Montenegro Opposition Chiefs 'Seek Investors' in Chechnya

Montenegro opposition leaders on Wednesday presented the investment potential of their small Adriatic country at a meeting in Grozny with the speaker of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov.

The delegation of the Democratic Front, including leaders of the two main pro-Russian parties NOVA and the Democratic People's Party, DNP, also met deputy chair of parliament Shahid Zhamaldaev, Minister of National Policy and External Relations Djambulat Umarov, MPs and representatives of the media in the Russian republic.

The three-day visit of the Montenegrin politicians will reportedly include meetings with the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of serious human rights violations.

The former separatist rebel fought against the Russians in the First Chechen War from 1994 to 1996 but changed sides and joined the Kremlin party during the second conflict in 1999.

To supporters, he is a patriot who has brought peace to the once war-torn region of the Caucasus but his enemies consider him a turn-coat who has also turned Chechnya into his personal fiefdom.

The leaders of the opposition alliance, which opposes Montenegro joining NATO and accuses the US of trying to instal a puppet government in Montenegro, maintain close ties with Moscow and Putin's United Russia party.

They have insisted that the aim of the visit is to attract "strategic investors" from Chechnya.

After the first meetings on Tuesday, the DNP said that centuries-old ties between Montenegro and Russia should be deepened by developing economic, cultural and political ties with Chechnya as well.

The party said Kadyrov was a legitimately elected president of Chechnya and added...