Russia's war against Islamic militants in Chechnya went on for years. Though Moscow claimed victory and calm has returned, there are signs the battle isn't over. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes explains.
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MARCO WERMAN: Pakistan faces a long battle in its effort to rid its territory of extremists. In fact, it can seem like a never-ending battle. Just ask Russia. It claims to have defeated Islamist separatist militants after years of open warfare in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya. But even as relative clam has returned to Chechnya itself, there are indications that the battle is far from over. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes went to Chechnya's capital, Grozny, to find out more.
RUPERT WINGFIELD HAYES: In the center of Grozny, a group of about a hundred men are working themselves into a religious fervor ahead of Friday prayers. Behind them rise the domes and minarets of Grozny's astonishing new grand mosque. The huge marble pile is a copy of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and is unlike anything else in Russia. Inside, the scene is even more striking. 10,000 men are gathering under the vast central dome. A hush descends and into the center of the worshipers sweeps a stocky young man surrounded by bodyguards. The man is Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's 32-year-old President. He has piercing blue eyes, the gait of a wrestler and a reputation for violence. This one time rebel fighter is the man Moscow has chosen to bring Chechnya to heal.
RAMZAN KADYROV: There are still some bandits in the mountains, maybe a few dozen. We fight them every day, we catch them. We destroy them. Together, we've achieved prosperity and stability. People are happy. They don't complain
HAYES: This is the deal Moscow has struck. In return for his loyalty, it has handed Chechnya to this uncertain new ally. The following morning, on the square outside, Ramzan Kadyrov is reviewing his private army. Hundreds of soldiers, crisply turned out in new uniforms, are marching past in serried ranks. They have shiny new weapons paid for by Moscow. Their salaries are paid for by Moscow, but until a few years ago, all of the men on parade here today were, in fact, rebels up in the mountains fighting against the Russians. But away from the well-groomed streets of Grozny, a dirty war is still going on. At a farmhouse on the edge of Grozny, I've come to meet a traumatized young woman. Last December, she and her three brothers were abducted from their home by armed men. She says they were taken to a government interrogation center.
ZALINA ILAEVA: I was put in a separate room, and I could hear my brothers screaming. It was clear they were being tortured.
HAYES: In the morning, she was released but her brothers were dead. At least 2,500 young men abducted by government militias are still missing in Chechnya. We've now driven about an hour and a half south of Grozny into the mountains to a small village. And the reason we've come here is because we've been told that in this area, government militias have been burning the houses of people suspected of helping the rebels. And here, right in front of me, is exactly that – a house completely gutted by fire. The villagers here say this happened about three months ago. Eventually, we track down a relative. He says one of the sons from this family had gone to Egypt to study in a madrassa, and when he returned, he joined the rebels.
SALAMBEG OSPANOV: His son is in the forest with the separatists.
HAYES: The government says there are no more than a few hundred rebels left out in the forests of southern Chechnya, but the Islamic insurgency has not ended. It has moved across the mountains into next door Dagestan. This is the sound of a full scale battle underway in the mountains of Dagestan. Militants have attacked a village, now the government is hitting back with tanks and helicopter gunships. At the end of the operation, 12 militants lie dead. That operation took place very close to where I am now. We've driven about four hours across the mountains from Chechnya into Dagestan to the town of Gubden, the land around here is very dry and infertile. It's very much poorer than in Chechnya and it's much more conservative. All the little girls in the village here wear headscarves. That's something you almost never see in Chechnya. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, this place was almost completely cut off from the outside world, but in the 1990s the borders opened. The local Mayor tells me that is when young men from here started traveling to Pakistan to learn about Islam.
AKHMEDOV: The young men began returning from Pakistan. They wanted to establish a Muslim state here under Shariah law. They started killing those who preached against them or opposed their view.
HAYES: Abdul Rashid Gujiev is one of those they tried to kill. He takes me to the spot where he was ambushed outside the house of his friend, the police chief.
GUJIEV: There were four of them up there. They opened fire with automatic weapons. I fell down here. The bullets were flying over my head. They fired more than 170 rounds.
HAYES: Abdul Rashid was lucky – he survived his wounds. But a few months later the rebels returned, killed the police chief and burned down his house. More than 15 years after it began, the bloodshed in Russia's restive Muslim south shows no sign of ending. In Chechnya, Moscow's response has been to meet violence with even greater violence. Here in Dagestan, it shows all the signs of following the same path.
WERMAN: The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes reporting from Chechnya and Dagestan, both in southern Russia.
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