has been removed by militants. Incidentally, this is one more answer to the question as to why Moscow-appointed officials are not trusted in Chechnya and why it is so easy here for the first best radical to get to power. Zavgayev had complicated relations with the neighboring Ingushetia, with oilfields their perpetual bone of contention. At the time when his brother was at helm of the republic, Akhmed was appointed Minister for Trade. And when Maskhadov took over the reigns of power it became known that 25 billion rubles had been stolen under the contract with a Moscow-based factory, Krasnyi Sukonshchik [red clothier]. Zavgayev appeared as a defendant in a criminal case that followed, but only the factory director received a jail sentence and was subsequently killed by an unidentified gunman. This time the killers got to the father of the Nadterechny region...
