Posted on 08/19/2008 5:43:16 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used mur derous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April, Chechnya's Russian-installed "president" demanded it be disbanded.
War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots reveal far more to the West than Babchenko realized.
Amid photos of the horrors of war, grateful South Ossetians and triumphant Russian troops, one series leapt out at me as a former intel officer: Bearded irregulars riding atop Russian-built armored vehicles (old BMPs, for the military-hardware buffs). The vehicles had been splashed with white lettering.
What did the scrawls announce to the world? These thugs proudly proclaimed that they're Chechens serving in the Vostok ("East") Battalion commanded by Badrudin Yamadaev - who shares a reputation for gangland violence with his brother, Ruslan.
Last spring, mercenaries from the Vostok Battalion indulged in a bloody gangland shoot-'em-up in the city of Gudermes, near their home turf. The mafia-on-steroids brutality was too much even for the Chechens (which is quite a standard). The province's puppet president publicly begged the Kremlin and its generals to disband the unit.
The generals refused. At the time, their stubborn support for the outlaw Yamadaev Brothers seemed baffling - a quiet Chechnya was a longstanding Russian goal. But last week, it all made sense: Putin's military, which had been planning the invasion of Georgia for many months, intended to unleash the worst criminals in uniform it had on the Georgian people.
Why?
Two reasons: First, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants the Georgians to suffer - to really suffer. And Chechens are the world's subject-matter experts in atrocities.
Second, this gives the Russian army itself a veil of deniability....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And the world felt sorry for Putin after the school attack?
I wonder what our brave Serbian warriors will think now?
I felt for the actual victims of the school attack,but Putin can go drop dead.
No nobody felt sorry for Putin. Everyone felt sorry for the children and their families, as well they should have. I made a contribution at the time and do not regret it now. Please lets try to keep things in perspective.
And NATO and the EU turn away. Russia will now be further emboldened. Does Europe intend to replay the years leading up to WWII? Are their memories so short that they would invite further aggression?
canteens - still issued
boots - still issued
helmets still issued
and what “antique” anti armor weapon? the LAW? Still in use by the Army and talks of bringing it back to the Marine Corps.
“Our military was only allowed to train the Georgians for peacekeeping, anti-terrorism and small-unit tactics.”
#1 - the Chechnyans are terrorists (as indicated by the author’s pointing out the Russian officials wanting a “quiet Chechnya,” and well look at their track record.
#2 - Preventing a hostile force from occupying an area and causing disruption sounds like keeping the peace to me.
#3 - If the small units don’t have tactics, how can the larger organization as a whole have tactics?
sounds like BDS.... can’t make the atrocities entirely the fault of Ruskies or muslim terrorists.
By the way, we’re at war on two fronts! Our own damn military is needing all the help it can get as far as funding for gear and equipment goes (thanks to the DEMOCRATS in our DO NOTHING Kongress). Furthermore, American tax payers footed the bill for the gear that went to Georgia.... the Georgians should be thankful it wasn’t Warsaw pact surplus junk.
Hey, Ralph Peters, take some shots of yourself, only replace your camera with a .45
Well, maybe so. I felt sorry for Putin, and the children and their families of course. But I felt for him what I felt for our President after 09/11. Yes, I freely admit I was a fool.
Only in the eyes of the willfully blind. Russia has been the primary source of all the world's suffering for at least sixty years and must be utterly destroyed if we're ever to see peace again in this old world.
“And the world felt sorry for Putin after the school attack?”
I believe most felt sorry for the children, and other innocents.
Russia thinks it can use the Muslims because they are totally amoral and violent. It’s true that they can use the Muzzies at the moment, because Russia is more powerful and that’s one thing Islam respects. But as soon as aging Russia can’t keep on top of things, can’t pay for the best weapons, can’t give perks to the Chechens, etc., it’s all over. The Muslims will turn on their masters.
Laura Ingraham was saying on her show yesterday that a Georgian 80is-year old man was shot twice in front of his wife.
Now why would they want to shoot an 80ish-year old man unless they are just plain evil.
.
You were talking just the other day about the horrors the Russians willingly inflict upon their own countrymen.
Agreed. Russia and America have represented two possible futures for humanity for centuries. Despotism and obedience versus freedom and initiative. Russia has no chance of winning that battle. But with the help of useful idiots, they might still destroy us.
And to those waving the bloody Beslan flag, that atrocity not only confirmed the evil of Islamic jihadis, it also confirmed the more subtle evil of Putin. His first response was too bungle the situation with the same incompetent drunken thugs Russia calls soldiers and his second response was to replace democratically elected provincial governors with appointed toadies.
Imagine if Bush’s only response to 9/11 was to remove all fifty state governors and replace them with appointees. It only confirms that Putin is a thug with the skills of a street gang leader.
Were the Soviets delivering a message? To whom?
The Russians seem to have a new weapon in their arsenal I haven't seen before. Can anyone identify the weapon this Russian is holding on Georgian prisoners?
I have never been comfortable with the Russin’s not now — not in the 1980’s. Then when I was taking a National Security course in the late 90’s in stumbled across this little gem;
Although the Soviets profess to be a peace-loving people interested only in protecting their borders, they bear watching at all times.
World domination is a very tenant of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine.
A statement made by Dimitri Z. Manuilsky, Deputy to the Comintern at the Lenin School of Political Warfare in Moscow, in 1930 is just as valid today:
War to the hilt, between communism and capitalism, is
inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong
enough to attack. Our time will come in twenty or
thirty years. To win, we shall need the element of
surprise. The bourgeois will have to be put to sleep.
So, we begin by launching the most spectacular peace
movement on record. There will be electrifying
overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist
countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to
cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at
another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is
down, we shall smash them with our clenched fists!
Related to this Soviet strategy, the United States should have three strategic goals. First, it should maintain and update its strategic nuclear capabilities. This nuclear deterrent would not only deter Soviet invasion of the United States, but also support NATO in the defense of Western Europe. General John R. Galvin, Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe in the late 80’s, stated: General nuclear response remains the ultimate deterrent.
Anyone who doesn’t believe this election is important had probably re-read this and then study up on just how much Russian hardware in arriving daily in Central and South America — NATO can handle Russian aggression with our help...IMHO...
The Mastermind of Beslan, Shamil Basayev was trained by the “FSB” (KGB). Basayev led an “Abkhaz Battalion” in Georgia in the early nineties and with the Russians exterminated and ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Georgians from Abkhazia. Remember Litvinenko, the former KGB agent Putin assassinated with radioactive Polonium? Why did the Chekists in the Kremlin silence him? Litvinenko said that the KGB carried out the 1999 apartment complex bombings which were used the pretext for the Second Chechen war.
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