Putin Bears Responsibility for Terrorism (Russian Takes Putin to Task)

Putin Bears Responsibility for Terrorism Alexandr Nemets Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004

If you believe the press reports and spin from Russia, that nation is under attack from “terrorists,” who bear full responsibility for a spate of attacks against civilians – including the recent school massacre. But the facts suggest something more.

1) On Aug. 21, around 8 p.m. local time, about 300 Chechen guerrillas entered Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Russian experts say the operation was planned thoroughly and its organizers were certain of its success. That’s why they came into the city long before nightfall. This fact alone smashed the multiple claims of high-ranking Moscow officials – Putin, Defense Minister Ivanov, etc. – that “terrorists in Chechnya are almost beaten and peace is near.”

This operation is comparable to the guerrilla attack on Nazran, the capital of neighboring Ingushetia Republic, on June 21, but the scale of the action in Grozny was probably greater. The guerrillas attacked dozens of objectives in Grozny: police stations, voting polls (prepared for the election of a new president of Chechnya), army and police checkpoints, army barracks and the city market.

Guerrilla groups of five to seven fighters each moved freely all over the city, stopping cars and checking documents for the purpose of “revealing” army and police officers and local officials.

For the entire night the city was in guerrilla hands. Guerrillas left the city at sunrise, and Russian army and police forces made no attempt to pursue them. Guerrilla losses reportedly were no more than 15, while Russian losses amounted to about 100.

2) On Aug. 24, about 11 p.m. local time, two Russian passenger planes exploded almost simultaneously and fell on the ground. Both had departed from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and headed south. One of them, a huge TU-155, fell in the Rostov region; the other, a TU-134, fell in the Tula region. Eighty-eight people, including 16 crewmembers, died in the two catastrophes.

It took KGB/FSB and the Russian Interior Ministry (police department) about four days to recognize that “evidently, the two aircraft were destroyed as a result of a suicide terrorist action. Women with Chechen names were among the passengers of both aircraft.”

3) On Aug. 31, a suicide terrorist action took place near the metro station “Rizhsckaya” in the northern part of Moscow. A young Chechen woman exploded herself – one more “black widow” from the North Caucasus –killing 10 persons and wounding 50. Reportedly, she intended to blow herself up inside the subway itself (i.e., to reproduce that huge terrorist action in a subway train in February 2004), but she got scared of policemen at the entrance.

These actions alone cost Russia, by the estimate of most informed Moscow journalists, more than 200 lives.

4) Finally, on Sept. 1, about 50 “Chechen fighters,” calling themselves the Islambuli Brigade, seized the school in Beslan in the North Ossetia Republic, about 100 kilometers west of Grozny. The terrorists were heavily armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

The action took place on the first day of the new school year. Initially it was supposed that around 300 children and their parents were taken as hostages. Later it appeared that the number of hostages probably approached 1,200. The terrorists immediately concentrated the hostages in the school gymnasium and mined the entire school building.

Seven people were killed during the hostage taking and in skirmishes around the school building on Sept. 1. The terrorists demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and the release of the fighters captured during the attack of Nazran on June 21. A very grim detail: For the first time in the nine-year history of “Chechen terrorist actions,” terrorists “deployed” the children at the school windows as a “live shield”.

Sept. 2 passed comparatively quietly; the terrorists released 26 women and babies under the age of 2.

On the afternoon of Sept. 3, Russian troops “spontaneously and accidentally” (if we are to trust the Russian officials) initiated the school storming, which was accompanied by multiple explosions inside and intensive use of artillery from outside. Hundreds died during the storming of the school.

During the past several days, Russian journalists independent of the Kremlin (the leftist media belonging to the “democratic opposition”) and Russian-language journalists in New York (from RTV TV channel, Forwerts weekly and other newspapers not connected with Moscow) have been asking the same, traditionally Russian question: “Who is guilty?”

Impressively, all these journalists, in both Moscow and New York, of both leftist and moderate democratic orientation – from the chief editor of the Zavtra weekly, Alexandr Prokhanov, up to the former coach of the NTV channel (earlier the twin of RTV and now a Russian-government-controlled TV channel) Viktor Shenderovich – are giving the same answer, with insignificant variations: “Kremlin, Putin, Moscow!”

The recent series of terrorist actions was primarily the result of the presidential election in Chechnya. This position became vacant on the death of the previous president, Akhmad Kadyrov, on May 9, in an explosion in the Grozny stadium. The new election took place on Sunday, Aug. 29. Supported by Moscow, Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov received around 75 percent of the votes, winning the election. Moscow proclaimed this election to be “honest and legitimate,” but the independent Russian media have another point of view.

