Posted on 09/11/2004 2:58:39 PM PDT by El Conservador
MOSCOW - A quick succession of terror attacks has shattered the image of strength assiduously cultivated by President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), leaving the Kremlin grasping for a response to what has widely been dubbed "Russia's Sept. 11."
Stunned by the bloodbath at the school in the southern town of Beslan, even some of Putin's most fervent supporters are urging him to reverse his practice of sidelining the opposition and muzzling the media. Russia's top liberal politicians and commentators are calling for stronger public control over ineffectual law enforcement and other government agencies.
Most expect, however, that the Kremlin will reach for harsh, Soviet-style levers instead, refusing to negotiate its way out of the Chechen war for fear it will look weak and embolden other separatist movements in Russia.
Putin spent his first four-year term establishing rigid lines of authority — reining in ambitious regional governors, cowing influential business leaders, putting parliament in his pocket. He marginalized politicians who favor negotiations on Chechnya (news - web sites), ensuring potential communication channels will remain closed.
Putin's response to the terror crisis indicates no change of direction after Beslan, where about 330 people were killed, nearly half of them children, after a terrorist gang including Chechens took more than 1,200 hostage.
Over the previous week, 100 people died in twin airplane bombings and a suicide bombing in Moscow.
In a televised address to the shaken nation last week, Putin promised measures to strengthen Russia's unity, improve crisis management, establish a new system of control in the Caucasus region and overhaul law enforcement, which he admitted was corrupt.
For the outside world, Putin's address carried an ominous undertone. Signalling growing Kremlin irritation with what it sees as Western "double standards" in dealing with the Chechen rebels, he said terror attacks on Russia are encouraged by those who fear its nuclear might. Most analysts interpreted that as a veiled attack on the West, including the United States, and a warning that it may lose Russia as an ally.
"The differences in assessing the Beslan events could lead to the most serious estrangement between Russia and the West since the Soviet times," said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine.
Beslan also refocused attention on the way bad news is reported — or suppressed — in Putin's Russia.
While harsh criticism of Putin's handling of the crisis filled the print media, the editor of the leading daily Izvestia was forced to resign after publishing a frank account of the school siege with harrowing, full-page pictures of wounded and dead children. And public opinion seems to support Putin's handling of Beslan, influenced perhaps by state-controlled television, which spared him any criticism.
The Levada-Center, a respected independent pollster, surveyed 500 Moscow residents and said 60 percent approved of Putin's handling of Beslan, 28 percent were critical and the rest were undecided. No margin of error was given.
Analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov predicted Putin would now move toward further strengthening central power by merging some of Russia's 89 regions, though at the risk of awakening dormant ethnic conflicts.
Putin told regional government and security officials in Beslan that every effort must be made to curb interethnic conflicts in Russia — where one in every seven citizens is Muslims.
Characteristically, he didn't say how.
Kremlin loyalists say the nation has no choice but to give more power and money to law enforcement and the military. Some favor restoring the power and prestige of the Soviet-era KGB.
Yet Putin's critics say he has already made every effort to strengthen the KGB's fragmented successors, only to see them completely helpless during the latest crisis. They say the Kremlin's efforts to sideline the opposition, tame parliament and control the media have weakened Russia by freeing the inept bureaucracy from public oversight.
Putin initially reacted coldly to opposition proposals to set up a parliamentary investigation similar to the U.S. one that examined 9/11. He said it could turn into a "political show." Later, he said he would welcome a probe by the upper house — which consists entirely of appointed Kremlin loyalists.
The opposition has argued that only an open, independent inquiry can objectively investigate allegations of official negligence and corruption that helped the terrorists.
Investigators say explosives had been brought to the school before the attack under the guise of repairs and over 30 heavily armed attackers drove freely to their target through an area packed with police checkpoints.
"Russia has become a target of choice for terrorists because it's so vulnerable," Valery Tishkov, a Caucasus expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview. "It's easy to talk your way through a police inspector here and find other loopholes."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Vladimir Isachenkov has covered Russian politics for The Associated Press since 1991.
