Posted on 09/04/2004 8:16:02 AM PDT by rang1995
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Saturday, September 4, 2004 · Last updated 7:51 a.m. PT
Putin promises tougher response to terror
By JUDITH INGRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin promised a tougher response to terrorism Saturday, saying in a surprising admission of weakness that the Soviet Union's collapse had left the country unable to react to attacks. "Weak people are beaten," he warned.
The former KGB spy said in a televised address to the nation that terrorists are waging an "all-out war" against Russia. He said he would enact reforms to make security services more effective, tighten border controls and establish a new system to control the situation in the war-torn Caucasus.
Earlier, Putin sealed the borders of North Ossetia, the republic where more than 340 people were killed in a hostage-taking at a school that turned violent Friday. The hostage-taking was carried out by militants seeking independence for Chechnya, where Russian troops have been battling separatists on and off for more than a decade.
Putin vowed never to give in to international terrorists, and that in order to fight them, Russians could not continue living in a "carefree" way.
He blamed police corruption and porous borders for the failure to stop attacks and called for mobilizing the nation before what he called the "common danger" of terrorism.
"In general, we need to admit that we did not show an understanding of the complexities and dangers of the processes occurring in our own country and in the world," he said.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nation was weakened and unable to respond effectively to terrorism, Putin said.
"We stopped giving enough attention to questions of defense and security, and allowed corruption to infect our judicial and law enforcement sphere," he said.
"Moreover, our country - which used to have the strongest defense system of its external borders - instantly became unprotected from either the West or the East."
"In any case, we couldn't adequately react ... We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said.
Putin made a lightning pre-dawn visit to Beslan, the town where the school is located and announced the closing of the region's borders while authorities search for the attackers' accomplices. Later Saturday, he decreed two days of mourning on Monday and Tuesday.
"I ask you to remember those who died at the hands of terrorists in recent days," he said in his address.
He said measures would be taken to strengthen Russia's unity, create a more effective crisis management system, establish a new system to control the situation in the Caucasus, and overhaul the law enforcement organs.
"We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats," he said.
Putin said some foes wanted to tear off parts of Russia, and others were helping them.
"They help, supposing that Russia - as one of the greatest nuclear powers - still poses a threat to them. So they have to get rid of that threat."
Seems so obvious. Wonder why we don't take border control more seriously. Hate to think we will wait until a school in the U.S. is terrorized before we get serious about protecting our borders.
Key point...which is lost on the 'American' government...
Let's hope so. Does anybody know what security precautions they took after the theater incident a couple of years ago?
Hope we take a cue from Putin.
Yes, he gets it, he mentioned protecting and securing their borders more than once. Talked about ending porous borders.
President Bush said that you are either for the terrorists or you are against them.
There is no middle ground.
Concerning the "Chechen War for Independence", which are really Muslim fascists fighting to establish a Wahabbi State, on whose side is the U.S. State Department on?
What did the U.S. State Department say about the elections in Chechnya two weeks ago?
How will you feel when the Foreign Ministers of other nations say that the elections scheduled for next Winter in Iraq are "unfair" and "not valid"?
Won't you feel like they are siding with the Terrorists?
Oh, and have a look at this!
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a394ee9213158.htm
You misunderstand.
I was talking from the perspective of the Russians, not that of the Chechen Terrorists.
How do you think it made Putin feel to have the American State Department dismiss the Chechen elections as "invalid", thereby lending American support to at least one of the claims of the Terrorists, just days after the Terrorists took two of their airplanes down and blew up a metro station?
How do you feel knowing that our State Department may have emboldened the Terrorists with the validation of one of their silly claims?
How is that any better than that Euro-Peon Union weenie Bernard Bot demanding an "explanation" from the Russians for the Commando raid into the school?
I, for one, am ASHAMED of the U.S. State Department, just as any Dutchman should be ASHAMED of the putrid bureaucrat Bernhard Bot.
The State Department is NOT synchronized with President Bush, or even with reality.
I hope the President demands some resignations over the stupid pro-forma, cold-war, old-world, bumbling-mumbling, anti-Russian, pro-Terrorist droolings emanating out of our State Department.
Could they be obtuse enough to think that would be to their advantage? In actuality, Bush is in a win/win position. No attack is evidence of effective homeland defense; a successful attack unifies nation behind proven terrorist fighter, the POTUS.
I agree. As a cold warrior (KGB no less), Putin has a reflexive tendency to view the U.S. as the enemy.
Darned right the Russians aren't as nice as we are: They raped and pillaged their way to Berlin in WWII; captured millions of German soldiers, few of whom ever returned home; and their police routinely administer severe curbside justice to alleged wrong doers.
Whether Putin believes such things is hard to say. But he does cater to such sentiments to maintain his position. Money alone can not explain why Russia persists in helping Iran with nuclear research. Money alone can not explain why Russia sells modern weaponry to China. Money alone does not explain why Russian generals were advising Saddam in the build up to the second war. Money alone doesn't explain why the latest Russian anti-tank weapons showed up in Iraq and were used against US tanks. Money alone doesn't explain the collaboration with Chirac against the US in diplomatic efforts before the war. Money alone does not make up for arming nations like China and Iran who would gladly crush Russia. No, only a foolish idea that the US is the true threat could lead to such idiocies.
Finally, remember that it isn't China or Iran or Syria that has troops in the former Soviet Republics. Paranoia has always been a big part of the Russian outlook upon the world. To blindly think that Putin and many Russians don't look upon US efforts and successes without jealousy or a bit of fear (understandable when one compares the conquest of Bagahdad with the conquest of Grozny) would be the real mistake.
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