--- Michael Pugliese <michael098762001 at earthlink.net> wrote:
On Chechnya, comments, Chris, Peter Lavelle or anyone else, on this
from the latest New Left Review? The footnotes alone should get Chrisnik going ;-)
---
Well, it's better than the usual gangster apologetics. It's got Lieven in the footnotes! :) It also manages to mention the invasion of Dagestan, though it triesd to blow that off as some small matter (what would be the reaction if that happened in Texas, I wonder)? It also manages to hint at the fact, but doesn't come out and state it, that the supporters of the extermists are not the Chechen intelligentsia, who all live in Moscow and Piter anyway, but the ignorant hill tribesmen.
I thought the "economic apartheid" comment was a screamer. As if lots of Chechens, a people who didn't have a written language until the 1930s, would be leaping at the chance to work in high-tech.
Moreover, the obvious point such pieces miss is that the only force in any position to hold government in an independent Chechnya are exactly the same people who held power before, who were the most disastrous bunch of any "country" in modern times. The writer tries to get around this with the lame "sure it was a gangster state, but lots of other places are too, and it's all Russia's fault anyway" argument, as if the little matter of the Chechen government having been composed of slave-traders and mobsters (I mean that literally) had nothing to do with it.
Do we really want these people back in power?
>From Peter's site. Doesn't quite fit in with the party
line, does it?:
More from Dina: Chechnya then, remembered now By Dina of Chechnya Published on May 10, 2004
Dina, a UT friend and from Chechnya, sent me another short missive. In light of what has happened in Chechnya in recent days, Dina reminds us how all of this started. In a private message, she is overly apologetic about her writing skills. This is good prose, fresh and very personal. She embarrasses me a bit in her text, nevertheless I thank her.
Surviving old Chechen people remember the prediction made in 1940s by the Chechen authoritative religious leader Bagaudin Arsanov who inherited his gift of foretelling from his grandfather, a prominent imam of the 19th century. When I heard about that prediction in 1980s, first from the older people and then from my colleague Fatima Arsanova who turned out to be the granddaughter of Bagaudin Arsanov, I was rather skeptical due to my natural inclination to doubt such things. Then I forgot about it, until the terrible time came which made me remember it...
This was what the prediction of the 1940s said: "In about 50 years from now, black people will descend the Chechen mountains bringing destruction, blood and suffering to their people. The city of Grozny will turn into a deserted ruined place. The hell will last a few decades, and then the remnants of those evil people will crawl away screaming, with blood on their backs, being damned by the Chechen people..."
Now when we think about that prediction and what has been happening in Chechnya, it comes as a shocking thing.
>From 1991, the "black people" did start to descend the
mountains and in flood the capital of Chechnya where I
lived. They came to join Dudaev's group which was very
small first. Most of the 'rebels' were the social or
criminal outcasts. The inmates of the two jails of
Grozny were also released. So the city was swarming
with armed and bearded men with the most disgusting
and evil-looking mugs. Fear and despair settled in our
souls. We couldn’t believe it was really happening,
and had a feeling that it had to be a horrible dream
and something would awake us soon and we would sign
with relief... The situation was developing and
worsening. However, nobody and nothing woke us up. The
ruling gangs did what they wanted: kidnapped people,
including kids, for ransoms, abducted women, spread
narcotics, tortured and killed whomever they chose.
Women were afraid to walk in the streets. Female students on their way to school or college often were abducted, raped and killed. There were cases when the so called separatists driving in their Nissan Patrols [mostly they used to drive this brand of car] saw a girl walking along the street, they would suddenly stop and demand that the girl approach them. If the girl refused, they shot her as a rule. They could appear with guns any time in the classrooms of the Grozny higher educational schools and start to provoke or humiliate the students and instructors, and if there was anyone who objected to their behavior, they used to threaten or even worse. I think they experienced some psychological complex out of being ignorant and uncultured, so they wanted to rule us and belittle us.
After the failure of the opposing intelligentsia to overcome them, it became clear that decent and negotiating policy would not work with the junta at all. I just had to save my children from that hell. Understanding that it was coming to war, just 3 months before it started, I made up my mind to flee the country. I sold my flat and furniture for a ridiculously small amount of money. We left with a tourist company for Baku, Azerbaijan, and then abroad, to a randomly chosen country for which tourist visas were easy to get. I was sure that I would get a decent job in any country knowing three foreign languages and computers. I had a rather prestigious education, degree and job at home. So everything happened as I thought.
>From September 1994 up to date, we have been living in
a beautiful, peaceful and friendly country. My
children got easily accustomed to the new place which
hospitably embraced us. It was easy for them to find
friends, too. Now after almost ten years of living
abroad, they can’t imagine living in Russia or
Chechnya. This country has become their second
homeland.
With me it is different. All my thoughts are with my homeland, with my people who had to go through the hell of the insane and senseless war which killed tens of thousands people. I feel so homesick that every day I spend a couple of hours looking for any news concerning Russia and Chechnya. Every small success both of Chechnya and Russia bring great joy to my heart. And on the contrary, every tragedy or mishappening fills me with grief...
I am a supporter of President Putin and feel sorry for the horrible legacy left to him by incapable Yeltsin. I disagree with the criticism of the Western press directed against Putin and Russia. Besides, in the Western press, there is an over and over repeating pattern of the labels which they try to hang on Russia and Putin. I regularly read foreign newspapers and so far haven’t found any honest and fair Western journalist who didn’t try to belittle or painfully sting Russia and Putin. The only exception is to my mind is Peter Lavelle. He honestly and justly writes about what he sees, thinks and feels.
My country is like a child now, growing and learning. It is still vulnerable and weak after the last years of all possible blows...First Russia has to become economically sound, and after that only it can take care of other necessary things. Instead of positive attitude and fair criticism, we witness hurting and humiliating attacks from Western press...
http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?cat=May%2010,%202004&type=3&art=555
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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