We decided to see how this "permanent basis" was being established. How were officers and soldiers living? What weapons were they fighting with? How were they settling in? How did the local population treat them? Was care shown for the families of fallen officers?

Our delegation consisted of four people: Arkady Baskaev, Vasily Volkovsky, Nikolai Ovchinnikov, and myself. Since we were to visit the location of the 46th Internal Troops Brigade, Lieutenant General Stanislav Kavun, the Deputy Commander, flew with us (or, more precisely, we with him, as it was an Internal Troops plane). I almost forgot to write: Internal Troops of the MVD of the Russian Federation (some clever people in the MVD started getting mortally offended if you didn't add the sacred "MVD of the Russian Federation," as if the internal troops had already transferred to the tax police).

We visited both the brigade headquarters, which will be located in the area of the ruined "Severny" airport, and all five battalions scattered in different districts of Chechnya. What do these permanent deployment locations look like?

A trench is dug, encircling the battalion perimeter. Tents are erected. The Russian flag is raised. Boards with portraits of historical heroes of the Caucasian war are set up. Suvorov seems like a dwarf compared to Putin: his portrait is five times smaller than our president's. And the great construction begins: this temporary bivouac is to become a military town.

Somewhere there's already electric light, others don't have it yet... Some have only cold water, others only hot (a spring was suddenly discovered). Here, paths are already being paved with asphalt, while there, it's still impassable mud. Some officers brought their wives: they'll be living here for a long time, two years at least; others only think about how to get out of this desolation.

But again, again and again, I was convinced: our people are better than the government. The people are real, and the government is virtual.

We are accustomed to our Russian people, and especially officers and soldiers, being able to overcome difficulties. Just as we are accustomed to the government being obliged to create difficulties so that people do not forget how to overcome them.

By signing the decree in August on the permanent deployment of our units in Chechnya (the 46th Internal Troops Brigade and the 42nd Army Division), President Putin apparently did not inquire: is there money for such a grandiose undertaking?

Not a single kopeck was allocated for the new units! The command of the internal troops collected money bit by bit (the army, as I know, was in the same situation). They pooled resources, as they used to say, to ensure people had somewhere to live and something to fight with...

And they were also deceived...

Officers crowded into the staff tent—remarkable eyes, courageous faces... Oh, these guys from the internal troops! How much they suffered from our revolutionary transformations! From Fergana to Karabakh, from Ossetia to Chechnya! How many lives they laid down! And now a delegation from the State Duma's Security Committee arrives to them. Sort of the authorities... What did they ask us about? No, not about their fates at first. Why are they given discarded equipment? Why do they have outdated weapons? Why do soldiers "a meter tall with a cap" end up with them—after all, it's a war zone here? And then, embarrassed, questions: but still, how will we be paid? "Come on, come on, don't be shy..." we say. It turns out that when they were offered to go to Chechnya on this "permanent basis," they were promised two monthly salaries. On the ground, it turned out to be one and a half. (Although in North Ossetia, for example, where it's more or less peaceful now, they pay double salaries, which, in principle, is also not millions). They promised "combat pay"... "Combat pay" was almost nine hundred rubles a day, as they paid in the second Chechen war.

My colleague in the Duma, Colonel General Arkady Baskaev, recently commander of the Moscow Internal Troops District, explains:

"Well, who told you such nonsense? Yes, combat pay should be for those who participate in combat operations, who are stationed at checkpoints... But for everyone? When in that war, military officials in Mozdok, who didn't even lift their butts from their chairs, also received combat pay, that was wrong, wasn't it?"

The officers nod understandingly...

And again the question: "Will we get apartments after these two years?"

Baskaev answers a question with a question: who has apartments?

Only three hands go up...

"Who promised you all this?"