The reason we succeeded in Afghanistan and the Russians didn't is that the Russians had nothing to offer the Afghanis but more repression and misery under some cheap greasy little commissar and centralized bureacracy applied with firepower. Ties to a collapsing communist hellhole.
The U.S. offered freedom.
Same with Chechnya. Putin has nothing to offer the Chechnyans but the above, don't want to repeat myself.
No wonder they're fighting Russia. They are choosing to stick with the ugly warlords they know, rather than others they know aught of. Or whatever is the proper wording of the quote.
That said, Chechnya seems a perfectly gruesome place with no ability to imagine something better than drugs, kidnappings, Sharia law and/or Iron Age warfare.
"The reason we succeeded in Afghanistan and the Russians didn't is that the Russians had nothing to offer the Afghanis but more repression and misery under some cheap greasy little commissar and centralized bureacracy applied with firepower. Ties to a collapsing communist hellhole.
"
I was under the impression that a lot of the reason afgh. was taken so quickly was because the US arranged with non-taliban tribes to help them depose the taliban, presumably giving said tribes a big part of autonomy subsequently.