CHECHEN GOVERNMENT IN FORMATION.

The pro-Moscow government of Chechnya is slowly being formed. A major reason for the slowness of this process is that the names of future ministers have to be agreed upon by the chief of administration, Akhmad Kadyrov; the premier, Stanislav Il’yasov; and the plenipotentiary representative of the president in the Southern Federal District, retired General Viktor Kazantsev. Judging from everything, Kadyrov is far from always getting his way (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 13 February). Yury Em, commander of the 247th Paratroop Regiment based in Stavropol, has been named a deputy premier responsible for overseeing the power ministries in Chechnya. Em, an ethnic Korean, is a recipient of the Hero of Russia award. Viktor Aleksentsev, an ethnic Russian, has also been named a deputy premier, while Vasily Vasilenko, currently a resident of Moscow, has been named minister of the press. Rudnik Dudaev (no relation to the late Chechen president) has been named secretary of the republic’s security council, which is reportedly going to have a purely consultative function. Dudaev served for more than thirty years in the KGB/FSB and holds the rank of colonel in that organization (Kommersant, February 15).