Top Putin aide dismisses concerns over aid-worker access to Chechnya

By David Cronin

Date: 20/055/04

THE European Commission's concerns about access to Chechnya for humanitarian aid workers have been branded "artificial" by one of Vladimir Putin's top aides.

ECHO, the executive's humanitarian office, has been repeatedly declined permission by the Russian authorities to coordinate its aid activities for victims of the Chechen conflict from neighbouring Ingushetia.

Speaking exclusively to European Voice, Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, the Russian president's advisor on the EU, dismissed ECHO's argument that coordinating its efforts from Chechnya would put staff at an unacceptable risk.

"This is a very artificial problem," claimed Yastrzhembskiy, previously Putin's counsellor on Chechen affairs. "If people want to go to Chechnya, then please go inside Chechnya and not be based in Ingushetia.

"The problem is that people don't want to work in Chechnya itself."

Akhmad Kadyrov, the pro-Moscow president in Grozny who was assassinated earlier this month, had argued it was "important that humanitarian aid workers should coordinate activities with his government", said Yastrzhembskiy. "I think he was right."

However, research by Russian human rights organization Memorial indicated that Kadyrov was fuelling the conflict in the breakaway republic, as an armed group under the control of his son was blamed for a growing number of 'disappearances'.

Yastrzhembskiy contended that the EU would be wrong to interpret the threat by Putin to avenge Kadyrov's murder as a decision to resort to greater force in Chechnya.

"I don't think the statement of the president after the tragedy in Chechnya must be understood as a willingness to revenge. Rather, there must be an understanding that the criminals who committed this crime must be found and punished, according to law."

Russia's human rights abuses in Chechnya have been condemned by the EU, with some MEPs accusing Moscow of waging a campaign of genocide against the republic's mostly Muslim population. Yet Yastrzhembskiy downplayed the criticisms' significance.

"It is one thing to issue some conclusions sitting in Strasbourg and quite another thing to go to Chechnya, meet the people there and understand what is going on."

Russia is hoping that its relations with the EU will receive a boost at a summit in Moscow this Friday (21 May), with the Union giving its blessing for the country's bid to join the World Trade Organization.

The summit will also address Russia's request that its citizens be allowed to travel into the EU without a visa.

In order for a visa-free deal to be made, the Union demands that Russia enhances control of its external borders and signs a 'readmission agreement', under which those who enter the EU from Russian territory illegally would be taken back.

Progress could be made, said Yastrzhembskiy, if such steps as creating a database with the EU on lost or stolen passports was set up, as part of an effort to deter forgery.

He argued that Schengen, the EU's passport-free zone, must not create new dividing lines in Europe. "We don't want to see the Berlin Wall transferred into some kind of Schengen wall," he added.

Interview with Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, the Russian President's advisor on the European Union, in which he dismisses ECHO's argument that co-ordinating its humanitarian aid efforts for Chechnya from within the region would put staff at an unacceptable risk.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/echo/field/russia/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/echo/field/russia/index_en.htm

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