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How come? First of all, the unvarnished testimony of an eyewitness who survived. The necessary explanations can come later.

“Opposite the house in which Kadyrov lives in Tsentoroy, some 20–30 metres away, near the road and the water tap, is a small single-storey building. The Kadyrovites call it their HQ. The Head of the Republic’s bodyguards are usually in there. The house has five rooms, one of which is permanently used as a cell for prisoners.

“Behind the HQ a lean-to has been built which has a further three cells, invariably occupied by detainees.

“Who are they? Firstly, people caught planting explosives. Secondly, people associated with the [Islamist] Wahhabi jamaat. Thirdly, miscellaneous other people. Their cases are judged by Ramzan, Kadyrov’s younger son. It’s like a real court, only with Ramzan presiding.

“People he finds not guilty of anything very serious are left in the cells for various periods; sentences are decided by Ramzan and Ruslan, the head of Kadyrov’s ‘Security Service.’ Those found guilty of something serious are sent off to Youth Soviet Farm No. 15, about 15 or 20 kilometres west of Grozny. What happens to the detainees after that nobody knows.

“Youth Soviet Farm No. 15 has a reputation as a haven for kidnappers. Under Maskhadov’s rule, too, there were many kidnappers and their victims in this village. The Zavgayevs’ sister was held there for a year and eight months, for example. Today the same outlaws are in the same place, only legitimised by Kadyrov’s protection.”

Before explaining in detail exactly what this is all about, I should mention that I have chosen this tale as typical of many others. Much the same thing is described by other people who have had the misfortune to come into contact with Kadyrov’s “Security Service,” but who have succeeded in getting out and even agreed to testify on condition of anonymity.

What is going on in Chechnya today? It is my profound conviction that what is going on is an unambiguous civil war, deliberately provoked by the three-year-long so-called “anti-terrorist operation,” which sees brother rise up against brother, one family against another.

The whole area is crammed with armed detachments of every sort. These are mainly Russian Army troops, special operations units, rapid reaction squads, militia special purpose units, alpha groups and so on. These troops are opposed by the so-called resistance forces, illegal armed groups, a thoroughly diverse collection of fighters who, for the most part, answer only to their own consciences.

During the last six months, however, a new punitive force has appeared, a kind of Chechen sandwich filling in the sense that they are not on either side, although they have an ideological affinity with the federals.

These punitive detachments are known as the Kadyrovites, named after their organiser, Akhmat-hadji Kadyrov, who two and a half years ago was appointed Chief of the Republic by President Putin of Russia.

The Kadyrovites are also an illegal armed group. They are commonly referred to as Kadyrov’s “Security Service,” which would appear to provide them with a vestige of legitimacy, but this is not the case. The Chechen Ministry of Justice has confirmed that Kadyrov’s “Security Service” is not registered anywhere, and accordingly has no legal right to exist, any more than Basayev’s brigade, or what remains of the detachments of Khattab or Barayev.

Exist it nevertheless does, and it feels right at home in a civil war. The “Security Service” has no desire at all to see Putin’s promised “dictatorship of the law” arrive. Quite the reverse.

At first things looked less ugly. Kadyrov’s personal security detachment was assembled mainly from the ranks of his relatives, but with the passage of time it has degenerated into a monstrous hybrid in the traditions of the Tsarist secret police and the Soviet NKVD–KGB.

The secret prisons and the torturing are, of course, highly secret; the more so since the Kadyrovites are no fools and try to leave no witnesses. Modern Chechen life has, however, conspired against them.