>
>What do you think of the Chechen situation?
>
>- -- Luke
>-------------
>It's complicated. Chechnya's a nightmare, maybe hopeless. I think that
>conflict will go on for decades.
>
>What you have is Russia responding to 1) frequent bandit raids into areas
>of
>Russia that border Chechnya, plus the massive kidnappings and the slave
>trade in Chechnya, 2) expansionist militancy on the part of the jihadists,
>who want to see their version of an Islamic state spread across the
>Caucasus, and 3) the wave of bombings that swept Russia in the late 90s
>(which may have been in part instigated by the security forces to get Putin
>elected) and still do happen from time to time. Of course, the response has
>been to use military forces with extremely poor morale and next to no
>training, who earn practically nothing and are fighting in a guerilla war
>setting, which themselves have turned to looting and kidnapping and
>widespread abuse of civilians, of course increasing anti-Russian feeling
>and
>general misery even among people who are not bandits/jihadists/involved in
>the slave trade, etc.
>
>I don't see what options Russia has. The whole thing is horrible. Sometimes
>I think Russia just should just build a giant wall around the place. The
>instant the troops leave, the place will degenerate back into the complete
>anarchy of 96-99, as opposed to the relative anarchy of today. maybe back
>in
>99 or 2000 the Russians could have worked something out with the
>pro-Russian
>secularist Chechens in the north of the republic, but that's not a
>possibility any longer, I don't think.
>
>People in the West I've noted, especially lefties, like to equate Chechnya
>with Palestine. Chechnya is not like Palestine. Chechnya is like Somalia.
>Chechnya has historically been ruled by feuding bandit clans. (Ever read
>Lermontov?) The slave trade persisted in Chechnya even in the Soviet Union.
>You would feel safe taking a train through Chechnya, but you would never
>drive through it.
>
>Chris Doss
>The Russia Journal
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