The outrage following the severe clean-up operations conducted by Russian federal troops over past week in the Chechen settlements Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk shows no sign of abating. In what could be principally a cosmetic move, Russia's chief military prosecutor and the Prosecutor General of Russia on Monday sent three teams to Chechnya to launch criminal investigations. Meanwhile, twelve heads of pro-federal local Chechen administrations have resigned in protest against the military's actions.

Nazarbek Terkhoyev and Vakha Arsamakov, heads of Assinovskaya village of Sernovodsk administration, were the first to condemn the Russian troops' unjustifiable methods. On Thursday last week they met with the head of the pro-Kremlin Chechen government Stanislav Ilyasov and the head of Chechen Civil Administration Akhmad Kadyrov in Grozny to protest against the army's actions and to hand in their resignations.

Terkhoyev and Arsamakov reported on the army's brutal behaviour in their districts. Both officials said their official positions were meaningless for they had been looked up in their offices and had their weapons which were provided only a couple of week earlier under personal orders from Kadyrov to ensure their personal safety against rebels were confiscated, while federal servicemen dragged all male residents of their settlements out into the streets, beat them up, tortured those who could not pay a ransom and looted civilians' homes.

Chechen premier Stanislav Ilyasov then asked both officials to refrain from resigning immediately, and then said that he himself was considering resigning. On Tuesday Arsamakov's and Terkhoyev's resignations were confirmed.

Two other higher placed Chechen officials followed their example on Tuesday. The heads of the Sunzha and Achkhoi Martan district administrations Kharon Vitayev and Shamil Burayev announced their resignations. Assinovskaya village and Sernovodsk are located in Sunzha. Kurchaloi, which was also subject to a ruthless clean-up operation last week, is within the Achkhoi-Martan district.

Immediately after the clean up in Kurchaloi on Thursday, Shamil Burayev delivered a statement condemning the federals and then the following night unidentified gunmen opened fire at his house. On Friday morning Burayev said that those responsible were obviously trying to intimidate and exert pressure on him and later the same day he said that fire came from the direction of the federal commandant's office in his settlement.

Apart from the aforementioned officials, 12 more heads of municipal administrations plan to resign. All those villages are located in Achkhoi Martan. Evidently all those officials have already discussed their resignations with the head of Achkhoi Martan head Shamil Burayev.

Thus, the federals with the recent brutal clean-up operations have been more successful in pressuring pro-Moscow Chechen officials into resigning than the rebels with their threats and assassinations. And this is a very rueful development for Moscow.

Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the pro-Moscow civil administration visited Sernovodsk on Sunday, whereupon he announced that "large scale crimes against civilians" had been committed in the Chechen settlements of Sernovodsk and Assianovskaya by federal forces conducting the clean up operations.

"Not a single bandit was arrested, not a single rifle was confiscated, and no explosive substances were found" Kadyrov said, adding that the only result was that "the population has been humiliated and insulted."

Soldiers savagely assaulted Chechen civilians, plundered and destroyed their schools and hospitals, taking away TVs, videos, fridges, anything they could take. They even threw grenades into the basements of houses, and stole money intended for teachers' pay from one of the local schools.

For the first time since he was appointed to his post Akhmad Kadyrov openly accused the military of "criminal conduct".

Kadyrov announced on Monday he intended to bring to account all those who initiated and implemented the savage sweeps in Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya.

During his trip to Sernovodsk, Kadyrov learned yet another horrifying detail. Male civilians, apprehended by the federals for ID checks, were not allowed to return home, but were forced to pass through checkpoints, wherefrom police opened fire upon them.

In the meantime the chief law enforcers and the military are continuing to insist that all operations were conducted in full compliance with the law. The latest such statement came from the commander of the Interior Ministry's troops in the North Caucasus, General Alexander Chekalin. "There are no grounds to speak of brutality by the federal forces," the General said. Earlier the unified military group commander Vladimir Moltenskoi made a similar statement.

In the meantime a criminal investigation has already been launched.

On Monday evening Russian prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov dispatched two teams of investigators to Chechnya. The third group was sent to Chechnya by the chief military prosecutor Mikhail Kislitsyn.

In addition, local Chechen prosecutors began investigations in Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk on Monday.

Thus, two plundered settlements are now overcrowded with federal and republican investigators, and the whole country awaits the results.

On Monday in Moscow the former envoy of the Chechen administration to Moscow Shamil Beno gave an interview to the Ekho Moskvy radio station in which he alleged that cases similar to those in Assinovskaya and Sernovodskaya villages happen in Chechnya t daily.

"Such cases happen in Chechnya on a daily basis. Civilians are killed on a daily. Our estimates show that on average, from 15 to 20 Chechen civilians are killed every day. These are cases that become known and that can be included in calculations. I think that if the Chechen population still had a fraction of faith in justice, there would have been far more complaints regarding the events in Sernovodskaya and Assinovskaya, given how many houses where searched and how many people were detained".

The problem is that nobody in Chechnya has any faith in justice any longer, and if the federal and military prosecutors fail to establish anyone's guilt and bring those responsible to account, or the punishments dealt are too mild, both Ilyasov and Kadyrov have said they would leave their posts.

Thus, the "absolutely lawful" actions of the military have pushed the republic to the brink of a severe political crisis.

Artyom Vernidub, Gazeta ru, 10 July 18:10