SADULAEV RESTRUCTURES REBEL GOVERNMENT

Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev issued a decree on October 25 restructuring the separatist government’s ministries. The decree, which was posted on the separatist Chechenpress website, was aimed at “making more effective the work of ministries and agencies temporarily located outside the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.” The decree placed the Ministry of Information and the Press, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Science within what it called the “foreign policy and humanitarian component,” and placed Deputy Prime Minister Akhmed Zakaev in charge of implementing the changes.

Also on October 25, the separatist Daymohk website reported that Zakaev, on Sadulaev’s instructions, had sent a congratulatory telegram to the newly-electe President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski. “The name of the party that has nominated you to the presidential post, Law and Justice, gives us reason to hope that these two words, law and justice, shall be the foundation underlying Chechen-Polish relations in politics and in the Polish leadership’s attitude to the thousands of Chechen refugees who have found shelter on Polish soil at this difficult and tragic time for us,” Zakaev’s telegram read.