I strongly suspect, that when Russia DOES respond - their response will be sufficiently brutal, destructive and effective to remove all doubts of their "weakness" in this struggle...
I encourge them, and will applaude them if they reduce several Islamanazi stronghold cities to rubble and 10s of thousands of deaths...
Time for SOMEONE to deliver the APPROPRIATE level of destruction and death to our enemy....
We have held back....Russia won't...
Semper Fi
They were attacked by islamofascists, as were we. When a group declares war is such a manner, it is not Putin's [or ours] responsibility to negotiate. There IS no duty to retreat. Period.
I am sure that Putin will try to wipe out the Chechens. However, he will probably do it so incompetently that Russia will end up in a worse situation than if he had done nothing.
This is how the Russians got into their present mess: a combination of brutality and stupidity.
I sure hope W has taken the opportunity to speak privately with Putin and get their ducks in order...
I had high hopes for a firmer relationship between the 2 countries before Putin let us down over Iraq...I realize that he was looking out for the best interests of his country (oil) whilst also covering up for oil for food, but they have similar interests now, and both populations demand action.
Did Russia not say that they would have the right to attack terrorist camps/bases/organizations ANYWHERE? That's a rather large target. That target would include the U.S.,corre t?
corre t = correct. Lost my "c."
From your keyboard to God's eyes...
Unfortunately, following the attack, Putin only increased his verbal attacks on the United States and increased mutual adoration with Germany and France.
From: The Chechens' American friends
By the same token, the BBC and other media sources are putting it about that Russian TV played down the Beslan crisis, while only western channels reported live, the implication being that Putin's Russia remains a highly controlled police state. But this view of the Russian media is precisely the opposite of the impression I gained while watching both CNN and Russian TV over the past week: the Russian channels had far better information and images from Beslan than their western competitors. This harshness towards Putin is perhaps explained by the fact that, in the US, the leading group which pleads the Chechen cause is the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC). The list of the self-styled "distinguished Americans" who are its members is a rollcall of the most prominent neoconservatives who so enthusastically support the "war on terror".
Bull squat..
The Russians got into this mess because they did not deal brutally enough with the Islamanazis that had hijacked a political movement for independence....
It is never stupid to destroy an enemy that is declared and focused on your destruction....
It is not a coincidence that the overwhelming majority of violence in the world today -- was initiated by Muslim radicals against non Muslims..
Time to get "brutal" and effective...Time to DEFEAT the self declared enemies of civilization...
Perhaps AFTER enough of the Islamanazis are killed - it could be productive to "negotiate" an unconditional peace.
But, NOT until after they have been truly DEFEATED..
Semper Fi
If the Uniteds States does not stop its double standards, we may have another Cold War.
If so, it will be America's fault.
I side with Putin.
Well, if you're a communist state for 70 years, and pose a major threat to world peace and the West, you might make a few enemies. These enemies aren't going to forget about everything just because a few rinky-dink terrorists come along.
In their minds, the nuclear-armed B52s are still idling on runways, fully fueled and ready to blast those treacherous commies. Who cares about foes you can't even see from the air?
Correct....But, do you have any doubt there are terrorists or terrorist allies in the U.S.?
I don't -- and if a few of them suddenly were found in the gutters of American streets with holes through their heads - would you object?
Do you think the Russians (or others) have NEVER assassinated anyone on an America street?
Semper Fi
What is wrong with these journalists? Can't they type the words 'Muslim' or 'Islam'? How can he report on this story and avoid those words?
Undoubtedly. The questions are:
1. How far will Putin go?
2. How will the international community react?
3. How much of a backlash will Putin face among non-Chechen regional Muslims?
4. What will be the impact on FDI in Russia, and therefore on the Russian economy?
5. How will Russia's neighbors -- both Western and Eastern -- react to the rise of Soviet-style policies and a harsher Russian state? Could regional re-armament be in the future?
6. How much territory can Russia grab under the guise of combatting Muslim terrorists?
7. How will global oil prices, and hence the US economy, be effected?
8. How will America's War on Terror be effected?
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