Briefs

– Kadyrov Again Says Putin Should be President for Life

In the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s decision to head the pro-Kremlin United Russia’s party lists for this December’s State Duma election and his hint that he would consider serving as prime minister, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has said that Putin should be president for life. “Why can’t we be like Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan?” Newsru.com on October 2 quoted Kadyrov as saying. “As before, I want Vladimir Putin to remain [president] for a third term. The people should continue to ask Putin to remain, and then he will be obliged to submit to the people.” In an interview published in the weekly magazine Kommersant-Vlast this past June, Kadyrov spoke in similar terms about his desire to see Putin become Russia’s president for life (Chechnya Weekly,

June 21).

– HIV/AIDS on the Rise in Chechnya

Prague Watchdog on October 3 quoted a health ministry official as saying that the situation regarding the spread of HIV in Chechnya is “a dangerous one.” The anonymous official told the website that 784 cases of HIV infection have been registered at the National Center in Grozny alone. “The spread of HIV has been observed in 98 of the country’s population centers,” the official said. “The highest number of AIDS cases was recorded in the city of Grozny, affecting 304 people, including 58 women and 10 children. It’s followed by Groznensky district, with 93 cases, including 21 women and 3 children, and Urus-Martanovsky district, with 74 patients, of whom 15 are women and 2 are children.” The official said that the mountainous part of the republic has the lowest number of AIDS cases, with only one person found to be infected with HIV in the Nozhai-Yurt district and two and three in the neighboring Itum-Kalinsky and Shatoi districts, respectively.