People of Chechnya disappointed with Chechen singer's turncoating

On photo: Timur Mutsurayev on left

Moscow-based Vremya Novostey ("News Time") edition reported that native of Chechnya Ruslan Kutayev, aide of oppositional Russian ex-premier Mikhail Kasyanov, claims that according to the recently-conducted poll, over one half (52%) of Chechen youth polled by his employees are disappointed with the act done by Chechen famous singer Timur Mutsurayev.

"Whichever political doctrine the respondents would stick to, they view the bard's visit to Kadyrov as an act of betrayal of the ideas that he has been singing about for so many years."

At the same time Kutayev claims that 48% of the respondents believe that appearance of Timur Mutsurayev and other "Resistance heroes" in Kadyrov's camp "will affect him towards the better".

The edition reminds that former Minister of Defense in the government under Aslan Maskhadov, Magomed Khanbiyev, who surrendered exactly one year before President Maskhadov's death, addressed to those who are still involved in armed resistance and offered them to stop, since, quote, "the goals of Chechen freedom and independence, for which the war has allegedly been fought throughout all these years, are best reached thanks to Ramzan Kadyrov".

Vremya Novostey writes, "Khanbiyev, whom Ramzan Kadyrov put in charge of contacting the Chechen communities abroad concerning the issue of their return home, has reminded about the recent interview of Ahmed Zakayev.

"Zakayev, who is living in London with a status of political refugee, is considering himself prime minister of Ichkeria in exile. At the same time it is not the first time when he was pretty flatteringly speaking about work of Mr. Kadyrov on decolonization of Chechnya. Had the Kadyrov administration had a slightest uncertainty before the Kremlin, Zakayev's interview would have been immediately labelled as a provocation. But even the local republican TV is now referring to it."

The edition also reminds that Timur Mutsurayev has made two audio addresses in which he pointed out that he coordinates all of his actions on contacts and negotiations with Kadyrov with Ahmed Zakayev.

Nevertheless, Ruslan Kutayev believes that both Khanbiyev and Zakayev have virtually zero influence on the situation.

"With all due respect to them, neither Zakayev nor Khanbiyev have any influence among those who are still fighting with weapons in their hands," as Ruslan Kutayev pointed out. "It won't be too much of a problem to Zakayev to return to today's Chechnya and do his theater work - he was to a certain extent unlucky to end up abroad, other than that he surely would have made it to a post in the republic's government.

"There are no serious allegations against him. To his honor, he was never involved in kidnappings, nor did he fight the war - he has always remained an actor, the same way chairman of Ichkerian parliament in exile Zhaloudin Saralyapov was a great highway engineer. It's about time for them to stop acting like major militants and return to Chechnya, where they could be doing their things. It could become a great image victory for Ramzan Kadyrov, but really it would not have affected the situation much because there are other people who are authoritative among those who are fighting."

Department of Monitoring,