Kadyrov Declares Compensation War

An enormous crowd of people was thronged outside the two-story Rosselkhozbank building in central Grozny, some waiting in line, others squatting by the wall.

Most of these people were here to receive the 350,000 roubles (around 12,000 US dollars) in compensation pledged by the state to families whose property has been destroyed during the decade of conflict. Others were simply trying to find out when their turn is up to pick up the money.

Suddenly commotion broke out out. The crowd parted and two men in camouflage fatigues were seen dragging a tracksuited young man to their car. They put him in a silver Zhiguli car and drove off.

“The Kadyrovtsy have got a ‘dealer’,” someone in the crowd said, referring to the armed men loyal to Chechnya’s deputy prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov.

This happened in Grozny earlier this month, just after Kadyrov - son of the late Chechen pro-Moscow leader Akhmad Kadyrov and widely believed to be the most powerful man in the republic - was appointed head of Chechnya’s Commission on Compensations Payment.

Just days after Kadyrov was given the job, the Chechen interior ministry teamed up with the presidential security service – the formal structure where thousands of Kadyrovtsy men used to work - in an operation code-named “Posrednik” (broker or dealer) against compensation fraud.

They seek to detain compensation brokers - people who help families to jump the queue and receive their compensation ahead for a 10-30 per cent commission, or forge papers for undamaged houses and extract the money, in which case they charge between a commission of between 50 and 70 per cent.

Several people were arrested in the swoop. In one incident, a 46-year-old resident of Gikalo village was found to be in possession of 48 fully finished compensation files.

But the interior ministry officials admit that their catch so far has been merely the “small fry” while the true masterminds have remained in the shadows. And others are reserving judgement until they see how far Kadyrov’s campaign goes.

Hamzat Husseinov of the interior ministry’s economic crime department, ECD, told IWPR that his agency has opened 65 criminal cases after checking some claims.

“We understand that 30,000 Chechens have already received their compensation, so we should be doing more checking,” conceded Husseinov. “We are not ready to step up the effort yet, but we will be in a short while.”

On December 15, the local government suspended the processing of claims in order to review all existing cases. “That’s going to give us some leeway so we can check the files already submitted more thoroughly,” Husseinov said.

Human rights lawyer Akhmed Musayev told IWPR that the genuinely deserving cases were always the ones to suffer whenever a false claim for compensation sneaked through the system.

“Brokers usually work for someone who has influence over the payments, such as district administrators or someone on the compensations commission,” he said.

“There have been instances when fraudsters, with the help of their brokers, forged papers for completely random houses, destroyed or even whole, filed them and got the money, while the real owners got nothing.”

Former police officer Ruslan Jamilhanov recently returned to Chechnya from Tomsk, where he has lived with his brother’s family from early 2000. From his former neighbours, who had also left Grozny for Moscow, he learned that his home in Grozny’s Leninsky District had been destroyed, so he was in no hurry to return.

“Then I saw on TV how everyone was getting compensation, and decided to come and get what is rightfully mine before it was too late,” he said.

However, officials rejected his compensation claim and told him that someone else had already received the money.

“Ruslan’s case is just one of many,” said Musayev. “At least five people have come to us with a similar plight in the past few months.”

When the number of compensation files in Chechnya swelled from 40,000 to 100,000 without a drop in the number of those still awaiting their payments, the local government declared it was time to act.

Alkhanov said that there was a problem of “unexplained” use of compensation. And, earlier this month at a meeting on compensations in the town of Gudermes, Kadyrov admitted people were being cheated.

“So far, according to the lists, 32,000 have received [payment] totalling billions of roubles, but the same number of people are still complaining they cannot get their compensations,” Kadyrov announced.

Artur Akhmadov, head of the Chechen riot police known by its Russian name OMON, said they had found more than 3,000 instances of irregularity or fraud in three districts.

Kadyrov gave his officials three days to supply him with a full register of war-damaged property, threatening dire consequences for anyone found stealing funds. “I don’t care who gets caught, it can be district police, bank clerks or even government officials,” he said.

Ramzan Kadyrov is the fourth successive head of the compensations commission since September 2003, when compensations payments were first made. Every time the commission head has been replaced, a new line-up of members has stepped in, but without tangible results.

However Kadyrov told his commission on December 10 that he would publicly name the fraudsters. “We have proof,” he said. “We have audio and video recordings and dealers’ testimonies.”

However, his critics claim that the new campaign is just a public relations exercise and that the real perpetrators will not get caught. “He’ll just get a few small-time hustlers and that will be it,” said analyst Murad Nashkhoyev.

Nashkhoyev suggests that the new commission leader is trying to win political points in a developing battle for control with Chechnya’s new pro-Moscow leader, Alu Alkhanov, adding, “In his undeclared war with Alu Alkhanov, Kadyrov just wants to show the Kremlin how useful he is.”

Kazbek Tsurayev is a reporter for Chechenskoe Obshchestvo newspaper.