RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 82, Part I, 30 April 2003

Audit chamber head says Grozny resembles Stalingrad's ruins.

Sergei Stepashin, in a 26 April interview with RTR, painted a depressing picture of the efforts -- or the lack thereof -- to rebuild war-torn Chechnya. Stepashin, who recently visited Chechnya to investigate how federal funds are being used in the republic, said he found that 366 million rubles ($11.8 million) in federal funds have been lost due to accounting errors and ineffective or wasteful spending. In one case, he said, 46 million rubles were used to finance a soccer team. Another 20
million rubles, Stepashin said, were stolen outright. While 95 percent of the federal funds earmarked for Chechnya have been used, he said, only 30 percent of the republic's facilities have been repaired, with hardly any industrial enterprises among them. Only a few of Grozny's buildings are undamaged, while the rest of the city resembles the  "ruins of Stalingrad" and creates an "oppressive impression," Stepashin said. JB
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Comment: The readers should be reminded that Sergei Stepashin was the interior minister who planned CW2 and was an active proponent of CW1. This is is own Stalingrad! M.M.