Recent events prove that the phenomenon of a “normal government fulfilling its duties” has ceased to exist in Russia. Of course there are still several million people clad in the uniforms of the Russian army, police, FSB and other security forces. They are strong in looting, taking bribes, extorting tribute, shooting and arresting innocent people, and they are ruling supreme. They are absolutely helpless, however, in dealing with a real enemy!

These security forces, including Russian army officers deployed in Chechnya and the neighboring North Caucasus republics, are mostly corrupt. They probably wouldn’t arrest even Osama bin Laden entering a Moscow subway with a nuclear device, if he paid them handsomely enough.

And the mighty network of Chechen-controlled businesses in Moscow and other major Russian cities pays handsomely to key figures in the administration and security forces. These same businesses, enjoying a substantial share of the “oil-dollars rain” over Russia, have a lot of money to finance the guerrilla struggle in Chechnya and the most sophisticated terrorist actions in the North Caucasus republics and elsewhere in Russia.

Don’t look for another explanation for what’s happening, and be ready for even more terrible – much more terrible – terrorist strikes. Perhaps even the rumors about “nine nuclear suitcases stolen from former Soviet armories in the beginning of the 1990s, purchased by terrorists and installed in key points in Moscow for X hour” are not groundless.s

The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a blessing for Putin & Co. After 9/11, he formally joined the “world crusade against terror” and enjoys the support of Western politicians. This gives Putin and his associates an excuse to behave in a very cruel manner, to torture and murder tens of thousands of innocent people, to make millions of people – not only Chechens but also other “Kavkazians” (who don’t mix with Caucasians) and even ethnic Russians as well – the objects of intensive state-run terrorism. Correction: police-military terrorism, because the normal state no longer exists in Russia.

What is happening in Chechnya and the bordering republics is actual armed military conflict, having nothing to do with the worldwide war on terrorism, despite some ties of guerrilla leaders with al-Qaida and some presence of Arabs among Chechen guerrillas. But ethnic Russians are here as well. The flame of war now embraces the entire North Caucasus, and its sparks are falling on Moscow and elsewhere.

This conflict was initiated by Boris Yeltsin in December 1994. Putin, his successor, fueled the conflict in August-September 1999 after a series of apartment house explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk. By the way, who was to blame for these actions? Chechen terrorists? In two Chechen wars, the Russian army and police-security forces killed more than 100,000 civilians and deeply harmed millions of them. This created a fertile ground for the emergence of many thousands of ruthless young terrorists of both sexes, who know nothing except hate and death. Their ultimate goal is to bring death from Chechnya to Moscow.

The Kremlin sowed the seeds of hatred, and now Russia deals with the harvest. A multitude of Chechen “black widows,” young women eagerly becoming suicide bombers, has evolved during the last two years into an outstanding component of terrorist-guerrilla activity. Most of them lost close relatives or were deeply insulted by Russian troops.

The North Caucasian war (not the “Chechen war” that is already going on) could continue indefinitely, because this war and related terrorist actions are extremely profitable for the Russian “ruling elite.” This group of people includes (a) corrupt “civilian” officials of all kinds who misuse money for the war itself as well as a huge financial flow for the “postwar reconstruction of Chechnya”; (b) oligarchs of all sizes, sharing the income with these officials; and (c) several thousand generals, the actual rulers of Russia now, who belong to the FSB, police, other security forces and army. The last group uses the war/terror environment for “black business” purposes and for expansion of its power as well. What to Do?

While discussing all these facts and trends, Moscow journalists and their New York colleagues could not miss the problem of “media freedom” in Russia or, more correctly, its absence.

Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist famous for her truthful description of the Chechnyan war, tried to reach Beslan. Her trip ended on Sept. 2 in a hospital in Rostov-on-Don, halfway between Moscow and Beslan. According to reliable data, Anna was poisoned and remains in very grave condition. Other “Putin unfriendly” journalists trying to reach Beslan by air were involved in fighting with the police at an airdrome and had been arrested.

Russian journalists in Moscow and New York, while admitting the unacceptability of the present situation in Chechnya, cannot find a comprehensive answer to one more famous Russian question: “What to do?” However, even if they find the answer, the Kremlin won’t change its policy. That’s because the independent media’s influence on and general public opinion of the present rulers of Russia are negligible.

