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By Root 961 0

the President of independent Ichkeria surfaces out of the blue with something to say, the majority take exception. The Maskhadov of late May 2001 is very different from the Maskhadov of the beginning of the war, let alone the President of Chechnya in 1997–8. Today he is an irreversibly exhausted, ageing officer, boxed into a corner, who understands a lot but can’t do much about it. He no longer has all the information at his fingertips and his conclusions tend to be vague. He is trying to retain his place in the history of his people but, tragically, does not know how to go about it. He is a fugitive from his former self.

But then, so are we all, we members of society who want our information objective. Some are keen to defend today’s Maskhadov, others to act as his prosecutors. The former paint him in rosy colors, while the latter portray him with scary horns; what they should do is just listen and take in everything he says in order to know the real situation, to understand what “they” on the other side are thinking, and how deep the gulf between us is.

As you may have guessed, there has been a debate at Novaya gazeta about whether this interview could or should be published. What people wanted to believe outweighed reality, and the text was emasculated. It was argued on the one hand that Maskhadov does himself no favors in the interview and we don’t want to make things worse for him by publishing it.

On the other hand the interview was seen as straightforward mischief-making by both interviewer and interviewee, because publication would lead immediately to sanctions from the state authorities on the grounds of seditious libel. Russia’s leaders have got so carried away by their own black propaganda, the argument went, that they no longer want to know the true situation in Chechnya and prefer to stick with the “Maskhadov with horns” invented by their own propaganda.

It was decided that the following paragraph should be cut from the interview. We offer it here instead, outside the interview, along with comments which would have been impractical within the context of the interview itself.

Neither Chechens nor the Chechen leaders would ever give orders, no matter what political benefit it might bring, to shoot their own citizens. It is contrary to our whole way of thinking, especially in our own village, especially our own relatives. That is the sort of thing you in Russia are capable of. We are not. As an excuse for military aggression, or in order to dub someone a terrorist, you in Russia can calmly give orders to blow up multi-storey apartment blocks full of your own citizens or commit all manner of terrorist acts in crowded places. These are timed to take place immediately before the opening of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, sessions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and so on. Our culture is completely opposed to that sort of thing. The Chechen President does not wage war against his own people; neither does he wage war against the women and children of Russia. It is the President of the Russian Federation who indulges in that sort of thing, and takes satisfaction from it. Yes, satisfaction. We are fighting aggressors, mercenaries, contract soldiers, your General Shamanovs [accused of war crimes] and Colonel Budanovs [a rapist and murderer, supported by Shamanov but convicted after a long press campaign]. Those are the people we are fighting, and will continue to fight until we have destroyed them without pity.

What is this? Typical war paranoia? Maskhadov is profoundly affected by this, perhaps to the exclusion of all else. The censored paragraph only emphasises, however, the tragic nature of a situation where, on the other side of the conflict, the federals are no less paranoid in their determination to believe Maskhadov is the devil incarnate. Meanwhile, what is to become of those caught in the crossfire? The tragedy of Chechnya grinds on, and until we stop lying we are all complicit in the persecution of the guiltless.

[The agreed text of the interview with Aslan