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Surrounded by his bodyguards, Kremlin-favoured candidate Alu Alkhanov, winner of the Chechen presidential election, centre, leaves the central election commission in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Monday, Aug. 30, 2004. Alkhanov, the region's top police official, replaces Kremlin-backed president Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in May. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
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INDEPTH: CHECHNYA
Alu Alkhanov: Chechnya's president
CBC News Online | August 30, 2004
Alu Alkhanov's ties to Moscow are strong and go back to the early days of his political career – not exactly a recipe for success as a Chechen leader.
The shoes Alkhanov will fill were emptied in May 2004 when a bomb ripped through a stadium killing President Akhmad Kadyrov and at least a dozen other people. The bomb had been planted in concrete months earlier, while the stadium was being repaired. Kadyrov had been elected president just seven months earlier, a man Moscow counted on to crush Chechen rebels.
Of the past five Chechen presidents, Kadyrov was the fourth to be assassinated. Rebel leaders have vowed to make Alkhanov victim number five.
With those kinds of odds, it's surprising anyone would want to run for the job. Seven people did, but none had the level of support from Moscow that Alkhanov did. He appeared frequently on television newscasts, while the other candidates were rarely seen. In the week before the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared by Alkhanov's side, planting flowers at Kadyrov's grave.
Kadyrov and Alkhanov shared a loyalty to Russia – but they came to that position in different ways. Kadyrov fought against Russian rule in the 1990s and called on his fellow Muslims to rise in jihad against Moscow. Alkhanov, on the other hand, was never swayed by Chechen separatist rhetoric.
The 47-year-old Alkhanov is a graduate of the old Soviet Union's Interior Ministry Academy. During Soviet times, he worked in the Interior Ministry in the Chechen-Ingush region. Historically, the region had been nominally autonomous.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Alkhanov remained committed to the idea that Chechnya's future lay as part of the Russian Federation. He remained in the country, but opposed the nationalism of President Dzhokhar Dudayev, who fought for Chechen independence. A Russian air strike in 1996 ended his quest.
Alkhanov headed up Chechnya's transport police from 1995 to '96 and caught the eye of Russia's leadership when he led the defence of Grozny's train station against Chechen militants in 1996. For that, Moscow decorated him for bravery.
When Russian troops pulled out of the region and Chechen separatists gained control, Alkhanov moved to a small Russian town near the border with Ukraine, where he ran the local transport police.
He returned to Chechnya in 2000, after Moscow sent in troops once again, regaining a tenuous hold over the government. Alkhanov was named chief of transport police, a job he held until he was appointed Chechnya's interior minister in April 2003.
In July 2004, Alkhanov was named head of a new commission whose job was to curb the misuse of government money. During the election campaign, he promised to slash the corruption that plagues Chechen reconstruction and bring in tax breaks to boost the economy.
The day after winning almost three-quarters of the vote, Alkhanov vowed he would rebuild the shattered region and crush extremists. He said his administration would focus on reviving Chechnya's economy, shattered by war, and creating 150,000 new jobs in the next five years.
Rebels have dismissed the latest election as a farce – as a stage-show managed by Moscow. They've vowed to make Alkhanov's term in office a short one.
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Population: 1.2 million
Area: Estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 square kilometres, about four times the size of P.E.I.
Borders: Shares borders with Georgia to the south, and the Russian republics of Dagestan, Stavropol, North Ossetia and Ingushetia
Languages: Chechen, a Caucasian language
Religion: Sunni Muslim
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