Chechnya - Down a dead-end road

[Andoreion]

Friday's bloody end to the hostage crisis at a school in the southern Russian town in Beslan came on the heels of a suicide bomb attack in central Moscow and the blowing up, in mid-air, of two Russian passenger planes. All these attacks have been linked to the ongoing rebellion in Chechnya. If anything, the string of terrorist attacks in Russia this past week have given the lie to President Putin's proclamation that the breakaway republic has been "pacified".

The taking of civilian hostages has been part and parcel of the Chechen rebels' combat strategy ever since the first Chechen War started in 1994. Both in 1995 and 1996, Chechen militants held hundreds of civilians hostage in high-profile actions in southern Russia. In return for the release of the hostages, then President Boris Yeltsin chose to grant free passage to the hostage-takers. His successor, Vladimir Putin, has opted for a different approach.

After rebel leader Shamil Basayev and his men invaded Dagestan in 1999, Vladimir Putin

[Dude_Doc]

No one has the right to take kids hostage, that is as much a coward anyone can be. If the people who did this indeed was Chechens, then they have just put up a sign reading "drop nuke here" in their capital.

I would, on the other hand, "accept" if they were fighting the armed forces of Russia, because it is they who have the weapons and power to dictate their actions. You don't kill the children of your enemy, you disable him, you defend yourself against him, how hard it may be.

The situation in Chechnya are indeed a paradox. Russia can't loose Chechnya because if it does, other states will probably think as they do too. What if every minority wanted to create their own state?

[ordos45]

Taking kids hostage proves our terrorists in this incident were desperate, or utterly foolish idiots.  I'm going for the latter because even the most stupid terrorist should know children are the key to the world's righteous indignation.  You kill kids, your hurt your cause...you kill kids, you ask for your own painful death.

[VigilVirus]

If it was up to me, I would crucify every last Chechen that had anything to do with terrorism against Russia. Stupid fucks.

But whom I really hate are the idiot Europeans and americans (like the Washington newspaper I believe) that criticized Russia's actions and practically glorified the Chechen terrorists. Damn hypocrites, they should look at the shit many of them did in Iraq.

[leo]

Yet Israel has done much less than Russia and suffered much more, but still you seem to critisize it much more, or should I say hate?

[Caid Ivik]

Maybe I'm little off, but in this problem we have done nothing, suffered also nothing and leave other nations to criticize...and Arabs still go to baths in Piestany for reconvalescence.

[nemafakei]

The most recent catastrophe seems to have been made so by sheer incompetence.

As I've said before, Leo, we don't bother to debate whether those who are obviously in the wrong should be condemned, because it's generally agreed that they are. It's only when there is disagreement that there is debate.

Although you must be careful when you refer to Russia. Russia as it is has only been around for, what, a dozen years. The leaders have, on the whole, emerged more than been the result of transparent free elections, so any charge levelled against Russia relates most specifically towards the Kremlin and the individuals ruling Russia  not to the Russian people. The French, for example, have democratic elections, and their government is one of the most accountable to the people on the planet - and so the policies of the French government can be said to be responsibility of the people.

[Digital Guerrilla]

Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord claimed responsibility for the Beslan hostage-taking and four other recent attacks. He has also said Putin should resign and remove federal troops from Chechnya if Putin wants peace.

[Caid Ivik]

Such strict demand is practically declaration of a new war.

[ordos45]

Such strict demand is practically declaration of a new war.

The old one ended?

[Dude_Doc]

Well, if Putin wanted he could crush Chechnya within a day, and nobody would really care...

[Barbarossa]

Well, if Putin wanted he could crush Chechnya within a day, and nobody would really care...

Werent the russians handed defeat after defeat by those chechnen rebels in the last war? Or were those the rebels in the causcus.... Well Russia has alot of rebels doesnt it?

But I do agree that in ANY situation killing innocent children is disgusting and unneccisary and should be punished by EXTREAMLY painful torture and execution.

[VigilVirus]

It's not that the russians were losing, it was the same as with US and Vietnam, the casualties were high and it was fairly impossible to drive out the chechen highlanders out of the mountains. So, eventually Yeltsin ended it because of the casualties and public hatred of the war. Plus if you remember Chechens began blowing up apartment buildings in Moscow. Hah, I remember it so vividly, always woke up in the morning turned on the TV to see what new building was blown up that day. Fun times. Glad that's over.

Obviously Russia has a lot of rebels since a lot of the territory was captured either under Stalin or under the tsars. The country of Russia is composed of many mixed groups, but obviously "russians", the slavic descendants are usually the ones who have any voice in the government.

Russia did give Chechnya their independant government, but the Chechens then began attacking Dagistan, fighting for their "independance". It would have been a chain reaction that unstopped would threaten a large portion of Russia's territory. And personally, I think we already have enough shitty little countries that branched off after the Soviet Union fell. These countries are extremely poor and would have generally been better off if they never split off. It's something those people didn't think about - if you're going to make your own country, the first question is, do you have sufficient resources and the means to get them and sustain yourself? If the answer is no, you should hold off on the glorious plans. For those who don't know which countries I'm talking about, I mean the former Soviet Union CCPs like Moldova, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. Some of the countries that broke off actually succeeded in making a fairly efficient government, but it's really because those countries have been independant longer - Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the three Baltic states.