At a Moscow news conference on 30 August, Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov, the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Chechnya, said that Russian forces abused people in their recent sweeps through villages. While conducting such sweeps, Kadyrov said, Russian troops "take away things they like from the people and hit those who look askance." He said that such actions "incite the people against the authorities." He also asked rhetorically: "Why it has taken so long with 80,000 or 90,000 soldiers [that the Russian forces have] and all their hardware, including satellites which can see everything from space" to capture or destroy the leaders of the Chechen militants? Kadyrov suggested that the main task of his administration now is to secure the return of displaced persons, but that this will only be possible when the authorities are able to ensure their safety, something "no one can guarantee them today." Kadyrov also sharply criticized the position of Ingushetian President Ruslan Aushev as being "pro-Maskhadov" because Aushev has called for negotiations with the Chechen president. (RFE/RL)