GROZNY -- Chechnya's central bank, the only renovated building in the republic's war-ravaged capital, holds both the world's newest exotic currency and the unruly Russian region's dream of independence.
Other central banks -- powerhouse financial institutions with armies of economists and an array of sophisticated analytical tools -- wage battles against enemies like inflation.
But the National Bank of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, also called Qoman Bank, sees a different kind of opponent as it gears up to fire rebel Chechnya's newest salvo, the nakhar currency, against Moscow.
"A national currency is one of the attributes of an independent state," said the bank's chairman, Nazhmudin Uvaisayev. "I want our nakhar to be a hard currency, respected by all. It will be tied to currencies like the dollar and the German mark and pegged to the dollar at a rate of one to one."
Chechnya was a byword for multimillion-dollar financial irregularities before Moscow sent troops in December 1994 to crush its independence drive.
The bank exhausted its gold and hard currency reserves while fighting Russian forces, who withdrew in humiliation in August 1996 after 21 months of battles that left the region's economy wasted and tens of thousands dead.
Now, with stacks of nakhars printed at a secret press in Britain sitting in its vaults, the bank is preparing to launch the nakhar in a bid to make Chechnya an independent state in which the Russian ruble is a foreign currency.
"We'll issue as much as we need to ensure Chechnya's functioning," said deputy bank chairman Yusup Imayev. "How Moscow reacts is Moscow's problem. It shouldn't interfere in our internal affairs."
In this heavily guarded pale-yellow edifice, the windows of which survey a war zone of bombed-out apartment blocks and ruined government buildings, there are no debates on the issues occupying the developed world's national financial institutions.
"What do you mean by 'monetary policy?'" Uvaisayev replied when asked how the bank would support the nakhar. "There are special instructional aides in any economic polytechnic institute in Russia -- books called "Money," "Credits," "Money and Credits" -- and the calculations are there."
Staffed not by economists but Kalashnikov-toting guards, the Chechen central bank, wholly independent of the Russian central bank since 1992, is relying mostly on pride.
"Our monetary policy is that the Chechen people are hardworking," Imayev said. "He who does not have his own currency is not an independent state."
But Chechnya's economic tasks are hard-core -- to rebuild roads, factories and housing and revive economic life from the rubble of what Grozny says is $150 billion in material damage, mostly to its oil industry.
"We must first rebuild the economy, get budget resources and sort out international connections before issuing the currency," Uvaisayev said, adding that the nakhar could be put into circulation this year or next.
Moscow has promised to spend an initial $1 billion to rebuild the predominantly Moslem republic, which has yet to realize the late rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev's dream of oil riches. But Chechnya has never had much financial credibility in Moscow's eyes, and the promises have not been kept.
A scheme in the early 1990s, in which Chechens used fake government letters of credit to withdraw billions of rubles from the Central Bank of Russia, angered Moscow so much that it stopped sending cash to Grozny in 1994 and cut off many trade routes, strangling the region.
The Grozny branches of Russian commercial banks were robbed frequently during the war.
Then last year, Moscow accused Chechens of stealing the best part of $25 million in Finance Ministry bonds.
Chechnya intends to rebound.
Uvaisayev said 600 Chechen firms had already opened bank accounts, licenses would be issued to commercial banks and the central bank would create a two-tier banking system.
But Chechnya's economy, in which unemployment is estimated at nearly 90 percent and illicit arms, drug and home-grown oil trades are flourishing, begs the question of what some of those firms are up to.
Uvaisayev said the financial scandals were more fiction that fact and part of Moscow's campaign to discredit Grozny.
But petty traders are wary of the nakhar. "Our businessmen go everywhere and they will have to pay with something. We'll have big problems," said Ibragim, a fruit seller.
Sitting under a green flag with white Arabic letters and the inscription "There is no God but Allah," Uvaisayev leafed through glossy brochures for foreign student exchanges, asking: "What is that, a computer program? Is it like the Internet?"
Uvaisayev, 39, an engineer by training, is completing a finance degree. When asked at which institution, he joked, "Harvard," adding, "The language barrier would have been tough."
He would not discuss how much currency had been printed, but extolled the attributes of the nakhar, which has eight features to foil counterfeiters, including the water mark of a wolf and ultraviolet flecks.
"Look at what a rag this is. They don't respect their currency," he said, pulling a Turkmen ruble from his pocket and comparing it with the green Chechen currency, which was modeled on the U.S. dollar and features ethnic symbols.
The bank printed denominations of the old Soviet era, starting with one-, three- and five-nakhar notes and going all the way up to a 1,000-nakhar bill depicting folk hero Sheikh Mansur galloping on horseback.
"We have 1 million people. We'll figure out how much we need to issue," Uvaisayev said, adding that every 1 million nakhars should be backed by $1.2 million in reserves.
The original nakhars, printed up to 1994, all bore Dudayev's portrait in blazing colors. But an incident involving the murder of a Dudayev relative near the British printing press and cold feet over issuing money portraying Moscow's foe put an end to plans to issue that currency.
"We're optimistic about our currency, and you know why? Because we won the war," Uvaisayev said.
