“Indeed. It’s like holding the Olympics in Austin and Grozny is Amarillo.”
>>>Yes. And history is full of should haves, but Russia should have cut Chechnya loose when the USSR collapsed, instead of beating it into submission, losing 30,000 troops in the process and killing God knows how many Chechen civilians. Had that happened (and this was Yeltsin’s fault, not Putin’s), Chechnya would have been just another Central Asian republic, instead of a terrorist hotbed. And all of Putin’s he-man poses and the unfortunate conservative bromance with a former KGB staff officer won’t change this fact.<<<
LOL. Do you have any idea what has really happened there? By 1993 Chechnya was a kind of pagan kingdom, run by a former Soviet Strategic Air Command General, who turned to be a Chechen muslim maniac. it had a 300 jet airforce and a number of nukes available. Hurdreds of tanks and IFVs, thousands of jihadis crowded from around the world. And there were no law and order at all. Infidels were robbed, raped and murdered on a daily basis. In a city of Grozny alone, some 20,000 non-muslims were killed between 1989 and 1993.
It was a mix of Doctor Strangelove and Apocalipse Now in one box.
Russian fedgov had to respond for sure.
Yeah, except for the fact I doubt Russia wanted to be held hostage by a bunch of radical Islamic nutcases for the oil and gas they send Europe...via a pipeline