A Rare Visit to Chechnya Shows the Cruel Aftermath

usnews.com ^ | 3/4/07

[Tailgunner Joe]

Day-to-day security in swaths of Chechnya is left to locally recruited Kremlin-loyalist forces, who run things much as they please. This makes their de facto chief, Putin-appointed President Ramzan Kadyrov, perhaps the most important man in Chechnya. ...the young Kadyrov's power seems unlimited. His portraits are peppered across the ruins of Grozny, at the entrance of many villages, and on the windshields of his supporters' cars. Local television is filled with his pronouncements. Mysteriously wealthy, the burly, bearded Kadyrov boasts about his private zoo, which includes a lion and a wolf, in his home village of Tsenteroi. When he turned 30 in October, guests danced on a floor littered with money. Like some medieval potentate, he accepted a flood of gifts, reportedly including a Ferrari sports car, that would raise eyebrows anywhere, not only in poverty-stricken Chechnya. ...

What does cause jitters in Moscow is that the bulk of the estimated 7,000 armed men associated with Kadyrov are themselves former rebel fighters enticed or coerced into switching sides. "Everyone knows the so-called pro-Moscow militias in Chechnya are in fact tribal military formations loyal only to their chiefs," said Moscow-based military affairs specialist Pavel Felgenhauer. "Basically, the rebels in Chechnya have entered a rest period and are getting training under the Russian flag."

The ambitious Kadyrov, meanwhile, is using that unquestioned power to shed his image as a Kremlin puppet and become something of a national leader. His growing number of admirers, especially youths who grew up with little but war, point to his typically Chechen panache and his ability to say what ordinary people are thinking. He has appealed to the many devoutly Muslim Chechens by calling for women to wear head scarves, for permitting polygamy, and for banning gambling.

[Tailgunner Joe]

While Russian President Putin slanders the USA with charges of "unilateral" and "illegitimate," he sent Russian platoons made up of "former" jihadist Chechen rebels to Lebanon as "peacekeepers" to protect Hizb-allah terrorists from Israel, but he didn't send them as part of the UN peacekeeping force, he just deployed them unilaterally. If he sends Russian "peacekeepers" to Sudan, they probably won't be part of any multilateral UN mission to save Darfur either. They'll be there to act human shields for the janjaweed militia.

[Timedrifter]

While Russian President Putin slanders the USA with charges of "unilateral" and "illegitimate," he sent Russian platoons made up of "former" jihadist Chechen rebels to Lebanon as "peacekeepers" to protect Hizb-allah terrorists from Israel, but he didn't send them as part of the UN peacekeeping force,

Another distortion of the truth. They were sent there at the invitation of the government of Lebanon to provide security for engineering forces repairing bridges. You don't need a UN resolution to be invited in by the legitimate authorities of a nation. Plain silly argument.

[Tailgunner Joe]

I am not the one who says that acting without the UN's permission is "illegitimate," PUTIN IS! He should remove the log from his own eye before he deems himself fit to judge his brother! Lead by example Putin! Practice what you preach!

[ExtremeUnction]

The ambitious Kadyrov, meanwhile, is using that unquestioned power to shed his image as a Kremlin puppet and become something of a national leader.

He serves at the pleasure of Putin. One false move and he's toast.

[Timedrifter]

I am not the one who says that acting without the UN's permission is "illegitimate," PUTIN IS!

You are mixing apples and oranges here. Being invited in by a legitimate government for humanitarian purposes and taking military action against another nation have nothing to do with each other.

[Tailgunner Joe]

What legitimate government invited Putin's criminal occupation forces into the independent nation of Georgia then? Russian forces helped Shamil Basayev and his jihadist "Abkhaz battalion" massacre thousands of Christian Georgians and ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Georgians in their own country. This is why Putin invokes the "Kosovo precedent" to justify his support of jihad against his fellow Orthodox Christians. The comparison of the two conflicts is quite apt! Kadyrov is eager to repeat this crime and lead his mohammedan gang back into Georgia to behead more Christians.

[Timedrifter]

Russian forces are in Georgia under a UN mandate. They originally went in under a CIS mandate with the approval of Georgia after Georgian forces were routed by the separatists and Abkhazia won its freedom. You can look up the history of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in many places.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Sure, and US action in Iraq was mandated by UN resolution 1441. We're not acting in concert with the UN in Iraq for the same reasons that Russian invaders of Georgia aren't part of the UN peacekeeping contingent there.

[M. Espinola]

Putin's Chechen legacy of death.

Ramzan Kadyrov recently named as acting president of the war-battered republic of Chechnya by President Vladimir Putin speaks in Grozny, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007. In the background is a portrait of Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

Russian troops in Grozny.

Women hold up photographs of missing relatives during a protest outside the building where a Moscow-sponsored human rights forum is held, in Grozny March 1st, 2007. Major human rights groups snubbed a Moscow-sponsored rights forum in Chechnya as a sham designed to conceal abuses in the troubled Caucasus republic. The placard in the background reads: 'Return our sons!' REUTERS/Said Tsarnayev