"Nobody in the world believed we could do it. But we did. And you'll use our money the next time you come here," he said.
Other central banks -- powerhouse financial institutions with armies of economists and an array of sophisticated analytical tools -- wage battles against enemies like inflation.
But the National Bank of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, also called Qoman Bank, sees a different kind of opponent as it gears up to fire rebel Chechnya's newest salvo, the nakhar currency, against Moscow.
"A national currency is one of the attributes of an independent state," said the bank's chairman, Nazhmudin Uvaisayev. "I want our nakhar to be a hard currency, respected by all. It will be tied to currencies like the dollar and the German mark and pegged to the dollar at a rate of one to one."
Chechnya was a byword for multimillion-dollar financial irregularities before Moscow sent troops in December 1994 to crush its independence drive.
The bank exhausted its gold and hard currency reserves while fighting Russian forces, who withdrew in humiliation in August 1996 after 21 months of battles that left the region's economy wasted and tens of thousands dead.
Now, with stacks of nakhars printed at a secret press in Britain sitting in its vaults, the bank is preparing to launch the nakhar in a bid to make Chechnya an independent state in which the Russian ruble is a foreign currency.
"We'll issue as much as we need to ensure Chechnya's functioning," said deputy bank chairman Yusup Imayev. "How Moscow reacts is Moscow's problem. It shouldn't interfere in our internal affairs."
In this heavily guarded pale-yellow edifice, the windows of which survey a war zone of bombed-out apartment blocks and ruined government buildings, there are no debates on the issues occupying the developed world's national financial institutions.
"What do you mean by 'monetary policy?'" Uvaisayev replied when asked how the bank would support the nakhar. "There are special instructional aides in any economic polytechnic institute in Russia -- books called "Money," "Credits," "Money and Credits" -- and the calculations are there."
Staffed not by economists but Kalashnikov-toting guards, the Chechen central bank, wholly independent of the Russian central bank since 1992, is relying mostly on pride.
"Our monetary policy is that the Chechen people are hardworking," Imayev said. "He who does not have his own currency is not an independent state."
But Chechnya's economic tasks are hard-core -- to rebuild roads, factories and housing and revive economic life from the rubble of what Grozny says is $150 billion in material damage, mostly to its oil industry.
"We must first rebuild the economy, get budget resources and sort out international connections before issuing the currency," Uvaisayev said, adding that the nakhar could be put into circulation this year or next.
Moscow has promised to spend an initial $1 billion to rebuild the predominantly Moslem republic, which has yet to realize the late rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev's dream of oil riches. But Chechnya has never had much financial credibility in Moscow's eyes, and the promises have not been kept.
A scheme in the early 1990s, in which Chechens used fake government letters of credit to withdraw billions of rubles from the Central Bank of Russia, angered Moscow so much that it stopped sending cash to Grozny in 1994 and cut off many trade routes, strangling the region.
The Grozny branches of Russian commercial banks were robbed frequently during the war.
Then last year, Moscow accused Chechens of stealing the best part of $25 million in Finance Ministry bonds.
Chechnya intends to rebound.
Uvaisayev said 600 Chechen firms had already opened bank accounts, licenses would be issued to commercial banks and the central bank would create a two-tier banking system.
But Chechnya's economy, in which unemployment is estimated at nearly 90 percent and illicit arms, drug and home-grown oil trades are flourishing, begs the question of what some of those firms are up to.
Uvaisayev said the financial scandals were more fiction that fact and part of Moscow's campaign to discredit Grozny.
But petty traders are wary of the nakhar. "Our businessmen go everywhere and they will have to pay with something. We'll have big problems," said Ibragim, a fruit seller.
Sitting under a green flag with white Arabic letters and the inscription "There is no God but Allah," Uvaisayev leafed through glossy brochures for foreign student exchanges, asking: "What is that, a computer program? Is it like the Internet?"
Uvaisayev, 39, an engineer by training, is completing a finance degree. When asked at which institution, he joked, "Harvard," adding, "The language barrier would have been tough."
He would not discuss how much currency had been printed, but extolled the attributes of the nakhar, which has eight features to foil counterfeiters, including the water mark of a wolf and ultraviolet flecks.
"Look at what a rag this is. They don't respect their currency," he said, pulling a Turkmen ruble from his pocket and comparing it with the green Chechen currency, which was modeled on the U.S. dollar and features ethnic symbols.
The bank printed denominations of the old Soviet era, starting with one-, three- and five-nakhar notes and going all the way up to a 1,000-nakhar bill depicting folk hero Sheikh Mansur galloping on horseback.
"We have 1 million people. We'll figure out how much we need to issue," Uvaisayev said, adding that every 1 million nakhars should be backed by $1.2 million in reserves.
The original nakhars, printed up to 1994, all bore Dudayev's portrait in blazing colors. But an incident involving the murder of a Dudayev relative near the British printing press and cold feet over issuing money portraying Moscow's foe put an end to plans to issue that currency.
"We're optimistic about our currency, and you know why? Because we won the war," Uvaisayev said.
"Nobody in the world believed we could do it. But we did. And you'll use our money the next time you come here," he said.
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