23:50, 9 October 2022

Participant of second Chechen war appointed to command SMO in Ukraine

Sergey Surovikin. Screenshot of the video posted on the YouTube channel of the Russian Ministry of Defence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E6gtm78TMA

General Sergey Surovikin, who commanded the 42nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division during the Second Chechen Military Campaign, has been appointed to command the Joint Group of Forces in the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine. This decision was preceded by the criticism of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

After the militants' attack on militaries in Grozny in February 2005, where nine Russian militaries were killed, Surovikin promised "to liquidate three militants per every killed military."

The second Chechen military campaign was launched on September 30, 1999, and lasted until August 2009. According to human rights defenders, between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians perished there.

Earlier, Kadyrov, after the withdrawal of troops from Krasny Liman, criticized the general who was in command in that direction. The next portion of Kadyrov's criticism of the MoD for drawbacks in Ukraine came out with the Kremlin's approval, experts believed.

During his time in Chechnya, Surovikin several times "had to make excuses for violations of his subordinates," the "Kommersant" writes. The most well-known case was the cleansing of the village of Borozdinovskaya, conducted by the fighters of the "Vostok" (East) battalion.

On June 5, 2005, the Vostok special battalion of the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate), commanded by the former Ichkeria general, Sulim Yamadaev, entered the village of Borozdinovskaya in the Shelkovskoy District of Chechnya. The fighter conducted a "cleansing operation", as a result of which a local resident was killed, 11 guys were captured and four houses were burned down.

After that, almost all the villagers left it and set up a tent camp in the Kizlyar District of Dagestan. After Kadyrov's promises, they returned home, but then again left for Dagestan. Their main demands – the return of kidnapped fellow villagers, payment of compensations and punishment of the perpetrators – were not fulfilled.

In June 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that Russian authorities were responsible for disappearances during the special operation and the likely murder of 11 Borozdinovskaya villagers, ill-treatment, discrimination and torture. The ECtHR decided that 71 villagers should receive compensations in the overall amount of more than 1.8 million euros.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 8, 2022 at 08:57 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot