Hotline with the President of Russia.Part 8
December 19, 2002
Moscow, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk, village of Ovsyanka (Krasnoyarsk Territory), village of Tolbazy (Bashkiria), Vladikavkaz, Bor (Nizhnyi Novgorod Region), Dushanbe, Stavropol, Dubna, Kaliningrad
Прямая линия с Президентом России
19 декабря 2002 года
Москва, Хабаровск, Челябинск, д.Овсянка (Красноярский край), с.Толбазы (Башкирия), Владикавказ, Бор (Нижегородская область), Душанбе, Ставрополь, Дубна, Калининград
VLADIMIR PUTIN: As regards the state of emergency, I dont think there is a need for that today. Crimes area committed, terrorist acts are committed, I agree. Attacks are covertly launched but, I repeat, there are no large-scale hostilities there. There is no one to fight on a large scale. But the situation is complicated. People do get killed. Do they need the constitution, legitimate power bodies and so on? Of course they do. Maskhadov was elected on the crest of a euphoria which in many parts of the Russian Federation was described as a parade of sovereignties. We are aware of how the situation in Chechnya has progressed. A lot has happened there. Under that criminal regime local people were publicly executed in the squares. And I am not speaking about the atrocities perpetrated against the members of the federal services and soldiers and so on. It was a criminal regime which was elected in its time at gunpoint, under the pressure of militants and international terrorists. We are well aware of what happened next. They quickly lost control over the republic and a very different lot stood behind them who proceeded to use the Chechens to attempt to achieve their goals which have nothing to do with the interests of the Chechen people. The creation of the much-touted world Caliphate, which we have mentioned this was the goal of the Maskhadov regime. Otherwise there would have been no attack on Dagestan.
To put an end to the situation that has taken shape there today we must gradually transfer power to the hands of the Chechen people. That is impossible to do without a legal framework, without a constitution. It is impossible to elect legitimate bodies of power, it is impossible to elect a president, the head of the republic, and it is impossible to elect the republics parliament.
Unless we do it, we will constantly face the situation that we have there today. It is a complicated process, but legitimisation of the situation in Chechnya, followed by normalisation of the economy and the social sphere are impossible without political processes.
Regarding conscripts and professionals in the army, the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior are working vigorously on that problem. As you know, an experiment is underway in the Pskov Division. The second phase of the experiment will be the deployment and permanent stationing of the 42nd Division in the Chechen Republic. The same will happen to the brigade of the interior troops which will also be permanently stationed in Chechnya.
I think that work will be largely completed by the spring-summer of 2004. As regards the special units operating in Chechnya, 80% of them are already recruited under contract. I think the number of contract servicemen will increase there too.
QUESTION (Vladikavkaz): My name is Alexei Tminov and I am a school teacher. I have a question. The Russian Government has introduced the so-called migration quotas, 500,000 for the whole country. Is that realistic? Millions of foreigners live in Russia, and it means that some of them will pay bribes and engage in illegal business. The money will settle in the pockets of government officials and not in the treasury. Is that right?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good question. The answer is obvious: it is not right. And I think that the law that has been passed, the Law on Citizenship and the legislation on immigration, meets the interests of the country. That sphere must be put in order after all. But the supporting legislation and some other provisions that have been passed as a follow-up to this law fail to address the realities. You are absolutely right, Alexei. 500,000 migrants, given that we have millions of foreigners many of whom have lived here for many years is absolutely unrealistic and it does not meet the countrys needs.
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