Deputy head of the Federation Council Committee for International affairs, ex-adviser of President Putin for North Caucasus-related problems, the chairman of All-Russian Association of Law Enforcement Agencies employees Aslambek Aslakhanov met with an VK correspondent on the eve of his 70th birthday and answered questions about Chechnya.
- Aslambek Akhmedovich, thank you very much for agreeing to meet on the eve of your birthday. Soon you will turn 70 years old. Most of your life you have dedicated to serving the state. You are a well-known public figure and the scope of your activity is very diverse. Can we ask you a few personal questions on the eve of your jubilee? We know quite a lot about you. But please tell us about the Aslambek Akhmedovich that we do not know, that we do not see. What would you like to tell us?
- I am a rather gentle person. When I see in a movie or notice in real life that a woman is suffering, a child was hurt or a woman is crying, I have a desire to severely physically punish the offender. When a child is made to cry, especially when a woman is suffering - it is very hard to watch. I have a special attitude towards women. I was a mama's boy - because I loved my mother so much and still love her and will love her until my last days, even though she passed away. And despite the fact that, according to our Caucasian traditions, a grown man should not bring water or wash the floors - but that was what I did to help my mother. The word of my mother and father to me was like a law. My mind never came to condemn them or even to think that I have my own life. If I did, I would have smashed my own face. My mother gave birth to me in agony, brought me up, did not have enough food - and brought up me as a man. Both my father and my mother. And I, as a puppy, would blather "It's my life"? I was never to have my own life while my parents were alive. They must be the agents of one's life, because a mother or father will never teach you anything bad. I once raised my voice, saying, "Mom, you do not understand me" (I guess I was right). She wept and said: "I never thought that my own son would raise his voice to me." I swear to you, I do not remember what it was. It has long been forgotten. But I always said, "Mom, I will never in my life forgive myself for having raised my voice to you." And I still reproach myself for doing it. Apparently I am not living in a village, but in a city, although until I turned 14 years I was a village kid, grazed cows, worked in gardens, weeded. That is, I can do anything. And even though I live in a city, my soul is there, in the village. I am a very rural person; I have always been very attracted to the earth. But I cannot overcome it easily, look on with indifference, as my life goes on... I am constantly troubled and perhaps I will remain troubled until my last hour. And I bring up my children so that they become like me. They should know who they are, their traditions, their family name, that they are being observed so that they are worthy of my name, myself and my people, who, unfortunately, are being constantly demonized.
- Aslambek Akhmedovich, if I understand it correctly, your family, too, did not escape Stalinist repressions, and you spent a part of your life in Kyrgyzstan. Are there any memories of this period?
- What is Kyrgyzstan? It is like my second home. My best childhood years were spent there. The fact that we did not die of hunger is a miracle. We were meant to die - me and my older brother and sister - because there was nothing. People exiled there, including wealthy peasants, lived in very hard conditions. A war was going on, we were exiled in 1944. I was only 2 years old. I found an old photo which shows me with a swollen belly from constant hunger, crooked legs from rickets with the expression of a constantly hungry chick. We ate pulp - you do not know what it is - it is made from beet skins. It was fed to the cattle. It has a lot of sugar and we ate it. We also ate the husk which remains after sunflower oil is pressed. We ate these bricks, chewed on roots. We barely survived. This was all in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrghyz people also had a very hard life. I wanted to visit the place where I spent my childhood very much. When I arrived, of course, streets which once seemed wide appeared to be quite different. It was all very sweet to my heart and I am very worried about what is happening there now. I would like peace to finally come there and I want the rogues striving for power and money to be finally put in cells so that people can live normally. By the way, we lived in the village of Stalinskaya in the Stalinsky District. The great boxers the Klitschko brothers were born there.
-In your opinion, what event in your political career was the most important?
- I think that my career can be divided into two parts. The first part started with the military campaign in Chechnya. Lord, I did everything I could to help refugees and those who were detained absolutely arbitrarily, kept somewhere, tormented and tortured. I freed them, thank God, in many cases we managed to find a common language, but sometimes we had shootings during the first and the second military campaign. Many criticized me, my decision not to run for the presidency. When Kadyrov decided to run for the presidency we had a personal conversation. I began to register, even though I knew that Akhmad-hadji Kadyrov put a burden on his shoulders which was too much for me. He was there all the time, knew the situation, it was this hell. None of us suited this position as he did. I am glad that I worked as his assistant. Putin has offered me the position of assistant to the president and said: "Knowing about how you care for your people, and how much you write about what is happening there, I will give you such power that will allow you involve anyone, to control and demand from everyone." And I must say that I addressed Putin with various initiatives and always found his support. I think that the biggest credit for the stabilization process in Chechnya must be given to Akhmad-Haji Kadyrov. He knew that he would be killed but he sacrificed himself for the sake of his people, he did a lot. However, I think that there is also my contribution to the stabilization of the situation in the region and to the return of the region to the bosom of the Russian Federation and the establishment of institutional authorities in Chechnya. But I sincerely hope that I will not be praised - I do not like being praised. I only wish they would not curse me for being inactive during a difficult time for my people.
- Continuing the theme of the North Caucasus Federal District and in particular of the Chechen Republic. You have a great knowledge about the problem. How do you assess the development of the republic in the past 20 years?
- I think that we should really thank the younger Kadyrov. Our officials allocated funds for the restoration of the Chechen Republic, but they never left the Garden Ring. It was planned that the republic would be restored by 2020-2025. Ramzan has changed this scheme. When he became prime minister and later president, he put in such effort that, out of a completely destroyed republic, he created the most beautiful city in the Russian Federation. No one could do what he did. Kadyrov has been accused of various tricks. I would like others to perform such tricks. Here is one of his tricks: no one in the whole world has ever done anything similar. He decided to organize a Day of Cleaning of the territory of the Chechen Republic in order to carry away the trash, dirt and all that clutter. This Day of Cleaning lasted for a whole month. It was the hottest time - just under 40 degrees. From sunrise until dark people worked cleaning the city, they cleaned everything. There were hundreds of thousands of tons of all kinds of stuff in the city, in the districts and on the whole territory. It has been cleared. Nowhere else did anything like that. It has not been done in any country in the world. We all have flaws. People complain that it is hard to do business. Too many auditors behave incorrectly. There is corruption, like anywhere in the Russian Federation. But when the corruption is revealed I would like to see the same response as Kadyrov demonstrates with respect to corruption. I will give you several examples when workers complained to him that they were not paid for three months. He was furious. The head of the plant paid the money to everyone. And this was followed by the judicial authorities. The reaction is very serious. But, of course, the disease of corruption, which is widespread on the territory of Russia, cannot escape Chechnya or Dagestan. It is everywhere.
By VK
