LEWISTON — A delegation from the Parliament of Chechnya, a republic of the Russian Federation, toured Lewiston-Auburn on Wednesday as part of their visit to learn about American-style local government.

During a reception at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, the Chechens stood in front of the room introducing themselves through an interpreter.

One is a newspaper writer and editor. Another was a police officer before being elected to Parliament. Another worked as a detective and a college professor.

Barry Rodrigue, an associate professor at LAC who has established relations with Chechen academics, said he received a call from the State Department last year. As far as they were aware, he was the only professor working in Chechnya, Rodrigue said, and was asked if he would host a visit from members of the Chechen Parliament.

“We are greatly honored to be selected for them to come,” Rodrigue said. He hopes the visit brings more ties between Maine and Chechnya, including a new partnership in which students in both regions work together on environmental and economic issues.

Rodrigue said he hoped the visit would highlight peaceful initiatives happening in Chechnya.

For years Chechnya was war-torn, with local rebels fighting government troops over Russian control, leaving the region in ruins. Eventually, a peace accord with Moscow was reached. In 2005 Chechnya held elections for its Parliament. Since then, there has been sporadic violence, but reconstruction is happening.

Several members of the delegation said the war is over, Chechnya is now safe.

“Chechnya is one of the best subjects of the Russian Federation now,” said Khusayn Yakhikhanov, a former police officer who is a member of Parliament in the United Russian political party. Cities destroyed by fighting are being restored. “You can tell life has normalized.”

Yakhikhanov said he liked Maine culture. People seemed relaxed, not too serious.

Khamzat Dadayev, who has worked as a detective, a researcher and a professor, said he wanted to learn about the United States’ education system. He was impressed to learn about financial help available to college students, and was surprised to discover young students could be home-schooled with tests that show good results.

Adlan Sagaipov, an editor and senior writer at a government-run newspaper, said some of his stereotypes of Americans had disappeared since arriving in Maine on Friday.

One was that the average American lives in a big city. He’s been touring Maine since Friday, visiting Portland and Brunswick and small towns. In Maine communities, people are interested in learning more about different cultures, he said.

Reflecting on Chechnya, it can be difficult to co-exist with neighboring states, he said. But “we have no choice. We have to deal with other cultures. From this point of view, I like the tolerance of people here in this multiculture.”

Reza Jalai, coordinator of Multicultural Student Affairs for USM, said most Chechens are Muslims and were sometimes persecuted in the former Soviet Union. He told them that as Muslims, they’re safe here, that the religion “is not only tolerated but respected. To some of them it was news that Maine has seven mosques” — two in Lewiston, three in Portland, and one each in Orono and Augusta, he said.

They were impressed, he said, with how many Muslims live in Maine. “We think there are 8,000 to 10,000, which is amazing for the whitest state in the country.”

The exchange between Chechnya and Maine is important, Jalai said. Often Americans are defined abroad “by governments or groups that don’t like us. The whole story is not being told. Anything we can do to bring people together is really important. It’s citizen diplomacy. We need this.”

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