Human rights violations and kidnappings are main obstacle to stability in Chechnya

Russian human rights activists voice such an opinion. As Moscow Helsinki Group Chairwoman Lyudmila Alekseyeva stated, many victims of the so called "purges" join Chechen resistance units. According to information of human rights activists, security agencies, more and more often controlled by Ahmad Kadyrov, stand behind the majority of kidnappings in Chechnya. "Residents of Chechnya say: we don not need any compensations and help, we will build and restore everything ourselves. We just want to be left alone, we want purges and kidnappings to be stopped," said Lyudmila Alekseyeva.

The head of the Memorial human rights organization, Oleg Orlov, said that 431 people were kidnapped in Chechnya from January till November 2003. "By our estimations, the total number of civilians kidnapped on the territory of the Chechen Republic may be three of four times larger than the one Memorial have," he noted.