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Russia ends 10-year Chechnya operation
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Russia ends 10-year Chechnya operation
AFP - 2 hours 9 minutes ago
MOSCOW (AFP) - - Russia ended its decade-long "anti-terror operation" in Chechnya on Thursday, claiming stability had returned to a territory torn apart by two wars since the collapse of communism.
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The operation saw Russian forces defeat separatist rebels who had gained control of the majority Muslim region and its end could see Moscow withdraw thousands of members of the security forces from Chechnya.
The head of the Federal Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB) Alexander Bortnikov "cancelled the decree imposing an anti-terror operation on the territory of Chechnya , effective from midnight", Russia's anti-terror committee said.
"The decision is aimed at creating the conditions for the future normalisation of the situation in the republic, its reconstruction and development of its socio-economic sphere," it added in a statement.
The decree ordering the start of the "counter-terrorist operation" was passed under late president Boris Yeltsin in 1999, just months before he resigned and installed Vladimir Putin at the helm.
Russia fought two full-scale wars with separatist forces in Chechnya after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the situation has largely stabilised in recent years under strongman pro-Moscow local leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
"If the anti-terror operation is over, that means we have defeated the bandits. We can calmly announce our victory," Kadyrov said at a celebratory press conference in the Chechen capital Grozny.
The move should allow Kadyrov to tighten his personal control over Chechnya as it will prompt Moscow to withdraw thousands of members of the federal security forces.
The Interfax news agency quoted a Russian security source as saying that as many as 20,000 troops and police could now be withdrawn.
"Basically this would affect security forces who are sent to Chechnya from Russia's regions and also servicemen from the internal forces," said the source, who was not named.
Kadyrov, son of former Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov who died in a bomb blast in 2004 in Grozny, said some Russian forces would remain in Chechnya "because they protect us".
But he portrayed the lifting of the operation as a personal triumph. "I cannot express to you what I feel because during this counter-terrorist operation I lost everything, in the face of my father and brothers."
Kadyrov has long called for the elimination of the anti-terror decree to allow Chechnya to establish its own customs system which would then permit the airport in the capital Grozny to receive international flights.
International flights would speed up the reconstruction of Chechnya by delivering materials direct from abroad and also give the region the international stature that Kadyrov craves.
Kadyrov, himself an ex-rebel, has been heavily criticised for his strongman tactics by rights groups, who accuse him of torture and using his own personal forces to crack down on critics.
He has also aroused attention for eccentric behaviour which include maintaining his own private zoo in Grozny containing tigers, leopards, bears and panthers.
Recent years have seen Kadyrov place increasing emphasis on Islam, making highly-publicised pilgrimages to Mecca and most recently encouraging polygamy as "there are more women than men" in Chechnya.
However the lifting of the operation coincides with the killings of five of his critics in unsolved crimes, the latest being the mysterious shooting of top ex-army commander Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai on March 28.
While Chechnya has largely stabilised, Russian security forces are still regularly involved in fatal clashes with militants in the nearby Muslim regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.
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Enlarge Photo
File photo shows Russian troops driving through war-torn Grozny. Russia on Thursday ended an anti-terror operation in Chechnya that has been in place for a decade, amid growing stability in the territory torn by two wars since the collapse of Communism.
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