Since September 2005 the DEMOS Centre together with experts of regional human rights organizations has been working on a project entitled “Drawing Public Attention to the Chechen Conflict through the Prism of Issues Associated with Social Adaptation and Professional Activities of Veterans”

The project will last eighteen months and will involve full scale research and a series of informative and analytical undertakings.

The project is being carried out with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.


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Information about the project

Since October 2005 the DEMOS Centre has been working on an inter-regional project entitled “Drawing Public Attention to the Chechen Conflict through the Prism of Issues Associated with Social Adaptation and Professional Activities of Veterans”. This project is being carried out as part of the research programme of the DEMOS Centre as a whole.


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The project’s expert network

Five regional non governmental organizations with a reputation for effective and professional partnership are working with us on this project.

We attach great significance to the research that is carried out in the regions and constantly strive to strengthen the regional components of our project. The experience and qualifications of our colleagues in the regions is an invaluable contribution to the success of the research project.

Experts with knowledge of the prolonged local conflict in the Chechen Republic and Northern Caucasus are also working with us on this project. Several of them, including Igor Sazhin (from the Human Rights Commission “Memorial”), provide information and expert support to veterans of the conflict; others, including Sergei Andreev (School of Public Politics, Barnaul, Altaiskii Krai), conduct research into the security problems linked to the widening of the conflict beyond the Chechen borders and into the Northern Caucasus Region as a whole. The majority of the partners provide legal support to those who have suffered during the conflict, assist them to defend their rights, and are fully aware of the humanitarian problems in modern day Chechnya. All of the experience collected by our regional partners provides the foundation for the “Veterans of Chechnya” project, which is carried our as part of the research activities of the DEMOS Centre.

Our regional partners include:
1. The Republic of Adigea – Tzvetkov, Oleg Mikhailovich, “The Independent Southern Russian Institute of Social Research”, Maikop

2. The Koma Republic – Sazhin, Igor Valentinovich, The Koma Human Rights Commission “Memorial”, Syktyvkar

3. The Altai Region – Andreev, Sergei Vladimirovich, The School of Public Politics, Altai

4. Nizhnii Novgorod Region – Kalyapin, Igor Aleksandrovich, Committee against Torture, Nizhnii Novgorod

5. Tver Region – Sharipova, Valentina Alekseevna, Tver regional branch of the Russian Historical-Enlightenment, Human Rights and Humanitarian Society, “Memorial”



The Moscow office conducts research in cooperation with the regional experts, who are in turn responsible for the implementation of approved research targets. The general coordination and strategy development is carried out by the project’s Moscow office.

The project has an inter-disciplinary character. The problem of the social and professional adaptation of veterans lies within the fields of sociology, psychology, psychiatry and several other specialist fields. In order to fulfill the aims of the project and to receive balanced results it is necessary to take these varied sciences into account. It would not be an exaggeration to say that without a complex and interdisciplinary examination of the problem of veterans’ rehabilitation, it would not be possible to determine how best to change the system of rehabilitation for the better.

Moscow and regional specialists in the fields of psychology, trauma, the functioning of the modern day police force, media distribution and the legislative process provide expert consultation in order to meet the need for such an interdisciplinary approach to the research. This also helps towards increasing public awareness of the problems connected with veteran’s rehabilitation and the humanitarian problems of the Chechen conflict as a whole. Experts involved in the project include:

• Vintzin, Sergei Efimovich – Professor of the Department of Criminal Law at the Academy of Ministry of Internal Affairs, of the Russian Federation and Deputy Chairman of the President’s Council on Perfecting the Justice System.
• Burkov, Valerii Anatolevich – Chairman of the “Heroes of Russia” Foundation, expert in the legal regulation of social help and rehabilitation for invalids, and one of authors of the law “On the Social Protection of Invalids”
• Khmelnitzkaya, Yekaterina Pavlovna – an independent psychologist
• Pogodina, Tatyana Grigorevna – a practising doctor in the field of neurology and psychiatry, in 1998 carried out research into the medical-psychological rehabilitation of war veterans
• Malahov, Alexandr – a practising doctor, specialist at the Nizhnii Novgorod rehabilitation centre
• Tzvetkova, Natalya – an independent analyst of the mass media.


At every stage of the project the research aims will be precisely defined and problems requiring more in depth investigation will be established. As this happens the circle of experts participating in the project will continue to expand.