First of all, to recognize the truth, which no doubt is very close to the conclusions of the Russian independent media presented above. Our administration should make the right choice based on this truth.

Dr. Alexandr V. Nemets is co-author of "Chinese-Russian Military Relations, Fate of Taiwan and New Geopolitics" and "Russian-Chinese Alliance."

pbrown wrote: "We have no alliance with Europe. They, the Europeans valued their pocketbooks more than America. Putin is former KGB. I know--but he is the lesser of two evils when it comes to terrorism. Much the way Stalin was the lesser of two evils when compared to Hitler."

I completely disagree. The Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse during the lead-up to WWII. He was facing massive rebellions by ethnic minorities all over the USSR. Nor was Stalin the lesser of two evils, as the bloody history of the millions he murdered attests. We should have let the Soviets and the Germans bleed each other, and then we should have followed the advice of Gen. Patton and finished-off the Soviets immediately after Germany's defeat. Roosevelts capitulation at Yalta was a national disgrace.

BTW, putting the Beslan massacre aside for the moment, ..." That's not possible. "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

Thanks I needed that. Very,very good.

These people ask us to ignore all these dead and maimed children and these poor misunderstood "freedom fighters" and say, let me tell you who the real bad guys are.

I went through the cold war and I believe I'll take Russia as an enemy any day upside these Islamic butchers who have absolutely no respect for human life in any form even their own children must less ours.

Anything or anyone who stands in the way of their goal of world domination they will destroy.

Putin only has the nuclear weapons to destroy us.

These insane animals will use them, even if it means they have to die to so.

Their is only two choices here. Kill them first or die.

I see Putin and Russia as a crippled bear with occupied with their own problems.

Yes we do need to keep an eye on them, but they have never been crazed to the point that they would destroy themselves to prove a point.

If they had there would be no planet today.

However these crazed Islamics have proved time and time again, all around the world just what they are willing to do to force their religious cult and system of law, {which is one and the same} on the rest of the world.

This is the most dangerous real and immediate threat.

I appreciate your comment. But it can't be denied that Russia arms the countries that arm and provide safe-haven for the terrorists. Look into it for yourself, and you quickly realize what I am talking about. Moreover, they oppose just about everything we do to fight the War on Terror. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution IMHO.

"This conflict was initiated by Boris Yeltsin in December 1994. Putin, his successor, fueled the conflict in August-September 1999 after a series of apartment house explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

Notice the AFTER..

Who are we to dismiss the AFTER?

Unemployed Capitalist, please see the following link re: the apartment bombings. It might alter your perspective a little. Either way, I welcome your comments.

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/question_putin.htm

Just do a simple search, such as "Putin Terror FSB." Sooner or later you are bound to run into articles that expose FSB provocations. In the meantime, I'll dig up some of my links and send them to you when I have a chance. BTW, I'd explore his entire website (I promise, it will be time well spent!). He is the brilliant author of a number of books on intel. and other topics. He is especially adept at catching the errors that the NY Times regularly makes, but never retracts.

BTW, my post was not an endorsement of Putin or his "government". It was in response to our ability to question a man on his response to a terrorist attack. Still, I need to do my research (engage my brain) before I post.

Me too. I sometimes get over-zealous and pull facts out of my head that are almost correct, but just enough to give my opponents the ammo they need to pounce. What can I say, we live and learn. Thanks for keeping an open mind.

Russia is a very very slow steam powered train moving slowly in the right direction. It is interesting see how this has been moving in this one direction for over 300 years with the reforms of Peter the great. Ever time I get depressed about Russia I always remember that they continue to move toward democracy. It is frustrating because we Americans want them to change over night, but this is impossible for Russia, this is a very old society. It is interesting to read the soviet constitution and understand that the Bolshevik revolution really didn't change things very much from the time of the tzars, but the train keeps slowly moving. Sometimes it seems it is going in reverse, but it isn't. It is moving forward.

Hi Manx,

I would also like to suggest that you take a look at the websites I posted above. I would love to hear your thoughts. They'll take a little while to get through, but I think you will find it worthwhile (even if you disagree). Are you in "Freezing my butt off" Russia yet???

Some of these idiots are also blaming the US policies for 9/11. Muslim terror is going to stay with us unless 1) we recognize that Muslims intend to convert the world to Islam, and STOP them, or 2) We recognize that the hate comes directly from Islam and work with the Islamic leaders to reform that religion.

If the Muslims do not reform their religion, and our people don't understand it is the religion ITSELF that is causing all the violence, them we will chase our tails for decades.

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