The four bearded men checking drivers' documents in central Grozny, the ruined Chechen capital, held their Kalashnikov rifles with one hand, down by their waists or resting on a shoulder. Their uniforms military boots, combat trousers, T-shirts and baseball caps were all black.
"Pull over there," they barked with the swagger and confidence of the victor at the approaching Russian military convoy. These are members of the Kadyrovtsy, a security force controlled by Chechnya's Moscow-backed prime minister and mainly composed of former separatists who fought Russia's military during the southern Russian republic's wars of independence.
The first war between 1994 and 1996 ended when Russia signed a peace treaty handing de facto independence to Chechnya, but Russian President Vladimir Putin as prime minister in 1999 sent the army back to the province. Now, seven years later, Moscow is keen to show how order has been restored to the troubled republic.
Russian officials say Putin has pursued a policy of outsourcing the fight against separatists to local strongmen and that he wants to reduce Russia's 40,000 soldiers in Chechnya. And the Kadyrov clan has become his favourite. But the Kadyrovtsy directing traffic swear allegiance to one man only - Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov, 30, became the dominant force after his father President Akhmad Kadyrov, chief Muslim cleric in the separatist leadership who sided with Russia during the second Chechnya war, was killed in a bomb blast in May 2004.
He controls hundreds of personal fighters who, with the Kremlin's blessing, impose order on Chechnya's streets alongside a police force that he, as prime minister, also runs.
"Bandits. Dangerous, uneducated bandits," one of the Russian special forces soldiers in the van muttered through his gold front teeth. But the Russians pulled over - they were the only people they had stopped for all day.
Kadyrovtsy, often young and enthusiastic Muslims, fight the rebels and are credited by Chechens for providing street security beyond the police force. But human rights groups say they are involved in abduction, extortion and murder.
"We are very concerned about the continued allegations of human rights abuses, of arbitrary detentions, torture and disappearances," said Amnesty International spokeswoman Victoria Webb. Kadyrov denies the charges.
Earlier this month, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said the murder of one of its journalists, Anna Politkovskaya, in central Moscow, was linked to Kadyrov: either to silence his critic or a ploy by rivals to discredit him. He denied any involvement. A tense calm has descended on Grozny. People amble along the newly reconstructed main street, mobile phone advertisements line the road, shops stay open after dark and work on the city's civilian airport is progressing.
"Things are much better now, we can sit and relax on park benches," said Taisa Rsigiraeva, 16, a dancer, as she loitered with a friend in the newly built - and newly named - Kadyrov Square, underneath a statue of Akhmad Kadyrov.
Down a leafy sidestreet in the refurbished Technical College No 6 around 30 students in white jackets and hats have started the first few weeks of the new school year learning the basics of medicine.
"We want to help our people, we want to do these jobs," 17-year-old Dinara Susonfukova, said. "We will all have jobs to go to." In another classroom further down the corridor, teenage girls in a hairdressing lesson brush, blow-dry and curl each others hair.
Grozny, they explained, needs and demands more beauticians and stylists. But despite the improvements, an estimated 80 percent of people are unemployed and the scars of a brutal war just ending are not far away.
Tattered buildings pocked with bullet marks and gaping bomb holes overshadow freshly built apartments with ornamental balconies. Streets of dirt and rubble lead off the clean main boulevard. "There has been a real face-lift in the centre of town where water flows from fountains," said Amnesty's Webb. "But our information says there is not enough running water."
Russian soldiers in body armour guard the main road into Grozny and arable fields lie empty and neglected. Rebel attacks continue - on one September afternoon separatists shot dead five policemen in Grozny.
Although Russia is pouring money into the region, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov told reporters that more aid was needed to repair damage from the wars in which thousands - including many civilians - were killed.
"During the tough times 100 percent of our industry and 80 percent of our social structures were destroyed," he said, sitting underneath portraits of Putin and Akhmad Kadyrov in his office in central Grozny.
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