[lbo-talk] What I just wrote about Chechnya...

[" Chris Doss "]

The intro par is kind of silly, since Moscow has always distinguished between jihadis and run-of-the-mill gunmen, even leaders like the one who recently defected. A large part of Kadyrov's guards are ex-rebels. But anyway...

Chechens' Shifting Allegiances Blur Lines of Battle

By Oliver Bullough 
Reuters   

GROZNY -- For Moscow, it is simple: Chechen rebels are terrorists and must be destroyed. 

But on the ground in Chechnya, government supporters and rebels are sometimes hard to tell apart. 

Rebels who change sides are absorbed into the pro-Russian government's ranks without question. Many do not demand independence, while the government is increasingly assertive toward Moscow. 

(snip)

Hard-line rebels, who have staged a string of suicide bombings in the Caucasus and Moscow, refuse to consider any compromise with Russia. But moderates take a line more conciliatory than Kadyrov's. 

"No one is talking about independence any more," rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev said in a recent interview in London, where he is in exile. 

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/03/24/016.html