Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev toured war-ravaged Chechnya on Monday to hail progress in reconstruction, the highest-level visitor for 16 months.
Two wars between Russian forces and rebels since 1994 have wrecked much of the Caucasus republic’s infrastructure.

Although sporadic fighting goes on, President Vladimir Putin, who visited in 2005, is keen to present the war as over, and the Kremlin has spent millions of dollars on rebuilding.

Medvedev, one of the favorites to succeed Putin, looked around a new medical clinic and university in the rebuilt Chechen capital Grozny with the new Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, at his side.

“The situation in Chechnya has changed for the better,” he told reporters after meeting students.

“Of course, much remains to be done, but if we do nothing then nothing will move forward.”

Putin has entrusted Medvedev with a nationwide social improvement scheme focused on housing and healthcare.

Speculation about who will succeed Putin when he steps down at the end of his final term next year has focused on Medvedev and his fellow first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov.

Soldiers carrying Kalashnikov rifles followed Medvedev and Kadyrov as they walked around Grozny.

Kadyrov, son of a murdered president, is a former rebel who still controls a personal force of several thousand soldiers, and was hand-picked by Putin to impose stability on the region.

Human rights groups accuse Kadyrov of systematic murder and kidnapping, allegations he has always denied.

“Although we have started rebuilding we still have many shortages,” Kadyrov said, standing next to Medvedev, who flew in and out of Grozny’s newly rebuilt airport on the same day.

“And we need help from the federal side to improve the social sphere.”

Central Grozny, still a bombed-out shell little more than a year ago, now has new roads, walkways and street lighting. People stroll the main street browsing shop windows for the latest mobile phones, and traffic jams have returned.

But a few minutes’ drive from the centre, past new apartment blocks, stand concrete buildings still punctured by shells.

And even in the new pizzerias, the customers still rest their Kalashnikov rifles on the tables.

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