Extortions at block-posts go on
February 6, 2001. The Achkhoi-Martan inhabitant, Shirvani Vashajev, was travelling home on his own car loaded with mixed fodder. At each block-post on the road Rostov-Baku Russian soldiers, as usual, demanded money. As a result the driver spent nearly all cash he had. At on e block-post near Asinovka they wanted 500 rubles from him to drive through but he did not already have so much money. Vashajev started to assure the soldiers he had only 30 rubles by himself and no more. Then having said: "Hey, do you think we are children?", the soldiers started to beat him. After the "communication" with the representatives of military forces the driver was brought to a hospital in town of Sleptsovsk (Republic of Ingoushetja). His condition was very serious. The "federals" removed his car but in a day gave it back.

Farewell "outdoor merrymaking" of the crew of an armored personnel car (APC)
February 4, 2001. At about 2 p.m. an APC came to the Central Market of Grozny City. There were drunken soldiers of the federal troops inside. There was a broom tied up to the frame of the APC meandering on the road. Perhaps, the soldiers decided to look like oprichniks (very cruel people in the service of the Tsar of Ancient Rus who executed lots of people who showed even minor protest or whom the Tsar did not like), who tied a broom or a dog's head to the saddles of their horses. The "federals" were obviously leaving and decided to mark their service in the city for a long time. The APC was driven fast and the soldiers shot aimlessly in all directions. Then they exchanged fire with OMON forces, who stood at a block-post near the Svoboda square. Having "fought" to their heart's content, the APC turned around and passed the market once again.

Here they exchanged fire with the soldiers from the other block-post in the Grozneftjanaya street. The sales-people and buyers tried to leave the market but they could not decide where to run for the shots were coming from all sides already. The disordered shooting went on over an hour. As all major automobiles roads pass the market, the traffic was blocked all the time.

The soldiers "paid a visit"…
There is a corn-mill standing by the entry to the village Tevsina of Vedensky district in Chechen Republic. It belongs to two brothers M (they asked us not to disclose their last name). Both live in this village near the mill, 200 m away from a Russian block-post.

At night from February 3 to February 4, 2001 drunken soldiers burst in their house. They threw out the brothers and three women, put them on the ground with their faces down. Then they made a real pogrom in the house. Six children were closed in a dark room (there is no light in the village), and the soldiers did not react to the children's crying. They broke everything they could in the house. Some time later the women, trembling from the cold, were closed in the same room with children. They spent the whole nigh there - nine people sitting on one couch. The brothers were closed in the kitchen. The soldiers drank heavily all night long and had eaten all products by the morning.

Early in the morning the officers from the headquarters came and apologized to the women for their soldiers. They vaguely tried to substantiate the motives of their actions by the information about a prepared visit of boeviks to the house. The brothers were taken to the headquarters but then in evening released. It all reminds of Gogol's story "Evenings in the village near Dikanka" where the evil spirit does its bad work at night and in the daytime turns into normal people.

Tragic event in Katyr-Yurt
January 13, 2001. Russian soldiers entered the house of Abdulla Dzhabrailov (born in 1964) in the village Katyr-Yurt in Achkhoi-Martan district. They intended to detain the man. Being aware of the "federals"' atrocities in respect to the detained people he used to say that he would better die then get into their hands.

Dzhabrailov (he lived in the outskirts of the village) decided to run away. He took a grenade and ran outside the village but the soldiers surrounded him. Nevertheless Abdulla managed to snatch a tommy-gun from the hands of an OMON soldier who ran up to him. Abdulla shot him, then wounded another soldier. When he ran out of bullets, Dzhabrailov exploded himself using the grenade.

Abdulla had got married recently (he had lived only one month with his young wife). He did not take part in the second war campaign. But he took part in the first war in 1995 - 1996. As his relatives say, one of the reasons for Dzhabrailov's taking a gun in his hands was a psychological trauma caused by the tragic death of his mother and two brothers in 1987. They were killed in a Russian village, where they were on seasonal works. Drunken men, who murdered them with an axe, were Russian.

The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Rozhdetvenskaya St., 24, section 2, room 15,
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 603001