--- Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers at gmail.com> quoted:
>
> <...>
> Ruslan Nakhushev, a former KGB officer
BTW I find these constant references to people's former membership in the KGB annoying. Saying the someone was in the KGB says nothing more about them than that they are probably pretty smart and can follow orders. My girlfriend's dad is ex-KGB. There's an art gallery by the Kremlin run by an ex-KGB guy.
Anyway Robert Bruce Ware has a good discussion of Kabardino-Balkariya on listmember Peter Lavelle's website:
Q & A: Robert Bruce Ware - North Caucasian precipice By Peter Lavelle Published on September 20, 2004 This article was written for UPI - United Press International
MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- UPI's Moscow-based analyst Peter Lavelle spoke with Robert Bruce Ware, an associate professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, specializing in the North Caucasus, concerning the state of democracy and its future in this very volatile Russian region.
UPI: On Sept. 13, Vladimir Putin responded to the recent spate terrorist attacks in Russia with sweeping electoral changes in all of Russia's 89 regions. Yet the changes were intended to reduce terrorism in the North Caucasus. Will the changes help?
RBW: No. President Putin's proposed electoral changes will not help to reduce terrorism in the North Caucasus. They will almost certainly make things worse, and they are potentially catastrophic for the North Caucasus, for Russia, and for global security.
UPI: What is the current situation in the region?
A. The people of this region desperately need more democracy, not less. Particularly in the last two years, elite circles have been contracting and consolidating, while access, whether economic or political, has been shrinking for most local people. Growing alienation and frustration yield new recruits for Islamists and radicals.
There is no longer a nationalist militant cause to speak of in the North Caucasus, but there are increasing numbers of young nihilists, who see no prospects other than those afforded by radicalism and senseless violence. If Putin hopes to diminish terrorism in the North Caucasus, then he has done precisely the wrong thing.
http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?art=933
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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