[Miss Marple]

I don't know. For one thing, the reports are coming from sources that are anti-Bush, like Reuters. The same sources are anti-Putin.

I don't know. However, a great deal of the killing in Chechneya was done before Putin came to power.

I defer to the President in this. As Arne Fufkin once said, I gave him my marker.

I do not think siding with the Chechneyans is correct, since they have been guilty of a lot of atrocities. So have the Russians.

I will defer to the President, since I don't have the intel to make a clear decision. I suggest you take the same position. Lots of stuff is reported to sway world opinion one way or the other. I prefer to wait and see.

[Luis Gonzalez]

But I AM siding with Bush on this.

He's being highly critical of the way Putin has not only handled the Chechnya situation, but of the roll back of democracy that he announced Monday while most FReepers followed the CBS forgery story.